I purchased a 2002 javelin 185 a few months ago and was told by previous owner that it sometimes had the dreaded "heat soak" issue sporadically. After spending all winter upgrading and doing general maintenance I took it out for the first time and it ran flawlessly and was pleasantly surprised by the performance. But, on about the 4th or 5th trip out it would die when attempting to accelarate for most of the day but then started running perfectly again. This scenerio has continued to occur all summer until I finally couldn't take it and tore into it.
I found that with the throttle cable connected or not, the throttle dog was 1/8" from the linkage cam and the timing advance was leading the throttle by a lot. It actually looked to be 1/3 of the way advance before the trottle plates began to open. But after messing around with it for a few minutes, I discovered that the timing advance mechanism wasn't even returning back to the same position each time so I dug deeper and found that I had some bigger problems. A cracked and destroyed fly wheel cover with the center completly missing. The optical sensor and pivot brackets look to be okay and not damaged.
At this point, I have ordered a new flywheel cover and think that I can re-sink the throttle to timing advance but have no clue what could have caused the flywheel cover to get destroyed. I found some plastic shavings inside the cowling but could not find anything that could have possibly caused all the damage.
Can any of you guys tell me how this could have occured and do I have a bigger problem that needs to be addressed? Pics Below and thanks in advance!