Figure this out… TTR engine issues

Alright fellas… here is an enjoyable task… I think anyway… as I like to figure things out… I know the answer but had fun trying to find it…

I’ll give you the facts and you tell me what’s what…

02 TTR 125L I bought it at the used dealer auction when they first came out… fall of 02 it was used… ran great in good shape and took a serious amount of neglect and abuse for two decades sending us to ERs and breaking bones and making laughs

so a buddy wants it as we’ve outgrown it and it’s sat a few years now… we put new tires on it and change the air filter and change the oil for the first time ever… we open the drain plug and get a drip drizzle plop plop… aluminum pieces literally fall out the oil drain… I’ve never ever seen this happen…

They’re small enough to come out the drain but alarming… the thing is it runs fine… we rode it just before working on it… so we’re stumped… we take the side covers off both sides and wash out the bottom… can’t find anything broken so we put it together and it starts up and runs… it smokes more than I remember but it’s now full of oil for the first time ever and a new oiled air filter… so maybe that’s the smoking…

we sleep on it and figure it has to be the piston skirts so we tear it down the next day and find it perfect…

So what’s the issue here? What’re these chunks and what would you do? Like I said it runs fine…

 

Are the chunks magnetic?

 

Pull the clutch cover off. I believe those were kick start for that Gen. I wanna say I’ve seen one kick back and break the inner case. We never fixed it. Just kept push starting.

 

He said aluminum pieces came out

 

Clutch basket

 

Well....heck....I read it as chunks came out, but you are right. Dumb question

 

Agreed on the clutch basket.

Same thing happened to my 690 and I'm replacing as we speak.

 

Shift fork?

 

nope… first thing we checked too

 

nope… first cover we took off… all perfect… mind you it runs and rides perfect… smokes a little… not related to the chunks

 

nope… it’s aluminum chunks

 

good idea…. We looked at that right after the clutch basket… nothing broken anywhere inside that we could see in either side case cover…

and yes, kick start still… not an E model… all perfect

 

A chunk of the oil pump casting?

 

we didn’t split the cases but used a camera to look inside and can’t find any broken aluminum on any surface anywhere in the engine… no steel either as all gears and components are complete, intact, and undamaged

 

The key is in the good parts… that piston and cylinder all looks great still after years of abuse and neglect…

 

Could be from original manufacturing.

 

Getting closer… I should’ve clarified… the aluminum pieces look to be coated on one side of some of them… no numbers or markings on them but it’s cast aluminum not forged

 

Chunk of an old piston left from a poor rebuild?

 

Something the cam chain's rubbed on/chewed up.

 

Going outside to look at my TTR. brb