CRF450 eats itself and dies..check yours..

[stimps]

Mates CRF450 blew up at weekend. The problem was traced to one of the pins that supports the wheels on the carburetor slide. It appears to have worked loose and fallen thorugh the inside of the slide(it will cannot come out of the other side as there is no room). The engine then consumed this small steel pin. Unfortunatley it bent the inlet valve, seats, dented the head and psiton etc. It appears that the holes in the carb slide are almost through holes and with wear must open up and allow the pin to pass through(poor design). This was on the single wheel without the bearing(top of slide). Has anyone else had anything like this as I thought it is worth feeding it back to Honda.
When we rebuild it we will definetley be using some epoxy on the inside of the slide to block of all the holes where the pins can come through..

 

[pinball]

what year of bike, and how many hours/miles on it??

 

[stimps]

It is an 02 model. raced each season since new, i guess approx 16 events a year and a few practises. Has been an expensive bike to maintain with valves shims, bearings etc.