'97 RM250 Idle noise

[xprojectstevex]

I bought this rm250 about 3 weeks ago for pretty cheap, the bike was in excellent condition. I've only rode it 4 or 5 times for a few hours each time. Last time out the bike starting making a high pitch squealing noise in nuetral and also when downshifting into the lower gears at low rpm. When I engaged the clutch the noise stopped, when I let the clutch out the noise started again. I rode it a couple of passes through all the gears, and every gear is flawless and there is no clutch slippage. Also the bike makes a grinding noise when being pushed in nuetral. What is the most likely suspect here? Also I drained the tranny fluid and ha... there was none which I did check when I got it. I noticed a bolt missing on the outermost clutch cover but no sign of fluids leaking. I also have had a wierd high irradic idle problem that occured shortly before this. Any ideas fellas? I'm just hoping the tranny fluid isn't getting sucked up and burnt in the cylinder, if it was would it burn all of it up that fast?

 

[Gibby]

Since you had an high idle problem I would say that a crank seal is toast. This would also explain where your fluid has gone, like you said it got sucked into the cylinder and gotten burnt up.

 

[xprojectstevex]

Before I had the high idle problem I had a sticking throttle cable on the end of the first day out, I fixed that and it hasn't been right since. What is the most common cause of a crank seal problem? Would the throttle sticking wide open for a minute a couple times hurt the seals? It supposedly had a bottom end job done last september and it did appear to have all new gaskets all the way around at least the ones I can see. And does anyone have any ideas about the grinding noise when pushing the bike in nuetral? As the noise got worse the bike became harder to kick start.

 

[xprojectstevex]

What causes crank seals to go? What are the odds of them both going at the same time?