White smoke from exhaust after leaving wrench on rotor, doh!

[Spargett]

I recently made the boneheaded mistake of leaving a wrench on my rotor at TDC, and tied in place on my brake lever with some spare wire; then starting the bike with everything affixed via the electric starter. Instantly the wrench flew off and popped the 14mm bolt that holds the rotor in off. Then a large amount of white smoke came out the right exhaust.

I immediately shut the bike off, disassembled and inspected everything. No real damage done as far as I could tell. The white smoke burned off after about 30 seconds, only to be a distant memory.

I'm wondering what that white smoke could have been. Did the valves get jarred for a second? I'm curious to hear some brainstorming. I'm picking up a compression tester tomorrow to check that out just to be sure. I also have a feeling I'm not the first person to make the same mistake ; )

P.S. Lesson learned: be careful working in the heat. It was 105° that day outside, god knows how hot in the garage. It really scrambles your brain after a while. No state to be working on a bike.

[brewsky]

Don't know about the white smoke, but I understand the heat effect.
After recently tinkering with the timing and carbs on my 750, during the test ride I heard the points cover rattling from not tightening the screws.
When I pulled into a parking lot to tighten them, 2 of the pod filters fell of as I placed the bike on the sidestand.
When I returned to the garage, I remembered where I left my favorite ratchet and 10mm open end...laying on top of the engine case....long gone!

[rustywrench]

Thanks for sharing that guys, now I don't feel so alone in these brain farts. RW

[versuspop]

Neither a clue about the white smoke, nor as serious, but I let my 4 year old screw my side cover back on after some electrical work. I was riding later that night, and vaguely saw something scoot across the street slightly after my bike had passed. I thought it was a cat or something, but there was also a strange noise that I had never heard a cat make before. ....did I mention that there was a car coming the other direction.....

what really happened was not realized until the next day. I walked the entire route twice and never found the side cover....

children are not good mechanics...

[Goodysnap]

Neither a clue about the white smoke, nor as serious, but I let my 4 year old screw my side cover back on after some electrical work. I was riding later that night, and vaguely saw something scoot across the street slightly after my bike had passed. I thought it was a cat or something, but there was also a strange noise that I had never heard a cat make before. ....did I mention that there was a car coming the other direction.....

what really happened was not realized until the next day. I walked the entire route twice and never found the side cover....

children are not good mechanics...

I'm sorry to laugh but thats funny. At least it was only the side cover not the drain plug. Kids do the darndest things. It good of you to let em help out though.

[G-Man]

On the smoke, the wrench probably stopped one cylinder firing properly as the energy to move the piston was expended in breaking it free. You might then have had a cylinder full of unburned fumes which got ejected into the pipe as the engine got running. Just a freak phenomenon, I would guess. Just feel lucky that the wrench wasn't thrown at your head or other precious body part......

Not Honda related but I was riding down a busy street on my old Matchless and the tool box lid dropped off into the road. I heard the clatter, stopped the bike and ran across the road trying to dodge the cars before one of them ran over it.

My lunacy worked and I was able to recover my scratched, but not flattened cover. I could have been killed but that's a small price to pay to recover an unobtainable Matchless toolbox cover........

Take care

G