Twin Cam Tappet Failure

This is a shot of a 2003 FLHTCI crankcase where a tappet roller had failed. It might be hard to tell from this picture, but this motor required new crankcases, new cams, new tappets (obviously) and a new oil pump, at the very least.

Before it stopped running, this motor had high performance cams, hi compression pistons, SE cylinder heads, etc. I don’t think it was covered by warranty.

Take special note of the bore in the case where the rear inner cam bearing used to be. It was so far gone that the cam wore through the inner support bearing and began running directly on the crankcase. There is quite a bit of wear in that area.

RD 400 melt down

I hear that a two-stroke is more susceptible to ignition timing and fuel issues than a four-stroke.

The owner says “by the time I realized the improper fuel/ignition, I just decided to push it.”

Umm…….

No comment.

Gotta have a little fun too, right?

If you ever see these guys getting anywhere near your motorcycle, run the other direction.

CX 500 Dropped a Valve

This is one of two heads off a Honda CX 500. All I know is that the engine was being run at high RPM and it dropped a valve. Unfortunately, this is the only clear picture of the bunch that were taken.

The cobwebs are not normally present in a running engine. I suspect this head was sitting on the floor in a garage for a really long time, just waiting for its day on the Internet.

Blown Shovelhead Blew Up

These pictures are from a Shovelhead of unknown year. It’s a custom bike with a blower on it. We suspect the bearing supporting the end of the pinion shaft extension had too much clearance, and the bottom end starved for oil due to the excessive clearance.

This was a fresh motor with around 100 miles on the rebuild. The next rebuild is going to be really expensive.

CB 160 Broken Valve Adjuster

This is the cylinder head from a Honda CB 160. Unless you know what you’re looking at here, it won’t make much sense. In the picture, the valve adjuster is visible off to the side because it broke off the rocker arm. Cool.

Bent Valve

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.”

XL Pinion Gear

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.)

Jiffy Stand Spring

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.