Really BUMMED!!!

[Bamamike]

Bought a 2001 XR650L for a song and know i know why. It needs a top end job and a crank. That will be about 2000 bucks says the honda dealer. Ok now do i part it? sell it? buy another engine? the engine is a maybe if i can find one i can believe in. Any help or suggestions or commets? I am bummed but not out. Not yet. thanks Michael

[UPTHECREEK]

Noticed theres a few complete 650 engines on E-bay ... Good Luck !!!

[Bibleman]

How many miles is on it and how do you know it needs all this work?

[jonr3]

You could do it yourself and save a bunch of $$$. I did my first rebuild last summer and it was pretty easy... except for the few screw-ups I did.

[Nirvana]

Whatever you do dont take it to the dealer.?. You need to find someone you can trust to take a look at it,If you cant..Even if it needed all that work you could get a couple books and do it yourself...

Are you in North Alabama????

[DewmShrewm]

Did the owner that you bought it from know that something was wrong with it? Also, how do they know it needs a crank unless they opened it up?

[JoeBlow Kokomo]

Cranks can be rebuilt most of the time. Sounds like BS to me. Find a decent wrench and find out what's REALLY wrong, then shop around. There are LOTS of reputable wrenches (retired guys,etc) working out of garages. Word of mouth rules, ask around the shops. (other than the one that wants 2k)?

XR's only rebuilt my crank for $400, have since read that there are LOTS of machine shops (guys on this website) that will rebuild cranks for considerably less than $400.

These are very simple motors that lots of guys can work on.

Take a deep breath, and start looking at your options. Lots out there.

Good time to put that high compression piston in and wake up that dog!

[pwrpapa]

Cranks can be rebuilt most of the time. Sounds like BS to me. Find a decent wrench and find out what's REALLY wrong, then shop around. There are LOTS of reputable wrenches (retired guys,etc) working out of garages. Word of mouth rules, ask around the shops. (other than the one that wants 2k)?

After I sold my dealership and retired I worked out of my garage for a while and would help people out for pennies and a case of beer.

Dealerships have big overhead so they have to charge accordingly, the problem is that they hire young men with very limited on the job experience right out of tech school.

There's lots of retred guys out there that will do it for 1/4 the price of what a dealership would have to charge.

I don't wrench anymore my eye's are getting bad and I've just had enough of it and want to ride and enjoy the time I have left so I take my stuff to another fella that I can trust.

You could ship your motor to him and I'm sure it wouldn't cost you that much to have it rebuilt. He probably would even breathe on it for you and make that puppy put a big smile on your face.

Pop's

[ThumpNRed]

Rebuilding these motors is pretty simple stuff. The fact that I pulled it off and the motor's still purring a year later is testimony to the simplicity! You wont really know what you have until you tear it down. If the crank problem is being diagnosed by noise, it may well be something as simple as valves needing adjustment...

If you do tear it down and find problems.... fix it faster! A teardown is always a good excuse for a hotrod cam, overbore, high compression piston, etc...

[pwrpapa]

Rebuilding these motors is pretty simple stuff. The fact that I pulled it off and the motor's still purring a year later is testimony to the simplicity! You wont really know what you have until you tear it down. If the crank problem is being diagnosed by noise, it may well be something as simple as valves needing adjustment...

If you do tear it down and find problems.... fix it faster! A teardown is always a good excuse for a hotrod cam, overbore, high compression piston, etc...

When I want hotrod parts for the bike I always tell the old lady that my bike blew up.?

If your buddy sjocky or you will do it for beer money let him go that route.

[asf]

When I bought my bike, I thought it just needed a valve adjustment. I just couldn't get one of the valves to spec. Found out the filter housing cracked, starved the furthest cam lobe of oil. Had to do the chain and tensioner anyways, it was actually nice that I was forced into doing it all at once, not only did I learn a ton but it feels nice when someone says nice bike and you can respond, "thanks, I built it."

This is an opportunity in disguise for you to build up the motor a bit. For 2K you can put some very nice parts that will at least come close to stock reliability of not beat it, with a significant boost in performance. Buy a repair manual and if you do it all yourself you will still save quite a bit of money and it goes by very, very quickly. I spent more time waiting on parts than working on the bike itself.

There are also DIY dvd's for hondas showing how to do everything from rebuild the forks to rebuild the top end. Take lots of photos and buy a case of ziplock bags, in case you forget how something goes you have it not only individually baddeg and labeled but photo reference to jog the ol memory.

[FRECNDY]

Yeah, it doesn't get any easier than working on bikes. Get a manual from a free download somewhere, print it out and put it in a three-ring binder (I would just rather flip pages than scroll PDFs around on a screen when wrenching). All the tools in the world to work on an XR are cheaper than a couple hours of shop time. You can even drink premium beer and be saving money, if that's your thing.

[craftsman13]

Good time to put that high compression piston in and wake up that dog! ?

You mean Pig

[ThumpNRed]

When I want hotrod parts for the bike I always tell the old lady that my bike blew up.?

If your buddy sjocky or you will do it for beer money let him go that route.

If he was local...? We could giterdone. Course he'd have to bring a bag for all the leftover parts if I am working on it?

[Bamamike]

Thanks for the replies. I bought the 500 mile 07 engine off ebay. I have a 3 year old so time is more valuable. I will have an engine for parts thou. Irs has 4500 miles and the prev owner rode it for 500 miles like this. An engine swap is no biggie. Will add an oil cooler as well. Again thanks

[akarob]

I still think your original engine probably just needs the top end done. You could do everything including valves and connecting rod for under $1000. The crank and main crank bearings are pretty beefy and you don't hear of failures except in extreme cases of neglect.

[XR650L_Dave]

Remember to check for oil flow on the new engine!

Dave

[Bamamike]

What else do i need to be on the lookout for when installing the new engine? How do i check for oil flow? Crack a line? I am in Enterprise Alabama. The original engine has the green gaskets all over it so ifigure its been openend up and pug back together then sold. I am not complaining. I'll still only have about 2K in it. My little boy is 3 and the XR 50 is killing my butt. Its gonna be here tomorrow. Will install it this weekend. Will keep posting. Thanks Michael

[XR650L_Dave]

Yeah, crack the line to the head.

Lower bolt on the line is rumored to make less of a mess.

Dave

[asf]

I like to put the last half-quart or so of oil through one of the return lines or inspection caps on the valve cover. It can some time for the oil pump to prime, In the absence of assembly lube this provides just a little extra initial protection..