84 BR overheating possibly and died?

[TeXaS SoB]

So yesterday my girlfriend and i went on a about a hour ride on my 84 BR and 200s. after about 45 mins the BR started kinda bogging and died on her. So i stopped and it wouldn't turn over with the electric start and i noticed the motor seemed hot as hell. I tried to pull the rope to start it and a milky looking liquid came out when i pulled the rope and it hit my leg and was so hot it burned me. Checked the oil and it was fine so could it have been oil? Let it set for about 5 mins and it started right up with the electric start and we rode on home about a 10 min drive and was fine. Havent messed with it since any ideas what might have happened?

[HONDA_ATC_FREAK]

Mine will get hot too if I'm riding in mud or in real tight trails at low speeds where it doesn't get a lot of air flow on the head. I just shut it off for a little bit but and let it rest. Usually there are quite a bit of water crossings on my trails so It gets a little cooled off from that I would assume. I'd change the oil and see if that helps just to be on the safe side. The old big reds are really hard to kill so I'd say it's probably fine but I'm no mechanic.

[TeXaS SoB]

no one else has any ideas?

[Grizzlypeg]

The milky looking substance is puzzling. Water and oil form a milky emulsion. If you are not seeing that in the crankcase, that's a good thing. But why it seized up on you is not good. I'm not familiar with Big Red's, but you should replace the oil and check the filter to see if you can gather any more evidence. Seizing indicates something serious, like a lack of lubrication or bearings that failed.

[TeXaS SoB]

it didn't seize it just started bogging and died, let it cool off a few mins and rode her home. haven't been in any water other than setting out in the rain.

[HONDA_ATC_FREAK]

My big red gets water in it's pullstarter too that's why I can't pullstart it in the winter. It's not water-tight so it gets in there and stays I should probably take that apart and drain it now that I think about it.

[Thorpe]

I would change the oil and filter... The white stuff is weird...

[rbaral233]

Time to change the oil.

The gluck you refer to is emulsified oil, that is to say you have water in the oil. This will be from either 1) engine has been used on short journeys which do not allow the engine to get hot enough for long enough and hence does not get the opportunity to burn off moisture, or 2) if you have a water cooled engine there may be a coolant leak. If you have a water cooled engine has the a drop in coolant level may be an in indication of coolant leak.

Suggest you drain the oil, clean the motor with engine flush, drain, put in fresh oil and a new filter.

[cbx1170]

Not engine oil area. Your recoil area has water in there. Drain is plugged. Could poke up from bottom at edge of recoil it will come running out. But only part of it. Water turns tan milky from being in electrically charged & dirty area. When electric items like stators (that have 2-3 kinds of coils like charge coil, lighting coil, source coil) pulser coils at camshaft, suppresor caps on sprk plugs get hot they increase resistance and fail from heat. Sometimes permanently, some short time. You have boiling hot water mixed with mud and rusty gunk filling your recoil area. Electrics not designed to work semi-submersed. Serious corrosion is also happening. It prolly got so hot it shut off ignition via one or more coils. take recoil off drain clean reassemble and make sure drain is open at bottom. unless you are water/mud bogging it a lot. Worse case scenario - derust whole area and prob use puller to remove flywheel/rotor to get it properly clean as much hides inside rotor/stator area and may cause drag. Lube recoil center bush/shaft also. I have even lightly sand blasted (careful!) some bad ones to get bike to run again. Post is long cause its a bit to explain. MRC