I forget what motor this is from. I had a half dozen or so, and without measuring, I can’t be sure which motor this is out of. In addition to being bent like a pretzel, the top of the valve broke off, above the keeper groove, and of course the valve guide was broken and the the piston was damaged. Let’s say “loss of compression followed.”
Not much to say here, except pinion gears on Sportster® motorcycles are supposed to be one piece, not two.
Not sure what happened here. Any thoughts? Post your comments above (or below, depending on what page you’re viewing.)
A friend of mine was loading his FLHR Road King® onto a trailer for a long trip. He is “vertically challenged” and his Road King is necessarily lowered. A lowered motorcycle and a motorcycle trailer with a short (read: steep) ramp is not a good combination when you are trying to load your motorcycle by yourself.
So, he starts the bike up, and takes a running start at the trailer. He makes his way up the ramp until the front tire clears the top, and starts to level out in the trailer. This makes the frame closer to the point where the ramp connects to the trailer. The frame bottoms out on the trailer at the same time the jiffy stand spring catches the trailer.
I wish I had a picture of a normal spring. Let’s just say it’s typically shorter than this. This one measures a full 10″. I think normal would be about 3″.
He left the bike on the trailer, supported by the frame and the now-loose jiffy stand. I brought him a new spring, and we quickly installed it. We found a better place to load the trailer and loaded him up without further incident. I got to keep the spring for my efforts.
Vehicle: Honda CB400F
Modifications: 100cc overbore, nitrous
Conditions: 10,000 rpm in 4th gear
All Adam could say is that “crank cases, cylinder, head, and all the rotating parts were junk after that. I was able to salvage most of the transmission. I had hot oil spewing all over me, but it was a lot of fun!”
Nice connecting rod.
A close up of the worst hole:
Umm, there has to be more to the story. Adam, care to elaborate?
I have to get rid of that Serif font and get a good old sans-serif in there. It hurts my brain. Stay tuned.
I spent a couple days in Raleigh/Durham, NC and was lucky enough to have visited the Ray Price Legends of Harley Drag Racing Museum. If you ever get the chance, go. The pictures on their web site of the display cases, mostly with racing leathers in them, do not do justice to the blown up parts they also have on display. I took these two pictures with my cell phone, and they were taken through the glass of a display case, so I apologize in advance for the quality. You really have to see the pieces in person.
You would not believe the wrist pin on this one. It is bent up in half, right in the middle. Truly awesome.
They also have this one on display, a piston and fuel cylinder. Not sure what happened here. Also check out the teeth on that sprocket. Cool.
A man walks into a Harley-Dealer. He buys a new FXDB Street Rod. He mentions that he is signed up for the Rider’s Edge New Rider Training in a couple of weeks, but he wants to ride his bike home before taking the class. After a 60 second introduction to the bike, he takes off. The bike is cold. If you’ve ever ridden a new H-D, you KNOW how much they pop and spit right off idle. It’s spitting and popping, and wanting to die. So, the guy revs it up - to 5 grand - and dumps the clutch.
The bike takes off across the parking lot, with the guy aboard trying to gain control. He goes about 80 feet in first gear. He’s headed straight for a bunch of parked bikes, a fence, a curb, a brick post and a guardrail. He grabs the brake, and simultaneously opens the throttle wider.
He hit the curb going about 20 MPH (best guess), and narrowly missed the post on the right, but hit the back end of a bike (not shown) that was parked where the bike with the flags is in this picture.
The forward momentum and hitting the curb caused the front end of the motorcycle to raise up and land on top of the guard rail (shown), denting the guard rail with his frame.
Thankfully, the new owner was not seriously injured, suffering just a bruise and a cut finger. The bike was not so lucky.
Word has it that he completed the New Rider Training soon after……
The first few photos up will be slightly lower resolution than normal. Some were taken with my cell phone. A lot were taken by others. So, bear with me while we get it dialed in.
Thanks,
Chris
Here are the flywheels, piston and cylinder from a 2004 FLSTF - the owner claimed it “just quit running” so he called for a tow.
Good idea, I think.
These connecting rods are normally straight. This is not good.
Another view of the same rod. This is not normal
Umm, this pile of scrap metal used to be one of two 95″ big bore flat top pistons.
It’s a good thing the owner had the beautiful diamond cutting done before the motor blew up with just 15 miles on it. Any guesses what caused the failure? Let me know privately what YOU think caused this catastrophic engine failure, or comment publicly on this post below.