So this happened

[mlstoner660]

Weather was nice yesterday so I decided to ride my plated 500 to work. It's a short 5 mile run maybe 8 min each way once I get out of the parking lot and on the road. On the way back home the bike was running great till I was maybe a mile and a half from the house and started to hear a weird kind of tapping noise. I had just finished winding it out on a straight and was slowing back down to around 55 when I started to hear the noise. I let off thinking maybe I had hurt the engine or something winding it out.  When I let off the noise would stop and everything sounded good if I gave it the gas it would start again. It wasn't very loud and the bike didn't feel like anything was wrong with it. No loss of power wasn't overheating or anything and didn't sound "bad". Either way I decided it would be a good idea to pull over and check it out just incase. Well when I went to pull over I had to give it some gas to get around a car and over to the outside lane and next thing I know there's a loud pop and something nails me in the leg. The bike immediately got louder in a horrible weird sounding way lost power and started trying to die on me. So first thing that comes to mind is I just blew it up. I get pulled over maybe a half mile from the house and the bike dies. I start looking everything over while still sitting on the bike and don't see any oil or water coming from anything no holes busted in anything so I give the kicker a stroke and it kicks over like it has no compression nothing sounding nasty or rattling around but there's no resistance on the kicker. Well I get off the bike confused and sad and that's when I noticed something missing. I know the 500's vibrate and will rattle out every bolt you don't lock tight in but I wasn't expecting my compression release to back out. Apparently the tapping sound I was hearing was it holding on by a thread and leaking out some compression when I went to change lanes and gave it the gas it let go. So that's what nailed me in the leg and gave me the surprise pop. I'm not sure who did the compression release to try and order a new one seeing how it was already done when I bought the bike. Good thing is it isn't blown up and the threads in the head still appear to be good. It was a sickening feeling hearing the motor sound change and feeling the bike start to act like it did when it let go. Needless to say I was relieved when I saw that's all it was. I then proceeded to enjoy the weather as I pushed my bike the rest of the way home. Sorry for the long post just figured somebody would get a kick out of it.

[sandblaster]

 
Yep... that will do it..
Thanks for sharing..

[Friar-Tuck]

 If it looks Factory it's probably Larry W's.   
My kid has my bike, however I'm thinkin' a Stihl or Husqvarna part with 3/8 MIP thread. 
  They're more expensive than the Chinesium but will not fall apart on you. 
  Larry's contacts are in the forum  http://www.kxriders.com/forums/index.php/board,30.0.html
(He may be hard to get ahold of, possibly went into retirement  )
Tuck \o/

[mlstoner660]

The first one wasn't Larry's work but the second time around will be. He has the head right now fixing it and changing it to his way of doing it. I had the bike sitting in the garage for a long time just looking at me before I finally pulled the head and sent it out. I should be getting it back here within the next couple of weeks. Can't wait to put it back on and go for a ride. I'll post some pictures when it comes in.

[Bengt Weil]

Would be interested to hear of the workmanship differences that you note... Thanks!

[mlstoner660]

I've had the head back for a good while now and finally got around to putting it  back on. As far as the workmanship goes compared to the last set up its night and day difference. Not saying the last set up was necessarily bad but Larry's work is so much better. Like many have said before it looks like it came from the factory like this. I'll post some pictures once I figure out how to do it again.

[Larry Wiechman]

I've got some autopsy photos of that head prior to the rework that I'd like to add to this post. I'm also looking for a good, reliable photo hosting site so they can be uploaded here. Any recommendations?

[mlstoner660]

I'd like to see the pictures. Still haven't figured out a way to post pictures from my phone tried using imgur but the links dont work right. Going to try from the laptop later and see if I can get it to work.