ytm 200 metal shavings?

[Keepah Rolln]

Is it normal on a 1983 ytm 200 to have a little bit of very fine metal shavings in the oil filter housing?

[dustrunner]

no, metal shavings in the oil is not a good thing...

[oscarmayer]

usually means something is not getting oil and is grinding itself appart. time to take it appart and see what is happenning. if you continue to ride it, you chance destroying the engine beyond repair.

[El Camexican]

As far as my YTM is concerned (for the past 30 years), YES, it is normal. There is no such thing as a engine that shares oil with a transmission that does not have some filings or grit in the oil after use. That is why magnetic drain plugs are so popular. The bulk of any “shavings” are from the dogs or tabs on your transmission gears. If you see a lot (more than a ¼ of a thimble full) make sure your clutch is properly adjusted as you may be unknowingly shifting under load and this is what is causing the damage. Those transmissions trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro hard even when set up correctly. Even if you find larger pieces of material, say 1/8” from a chipped gear, unless something is not shifting right, or making noise I would not bother to worry about it on this machine. A 250 two stroke, or any other performance machine is a little different. A chunk of steel in the oil usually means another will follow soon, but on your trike I wouldn’t worry about it unless you are planning a trip around the world with it.

[trizilla]

on a 25+ yr old machine your bound to find a little metal in there. heck who know if or when the last time this thing had an oil and filter change. i would change both and run it for a little bit then warm it up and drop the oil again into a clean container and look for metal.

[trizilla]

As far as my YTM is concerned (for the past 30 years), YES, it is normal. There is no such thing as a engine that shares oil with a transmission that does not have some filings or grit in the oil after use. That is why magnetic drain plugs are so popular. The bulk of any “shavings” are from the dogs or tabs on your transmission gears. If you see a lot (more than a ¼ of a thimble full) make sure your clutch is properly adjusted as you may be unknowingly shifting under load and this is what is causing the damage. Those transmissions trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro hard even when set up correctly. Even if you find larger pieces of material, say 1/8” from a chipped gear, unless something is not shifting right, or making noise I would not bother to worry about it on this machine. A 250 two stroke, or any other performance machine is a little different. A chunk of steel in the oil usually means another will follow soon, but on your trike I wouldn’t worry about it unless you are planning a trip around the world with it.


you posted as i was typing. very well said.

[El Camexican]

you posted as i was typing. very well said.

LOL! I hate when that happens, usualy I'm the second guy to post and feel like a morron.:beer

[Keepah Rolln]

As far as my YTM is concerned (for the past 30 years), YES, it is normal. There is no such thing as a engine that shares oil with a transmission that does not have some filings or grit in the oil after use. That is why magnetic drain plugs are so popular. The bulk of any “shavings” are from the dogs or tabs on your transmission gears. If you see a lot (more than a ¼ of a thimble full) make sure your clutch is properly adjusted as you may be unknowingly shifting under load and this is what is causing the damage. Those transmissions trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro hard even when set up correctly. Even if you find larger pieces of material, say 1/8” from a chipped gear, unless something is not shifting right, or making noise I would not bother to worry about it on this machine. A 250 two stroke, or any other performance machine is a little different. A chunk of steel in the oil usually means another will follow soon, but on your trike I wouldn’t worry about it unless you are planning a trip around the world with it.

Thanks..The oil filter looked like it was not changed in a very long time. There was no shavings in lower drain screen area just a little in the filter housing...

[El Camexican]

Thanks..The oil filter looked like it was not changed in a very long time. There was no shavings in lower drain screen area just a little in the filter housing...

Sounds like yours is in better shape than mine.

[oscarmayer]

i hate seeing any metal in my oil. i usuaally chane the oil a lot and swap clutches aroudn every year on average and thsi tends to help keep that from happenning so much. i see very little "flakes" in my 200x engine.

[dougspcs]

I agree with Camexican..

I bought a Yamaha 250 quad for my brother last year, I know this is the trike forum, and yes it's relavent since the engine in the 200/225/250 are all the same base unit..

Anyway, when I changed the filter I found a bunch of fillings in there and got really freaked..but decided to just button it back together with a fresh filter and oil.

Well a year and two changes later his engine is still strong and no more fillings have appeared.

It may well be the original filter is in there and the filling are from it's break-in time..many owners don't bother with filter change. Just dump the oil and replace..

Don't sweat it..ride it!

[trizilla]

a lot of these old yamaha trike owners dont know they have a filter. i recently found a 225 at a fella's house that i was delivering a mower to. i asked about the tri moto and he said it " runs but keeps burning up rings". he mentioned that he had changed the oil pump and the oil pressure to the top end is still weak. i asked him when the last time the filter was changed and he sorta had this blank stare on his face. i knew right then and there that he had no idea it has a filter. kinda cracked me up, changed the oil pump before trying the filter.lol

[El Camexican]

This post reminded me of a Suzuki GS750 I bought once…
I bought it off a longtime friend (after I knocked it over with my truck:cry:). He said “I just had the oil changed last week” so I drove it for a few days and didn’t like it. A guy I sort of knew through some friends asks me if I want to sell the bike, so I say “SURE!” and tell him the oil is only a few weeks old. He takes it out that night and it starts to run rough. The guy he is riding with was a mutual friend of ours that knew me well from racing together and is also a decent mechanic. So they go to his place in the middle of the night and pull the valve cover to discover that the cam lobes are wiped off. He say ‘No problem, I’ve got lots of cams for this engine, we’ll put another set in and change the oil and filter.” To which the new owner says “Oh, you don’t have to change the oil, its only two weeks old”. The mechanic buddy knows me well enough to know that if I said the oil was fresh it meant that the oil and filter were new, but what he didn’t know is that for the first time in my life I didn’t actually change the oil and filter when I bought the bike because I knew the guy I bought it from took it to a Suzuki dealer and I wasn’t planning to keep it anyway. So, they fire the bike up and an hour later the second set of cams is gone. It turns out that the oil FILTER was siliconed on due to an old leak and had likely not been changed for years. It was plugged solid. The moral of the story is to change your oil and filter whenever you get a used vehicle and don’t believe what anyone tells you even if they are a friend or a dealer.