Oil Window Getting Pushed In

I was riding in the desert a few months ago and had a nice get off coming around a corner at speed in a washout, leaving me and the bike laying in a thistle bush with pretty thick branches. I picked up the bike and was ready to fire the engine again until i noticed a greasy substance left on the bush. I immediately thought coolant until I inspected more closely and noticed the oil window had been pushed into the engine! I was able to load the bike on a friend's truck and bring back to camp and later home. It was a pretty easy fix, just removing the side engine cover, draining/replacing the coolant and tapping the window back into place with an equal size diameter socket. But it got me a bit curious. Has anyone had an issue with this before? Seems relatively easy to push out of place again. Anyone devise a solution to prevent this from happening?

I have no experience with it, but I know a member on here had the glass shattered while he was riding somewhere in the desert as well except he didn't notice. He rode it for quite a while without oil, engine kept stalling. I don't remember how it ended (whether he had to rebuild his engine or not), but Yamaha wouldn't take over even though it still was in warranty... There was a topic about it a while back. That's the only case I heard about the glass causing problems...

He rebuild the motor at his cost and bought a KTM 350 out of frustration with the Yamaha service.

I guess I'm going to have to start checking that thing every time I drop the bike. Twice in 6 months makes this more than a rare occurrence in my opinion.

Wouldn't a skid plate prevent this? Most have welded-on "ears" that wrap around the engine and it seems that this would include the area of the sight glass. This is conjecture on my part as I don't have a skid plate (yet).

I believe he did have a skid plate, which would make it awkward to get to the sightglass.
Yet it happened, with no evidence how it happened , around the skidplate. Considerng skidplates are not perfect, musta been some shit luck.

Anywho, we hear about it again...

I agree. Definitely shit luck but really shit luck to have out in the middle of nowhere and no truck to the rescue. Would be nice to have a cover of some sort for it.

Sounds like an opportunity for Mr. Sandman!

A friend of mine had this happen on the trail (not a wr250r). He was able to pound a coin into the hole at the trailhead, refil and keep riding. A cool solution would be a cover that could be moved to see the level. Screw in? Spring loaded door?

My opinion is that these events are a fluke. Some people just win the lotto. On my last Kawasaki the window was flush with the outsid of the case. This does not leave an edge for things to catch on, and may be better even though it was further out. Maybe an additional pound in flush outside glass would reduce the likelyhood of an oil loss event, but also keep the veiw open for the intended purpose.

I wonder if one could find a rubber or metal plug that would fit that window... we could just carry one with us in case of such an event. It'd have to be something that could withstand the heat of course.

I was riding today with a couple other guys and noticed my rear brake wasn't working like it should. I got off the bike to clean some grass and sticks off the brake pedal and could feel air blowing on my hand, at first I thought the head pipe had a hole in it but I looked down to see the site glass was gone. The one guy I was riding with made the plug in the picture from a tree branch and him and the other guy rode to get some oil. I checked the bike and it still had some oil in it. I was about 100 miles from home at the time. The plug started leaking about 50 miles into the ride so I stoped added some oil and taped in a litttle more. I dont know how it came out. I guess a stick could have hit it but I dont know when or where. Just glad I stoped to check the rear brake problem.
Looks like I will be pulling the cover off tmw. to see whats left of the window.

I've read about two other site glasses being pushed in. This glass getting pushed in is one reason I want a skid plate with coverage in this area.

Found the site glass in one peice put it back in with some silcone on it and the wr lives again.