| Author | Message | ||
     Andrejs2112 |
My fan is starting to make a noise. It sounds like a small pebble rattling around in there. It could be, but doubt it. How much work is it to replace? Can we do warranty work ourselves? Thanks, AR | ||
| Bosh |
Yup, sounds like a bearing going out. Nope, can't do warranty work ourselves. Mine is doing the same thing. Have an appt to take it in tomorrow. Last month of warranty so good timing on my Buell's part! | ||
| Etennuly |
Mine sounded like that for 10,000 miles. It finally died 645 miles from home. The bike will limp home if the right precautions are made. There is a thread I wrote about that here in BBD. | ||
| Chadhargis |
Yep...your fan is dying. Mine got the death rattle, then got to the point where it would barely spin. It turned slow enough that you could count the blades. Dealer replaced it no questions asked. | ||
| Andrejs2112 |
Poop! Thanks for the info. | ||
| Etennuly |
I think they cost about $70. You cannot do warranty work yourself, but when you get it back it is a good idea to check over everything they touched to make sure it was done right! | ||
| Andrejs2112 |
Are they hard to replace? My dealer is 300+ miles away. I'll spend more on fuel getting there, not to mention my time off work, etc,etc. | ||
| Teeps |
Etennuly Posted on Thursday, September 13, 2007 but when you get it back it is a good idea to check over everything they touched to make sure it was done right! Sad but to often true. The fan on my Uly is raspy sounding too. | ||
| Iugradmark |
There is a great read related to the fan on the fan failure posting. One of the members pulled apart the fan and analyzed the parts and was able to determine that the fan design will not hold up to the heat and amount of usage that it is receiving. My takeaway from this analysis is that the fan is going to fail and probably will fail sooner for those living in warmer climates. Thankfully it is a relatively inexpensive part but unfortunately the dealers do not stock it so some riders have just ordered it and performed the replacement themselves even though it is a warranty item. I was thinking that Buell would follow these postings and upgrade the part due to the high rate of failure but after reading Court's reply on another thread, I am afraid we are not taken as seriously as I had hoped. | ||
| Bosh |
Just got back from the dealer (Devil Mt. Hrly/ Buell). Service guy listened to the bearing rattle and ordered a new fan on the spot. Can't ask for more than that.. +1 to them.  | ||
| Bosh |
Are they hard to replace? They are kind of a PITA. You have to take the back shock off and weedle the fan out of its hole. Not super bad, but not fun. | ||
| Andrejs2112 |
Sounds like a winter project for the dealer  | ||
| Etennuly |
It is actually about an hour and a half job. It is well described in the service manual. | ||
| Hughlysses |
There is a great read related to the fan on the fan failure posting. One of the members pulled apart the fan and analyzed the parts and was able to determine that the fan design will not hold up to the heat and amount of usage that it is receiving. My takeaway from this analysis is that the fan is going to fail and probably will fail sooner for those living in warmer climates. Mark, IIRC, he bought an XB fan cheap off of ebay and disassembled it. His take was there was nothing inherently wrong with the design, they'd just used seals and grease in the bearings that wasn't adequate for the temperatures encountered. Bearings with suitable seals and grease are available and could even be retrofitted to your existing fan if you wanted to do it. Hopefully Buell picked up on this problem over a year ago when it first started cropping up and the problem has since been corrected. Come to think of it, have there been any 07 Uly fan failures? If so, there haven't been many. For that matter, have there been any 06 Uly repeat failures? | ||
| Jcbikes |
Is this a Uly only problem? I do not hear about the fan failure problems with the firebolts or lightnings. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Is this a Uly only problem? I do not hear about the fan failure problems with the firebolts or lightnings. It may not be Uly-only, but I think we're finding it's much more prevalent on Uly's. I think the problem is that the airflow out of the fan is more restricted due to the different configuration of the seat/underpan area compared to the other XB's. IMHO the fans on Uly's end up running longer and hotter than other XB's and that's why they've failed more often. See the threads on Uly heat management for some attempts at improving the airflow, which should reduce under-seat heat and hopefully make the fan last longer. | ||
| Iugradmark |
Hughlysses, I don't want to argue but also don't want to make it sound like the problem was seals and grease only. I think there is a lot of good work done by people on the board and I'll let folks smarter than I decide whether the analysis makes sense to them. I'm not sure about 2007 failures. I think someone was going to start a spreadsheet for fans but I could be wrong on that. If they did, it might tell the story. Below is the complete quote / recommendation from Husky's earlier post and analysis: "In my opinion, the reason is the wrong materials and internal bearing clearances are being used in the bearings. The brushes in the motor are quite short, and I could not tell from the pictures "Chief" posted how long they were, so I do not want to predict how long the fan would last if not for bearing problems. But, the 89 Astro Van I drive has over 246,000 miles on it. The cabin air circulation fan is run 100% of the time, usually at mid to full speed here in California's furnace like weather, and it still has the original fan in it. In summary, I recommend the following changes be made to the fan. 1. Change the bearing ball and ring material to Heat Stabilized 440 C per ASTM 756 or M-50 steel. 2. Change the grease to Braycote 601 or Dupont Krytox 240AC per Mil-G-27617. I would recommend a 50-70% grease fill on the bearing. 3. Change the bearing internal clearance to C3 or maybe even C4. 4. Change the bearing seals to metal reinforced Viton contact seals. 5. The Fan company (SPAL) should review their fan motor assembly procedures to make sure they are not distorting the inner race on the commutator end and the outer race on the fan end of the motor with their staking procedures." | ||
| Andrejs2112 |
"It is actually about an hour and a half job. It is well described in the service manual." Yeah, looked it up in the manual. I'll do it myself when I have some downtime. Looks straightforward enough. | ||
| Ratbuell |
According to the part number, the fan was redesigned at some point and given an "A" suffix. Dunno when/why, but it was done. | ||
| Brucen |
I just had the fan on my 06 XB12Ss replaced. It wasn't making much noise, but was running slower and slower. I could hear the speed of the fan varying whenever it was running, and it finally would slow and stop before the bikes computer shut it off. The Dealer in San Diego had one in stock & replaced it with no questions. The mechanic said it was failing. They don't all make a lot of noise when they go. |
