| Author | Message | ||
     Marks3tbillet  |
I noticed more vibration in my bike during my last ride. I am doing the 12,500 mile service anyway. I looked at the front isolator and it looks torn to me. Anyone have any pictures of a good and a bad isolator? Thanks for any help. Mark | ||
| José_quiñones  |
I think I have pictures of mine somewhere but I can't find them. Anyway, If you look under the bike up at the isolator, it has a seam from when it was constructed. Usually this seam is where the tear occurs. It's not too difficult to replace, I have done it twice so this is what I remember, I don't remember the wrench sizes but this is what I remember about the procedure: 0. Put the bike on a rear stand 1. remove the fuel tank 2. remove the ignition coil on the left side to make room. 3. Use a jack to hold up the engine down by the front of the engine. 4. Undo the two front tie links, just one side of each is good, you just need enough wiggle room to let the motor drop when you need to. 5. Remove the front isolator: unbolt the big center bolt first. When you undo the large bolt the jack will hold the engine up and keep it from hitting the ground or your legs. One thing that you could do is play with the jack to raise/lower the motor a bit as needed to make that bolt easier to remove and later replace. Then remove the two smaller bolts on the side and remove the isolator. 6. Install the new one by reversing steps 1-5 above. It would not hurt to get a new center bolt and nut along with the isolator, everything else you should be able to reuse. Good luck. | ||
| Bluzm2  |
Couple of more things regarding the front isolator replacement. The manual and conventional wisdom both call for a new bolt and nut. I replaced all three bolts and nuts. Very cheap insurance to keep the expensive stuff where it belongs. Watch the orentation fo the large flat washer. It has a flat side that must face forward when the bolt is tightened. Like José said, use a jack under the motor. I also used a center stand to allow up and down movement when installing the new part. Use a torque wrench! If you don't have one, get one! Good luck! | ||
| Lake_bueller  |
Bluz...good call on the washer. I had mine installed the wrong way when I built the S1. Mark...also have your front tire checked out. I had a vibration on my S3T that was caused by a cupped front tire. Good luck! | ||
| José_quiñones |
Thanks for catching the washer, I forgot about it | ||
| Marks3tbillet |
Thanks guys. The tear is exactly as Jose mentions. My front tire has less than 1000 miles on it, I think it's okay. Do you guys have part numbers for the bolts, nuts, and washers? Mark | ||
| Orion1  |
Look something like this?   This happened to my 2000 M2 a few weeks ago, at 21,000 miles. If I wasn't familiar w/the Buell's shakes & shimmys, I might have thought that the extreme buzzing at 4000 RPM and above was just a "Buell thing." Maybe the last time the tech raised the engine up to the frame, he didn't tighten that bolt on the right enough and it flexed till it broke. That's just a guess. Anyway, it's all fixed now. Dealer fixed it for $137, the part was about $25. I'll get you the part #'s tomorrow. | ||
| Marks3tbillet |
No, mine didn't break the mount luckily. Mine looks like:  | ||
| Al_lighton  |
John, That failure is unfortunately far from uncommon. The failure scenario seems to be: Resonance in left mount arm (my theory) causes left bolt to fracture at head/mount interface. Bolt head falls out, rider doesn't notice. Rider rides with engine hanging by right mount not knowing it. One of three things happens: 1) Right mount arm breaks 2) Right bolt at head breaks 3) most evil: The boss on the head snaps off, new head now required. ALL tube frame riders should preflight their bike, and verify that both those bolt heads are there. The fix, near as I can tell, is the Nallin Billet motor mount (see here) and a new set of bolts, installed per B-018 service procedure. Since this mount has the web between the left and right arms, the left arm resonance is eliminated, and the bolt failure should go away. My S3 did it twice. Put the Nallin mount on, hasn't since, but I don't have real high mileage since putting on the mount. Mark, I have the front isolators in stock if you need one, see here Al | ||
| Marks3tbillet |
Al: I need a copy of the B-018 procedure. Can you send it? I already have my isolator and bolts. Thanks, Mark | ||
| Mikej  |
S&S also makes an engine mount. | ||
| Al_lighton |
Mark, it's at work, I'll be there shortly. Send a mail to sales @ americansportbike dot com, I'll reply with a scanned version of it. Al | ||
| Al_lighton |
Oh, I'll send it anyway, but if all you're replacing is the top isolator, you don't really need the B018 SB. Where you need it is when you replace the bolts that go into the head. The key part is the torquing procedure for those bolts. The key part for your job was already mentioned above, get that D washer oriented correctly. | ||
| Orion1 |
Al, Thanks for the info. I'm going to check that bolt every time I ride from now on. | ||
| Mikej |
The thing that bugs me is that it shouldn't "need" to be checked everytime. | ||
| Al_lighton |
Mike, I won't argue with you there, but it is what it is, and checking it is something I just do when I preflight the bike. I've found a number of things over the years pre-flighting, start the engine, while it's idling and I'm strapping on my helmet, walk around the bike. The vibration on these bikes tend to make things that aren't right kinda obvious  . Catching things before you head down the road is always preferable to having an incident while moving. My S3 has the Nallin mount now, the S1W is getting a new top end as soon as I get a day to do the job, and it is going to get a Nallin mount at that time too. Has anyone ever heard of an older S1 that had the webbed front mount having this failure? Al | ||
| Mikej |
Yeah, I know, and agree fully. | ||
| Djkaplan  |
That Nallin mount looks like the beefiest one on the market. Can anyone post a picture of one mounted on a bike? I'd like to replace the front mount on my M2. I've added the extra tie-bar to the stock M2 mount. I wonder if this will help prevent a catastrophic failure. Has mount failure been known to happen on X1s? They came from the factory with the extra tie-bar. | ||
| Al_lighton |
The S3's come with that extra heim joint, but it's happened twice on my S3. I have a picture of it on the S3, but I can't seem to find it, and the S3 isn'there now to snap another. I'll try to remember to snap one when I get the S3 back here. It is beefy. But it also has the right cut on the web to make it as easy as the stock mount to bolt in. Sure looks nicer than the stock cast piece. Al | ||
| Marks3tbillet |
Thanks for all the help guys. I finished the isolator replacement tonight. Mark | ||
| Rick_a |
My S1 has webbing across the center of the front mount. I never understood why they changed the design. |
