What is this?

[WolfieCycle]

Long time listener, first time caller. I'll spare you another picture of a sump filter with a ripped screen. I made a sort of hybrid fix of the ideas I've seen here. A metal shield that is both bolted on and JB Welded. It's setting up now.

Somebody cranked the drain plug on the sump cover way too much. It's sitting in the freezer.

So my '81 SH with 17K miles has a little bit of fuzzy metal on the screen magnets and a little tiny bit of black plastic. Not too/immediately worried about that. However, there also were these parts of something or other sticking to the magnets as well.

I am betting that someone here (you all are great) will recognize it. The pieces are "0.1 wide

 

[XS650DL]

Tough luck, that looks like a cage from a failed ball bearing.

 

[WolfieCycle]

Oh crap. I think you are right. What is it from though? I've had the bike for about 2 months and put on about 1k miles. It runs fair and I haven't noticed any awful noises or behaviors that sound like a toasted bearing. Woah, I'm flabbergasted. Wanted to ride a bit and sort and improve things as I went along. Not really wanting to pull the thing apart so soon.

 

[meanEG]

the crank has ball bearings on it.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Tough luck, that looks like a cage from a failed ball bearing.

Ditto.
If those pieces came from the front sump area, think cam bearings and right crank bearing.
If they came from the rear drain plug, then there's the trans ball bearings.

At a minimum, I'd pull the two cam end covers and rightside clutch cover, and get a close look at the bearings, and whatever sediment is in that rightside clutch cover area...

 

[WolfieCycle]

Ditto.
If those pieces came from the front sump area, think cam bearings and right crank bearing. If they came from the rear drain plug, then there's the trans ball bearings.

Seeing that I have had no operational or sonic warning I would guess that this happened recently and hopefully hasn't wreaked too much havoc in other areas. Of course, further use will do just that. Those pieces came off of the sump filter screen magnets so cam bearings or crank bearings.

At a minimum, I'd pull the two cam end covers and rightside clutch cover, and get a close look at the bearings, and whatever sediment is in that rightside clutch cover area...

Thanks for that great advice. I will do that when I can get around to it. I just put a good chunk of money (for me anyway) into brakes and the cartridge oil filter/cooler thing, and will have to save my pennies to fix whatever is wrong anyway.