Todays Project - What did you do today?

[TomG]

It's not really a project, but it is something mechanical.

My kid tried to drown the dirt bike when he got it bogged down crossing a stream and it sank in the silt. Luckily he had enough signal on his phone to get a text out and my brother in law showed up and winched him out. It started and seemed to run ok so he headed back but it stopped dead a mile down the trail. This time there was no help to be had so he started walking it. Eventually someone came by and gave him a ride back to the cabin. He went back and managed to get the bike in the truck by himself (not sure how) and brought it back down with him.

We went through it last night and there was a little water in the crankcase, but nothing we could see in the induction system and the piston was still connected to the crank. That was surprising since he said it was up to the carb in the stream. We changed out the fluids, put it back together and it fired right up. The only thing I could find that would have stranded him was that the wires were pulled out of the kill switch. I suspect that happened when he winched the bike out of the stream and then one of them found its way against the handlebars on the ride and killed the ignition.

I think he learned a couple of good lessons like never ride alone, especially in the wilderness (duh) and momentum is your friend when crossing water (duh again).

Tom