Right.... didn't get time to strip it down and we've run out of light but the radiator is empty... the reservoir is full though and that is where I have done my pre ride checks rather than looking in the radiator. Diagnosis failed gasket then? it is looking like that with all the oil (which after further investigation seems to be coming from between the cylinder & crankcase)

The point is the 'reservoir' is not a proper supplementary tank for the radiator it is just an overflow catchment. You need to take the main radiator filler cap off to check the water level.

I get rid of the catchment tanks on most of the CRMs that I come across. They work OK if the piping is correct and if kept serviced. But they are, to my mind, unnecessary, prone to making operator mistakes and just one more thing to go wrong.

Catchment tank with a minimum and maximum mark! How silly, maximum I can understand but minimum is just silly. I can see how they are "prone to making operator mistakes".

I could have been riding round low on coolant/water for weeks now. As I have never (until today) opened up the radiator cap.

I'm having the engine out tomorrow as soon as it gets light/I get up and may as well tart up the bike whilst it's "off the road" as it came with a few nice parts like a polished swing arm

I will document my steps and post on here as I rebuild her. If I can make it look half as good as any of yours I will be a happy chappy

Thanks for your help.... Will be donating to the forum shortly, partly as a thank you and partly so I can post pics of my bike as I rebuild her

Temperature warning light didn't come on then? Do you need to check it's working.
I've had it happen on a car that the water was so low it turned to steam inside the block, but crucially, the steam had cooled before it got to the thermostat, so that wouldn't open either, thus the temp showed as being cool, when in fact the block was boiling.
Mike

No warning lights whatsoever. I'm halfway through dropping the engine out just popped in for a cup of tea. The spark plug was white (the one I took out before I got it to start didn't look bad). Looking through where the exhaust was the piston doesn't look scored at all. I guess until I get the cylinder off at some point today I won't know what damage has been caused. Will certainly be checking the thermostat as I am leaning towards lack of water being the culprit.

Good News

My top end is fine.. barrel piston both fine.

Bad News

the crank doesn't spin freely.

Took it to a friend who is a very good mechanic he say's I need to split the crankcase to see what's up. He thinks it's threw a tooth in the gearbox. I have started to strip it down but I haven't got a flywheel puller. I went back to my mates to borrow his but he's gone to the pub so I've had to stop for the day. Can't even buy one anywhere today.

Gutted to say the least. I've never rebuilt the bottom end of an engine before. This is going to be fun

Any shiny shards of metal flake in the gearbox oil?

Mike

I didn't notice any but will pan like I'm looking for gold. I dumped all the fluids together in a bucket like a fool thinking I had top end issues, they gotta be disposed of properly so all together in this bucket will do for now I thought.
When you try to spin the engine its like notchy. It moves then goes tight. The inside of the clutch spins freely but the outside doesn't, that's like pushing the crank, notchy and stiff. If that means anything.

This is by far the biggest mechanical task I have ever undertaken but determined to do it

I couldn't find any silver in the 2t/coolant/gear oil mixture.

clutch center nut is a pig wish I'd done that whilst engine was in the bike. flywheel nut was tough but I did it.

Going to take it to a friend to give me a hand.. I'm locking it off by putting it in gear, putting chain round front sprocket doubled back and then turning clutch centre nut anti clockwise. Am I doing this correctly? it won't budge

got the clutch out and the the other bolt, right hand side of clutch, got all those bits tie zipped together.

Will get a flywheel puller tomorrow and crack on with splitting the cases

With a bit of luck I will find an easy to get to bearing that is shot. Maybe with the lack of metal in the oil that is what went. Only way I will ever know is by splitting the cases though

Diagnosis RH main bearing failure...

I've learnt a few things here though.. Firstly but not related to the damage (or is it?) to check for coolant levels in the radiator. I've learnt the CRM is by far the easiest to work on bike I've ever owned. Everything is well thought out and well placed. Mainly I've learnt that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I've never even attempted to do anything like this before but feel confident I will get the bike going again. It wasn't as complicated as I expected.

Everything came apart easily. I'm assuming this is because LT rebuilt it late last year, especially with me splitting the cases in half hour (something I have never done but heard they can be difficult). I'm not sure why a main bearing would fail after 5-6 month but I'm sure one of you wise fellas will shed some light on that.

Now I've come this far I may well makeover the cycle parts, the engines being fully rebuilt so why not. I've been photographing everything so when the parts come I'll be taking more photos and doing a rebuild thread (something else that I've never done) with lots of photos.

If it wasn't for the information on this site and on offwidth.co.uk I don't think I would have ever even attempted such a daunting task but now I'm halfway through I'm glad I did because I now know my bike intimately and have saved a hell of a lot of £££££. For this I'd like to thank all those that created the useful posts. If I can do it anyone can

Best thing of all. £15 for a bearing and about £60 for a gasket set. Plus whatever cycle parts I deem need replacing along the way.... Could have been a hell of a lot worse and my bike will be a much better bike when I finish. All round good news IMO

Its possible the head gasket failed hence the white smoke. The water level might have been fine before that.

You will probably put your bike back together better than any 'bike mechanic'. Mainly because you care about it and what you are doing.
Take time, care, keep everything clean and oiled where necessary, and it will go back together better than ever before.

Theres no magic, its just a big metallic jigsaw puzzle, and you know where all the pieces go.

The hardest bit is paying for the bits

yeah the paying hurts as much as falling off!

well I will have to be thankful that I didn't come off on the dual carriageway when it locked and that it is only a cheap part I need to replace. Things could be a lot worse. As twistednuts says it's just a metallic jigsaw and I have a diagram of where all the pieces go

reading this & i was thinking that "locking up" sounds familiar !
i had a main bearing fail on my CRM years ago but the bugger spot welded it's self to the crank & i had to have it machined off lol
good luck , hope all goes well