So with the residual oil in the crankcase making a mess of my face as it slowly dripped down, I peered up at the drive gear, then rotated the wheel while in gear to spin the drive-gear and looked again. Spin look repeat, spin look repeat… I almost missed it, but on the last spin, I looked and one of the teeth was missing.

Though the tooth was missing, it should have only reduced the spin of the oil pump by 10%, so on the hunch of my guru, I tore pump open and found a cracked gerotor.

I then pulled the rocker boxes off to release pressure on the pushrods, and pulled the cam cover off to thankfully find the broken tooth floating in the corner (so no mystery tooth remaining to cause problems later on).

I replaced the oil pump drive gear with the upgraded Buell version (crossing fingers this never happens again) and got a new oil pump and slapped everything together. And turned the bike on, and the oil light was still on!! Thinking back on the situation, it was the return gerotor that was broken; the intake side was fine. So even at 90%, it should have still been pumping enough oil for the bike. Out with the service manual, it says that I should have 12-17 psi at idle, (or something like that), and mid 20’s at 2500 rpm at operating temp. So after a search of every auto store in town, I finally settled on a mechanically operated oil pump with a gauge capable of discerning 15 and 25 psi, (most were made for higher pressure applications.) I hooked up the gauge in place of the oil sensor, warmed the bike up observing a steady 15psi then took her out for a ride observing the stated 25+psi.

Through this, we found that the problem the entire time was a failing oil pressure sensor. I’m thankful that it failed though since it led me to find the broken oil pump/and drive gear before they could cause some serious damage.

I was heading home from work and the engine dies on me at 45mph. I pop the clutch and it fires right up. Came to a stop and the engine sounds great. I go another 5 miles down the road running 60, engine starts rattling like crazy and dies again. I trailer the bike home and start trouble shooting. Took the plugs out and tried to roll the bike in gear, wouldn’t budge. Took the primary cover off and eyed the tranny over, it’s fine. Took the timing cover off, gears are in great shape. Put the bike in neutral and I was able to turn the engine backwards with the crankshaft nut but it would stop when the rear piston was at TDC. Finally a clue! Pulled the rear head and found a small piece of metal sitting on top of the cylinder.

Damage

Damage

More damage

Yes, the piece is magnetic

With the help of some good friends and the great guys at xlforum.net we went through the list of the usual suspects to source the metal, but all was OK.

This ring is complete

No scews missing from inside the carb

Another shot of the carb

Valve guide looks good

No, the ground electrode did not break off the spark plug

Then they finally got through to me that shrapnal can and will cross over through the intake manifold. Dude! Pull the front head already! Doh!

The culprit

Ouch

Looks expensive

Now for the $64,000 question: what happened and why?

The story was that a wrist pin retaining clip was not installed properly (by my indie shop) the clip worked it’s way out, got ground up between the piston and cylinder wall, and found its way into the oil pump. If I was relying on an idiot light instead of a gauge I would probably not have detected the problem before disaster struck.

Customer complaint of engine noise on 04 Softail. Jim pulled and check lifter and cams to check out. After further inspection found exhaust valve got a “little” hot. Also check ET sensor and how melted it was. Sorry about pic quality on some. These cheap cameras suck! That guy must have left the bike on idle for a week!!! Obsessive compulsive idler!

I’m pretty sure that exhaust seat is not supposed to be moved away from the head like that. Oops.

Kid bought it and while riding on highway tire decided to let go. Bike went down but not bad. Kid’s all right. That’s all I have now. It was a OE Dunlop D205. Not the best tire Dunlop ever made………

Sorry for the blurry pics. Blame Adam actually!

how i found it: car came into the shop with a miss at idle and a slight tap. originally believed damaged cam, lash cap, or spring. was a light tap. disassembled top engine and inspected, no damage found…wtf??? so unlikely as it seemed i pulled pan down and looked up into crank and rods. rod was rubbing crank and cylinder. i believe at one point engine had hydrolocked but the customer swears nothing had ever happened. “just started missing” he says. car way out of warranty, customer did not want a new engine. replaced rod and piston with used ones. expressed no warranty or gaurantee of work. this car is still going after about 6 months and customer is happy.

this kinda shit only happens to others. if it were my engine and i just threw in used parts my engine would just spit them right back out at me.

Here’s a GSXR 1000 that threw a leg outta bed at about 140kmh while doin a highchair wheelie… very lucky boy … that’s why he’s decided to go back to straightliners and make more HP instead of doin the stunt stuff.

Not much of a story behind it. I was attempting a 3rd gear rolling burnout at the time (max revs) and it went BANG … end of story. It punched a 3 inch hole in the right front cases and spat the rod, piston, etc. out onto the road.

Cheers, Jack

These pictures are from a 2003 Buell® XB9R which was converted into a race bike for CCS/ASRA. In 2004, we installed a Nallin 1169cc conversion kit with oversized valves & a port job. The compression ratio is 13.1:1 and was running with a Zipper’s 585 cam. We had an oiling problem the first season which damaged the cams, pistons, valves and guides. At that point, Nallin was unable to provide us the same pistons, and when re-working the heads installed the wrong size valves and seats. Our machinist had to make pistons to work with the heads. No problem.

After getting it running again for the 2006 racing season, a valve seat fell out of the head after a few dyno pulls while we were tuning the fuel injection. Loss of compression soon followed. This damaged both cylinders, heads & pistons.

Starting from scratch once again, we got a set of stock heads with stock valves, and with minor porting got higher flow numbers and a better curve that the Nallin heads with oversized valves (edit: different flow bench and operator.) We are currently waiting for the cylinders to be repaired or replaced. Hopefully we’ll be running in May 2006 for Autobahn.

“of ice that is…..

This unfortunate mess happened from a couple weeks ago up near WAUSAU WI. All that was left of the 2006 DODGE pick-up (on loan from a local dealership) was the hubcap. You can see the sleeve of the driver climbing out…he got out OK as did the passenger.

Always remember:
check your ice before you ride and don’t follow too close to the plow truck!”