| Author | Message | ||
     Rick_a |
My S1 went down last night. About halfway home from work, just cruising down a surface street, it sounded like a massive exhaust leak at first. I thought, "great, gotta fix this race header again!" Then the valve train got louder (or so I was thinking). Sometimes if my ears tune in things sound worse than they really do, so I slowed down, opened my shield, craned over a bit and listened a little more intently. It got louder, then it started losing power. I limped it a few blocks to a safe area and shut it down. Checked the oil; it looked good. Looked for signs of oil out of the exhaust...nothing there. Looked over the engine for anything obvious like a hole somewhere, oil, or a tweaked pushrod tube. All looked well. After letting the motor cool down for a few minutes I decided to confirm that it was really dying on me, so after some prodding it re-started. The exhaust pulse seemed strong and all the racket seemed to be coming from the rear cylinder. Tomorrow I'll start taking a look at things. My neighbor was kind enough to grab a trailer and come get me. As I waited in the dark with a gangstered out car creepin' past I was thinking "now would be a great time to have a flashlight, and a gun." | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Sorry to hear it Rick, I hope it's not terrible to fix, sounds like you're tuning in on it pretty fast though. Glad you got home okay, there are some ugly places to break down in the world. | ||
| Froggy |
Jeeze, you should of wrote "broke down" not "went down"! Gave me a bit of a scare! Any idea of the cause yet? | ||
| Rick_a |
Sorry. Neither is a good thing, anyways. We have "went down" and thankfully the bike and rider are pretty tough. I took a look at it today and it's promising. Pulled both plugs; looked good and no physical damage. Peered into the bores with a light and nothing was wrong there. The aircleaner cover was pulled to make sure there was no missing hardware there. Next I pulled up the pushrod tubes on the rear cylinder. Exhaust side was fine, then the intake. The tube flopped around as soon as I pulled it up...and what do ya know, the pushrod locknut was dangling about and the rod was completely collapsed. I was planning on pulling the exhaust anyway to re-wrap the rear header and use try a set of SE gaskets. So far I can't see any damage in the lifter bore so hopefully it'll be a easy fix. Kinda strange to have a pushrod locknut come loose after 12000+ miles after installation. I was actually thinking of checking them a couple thousand miles ago, but ended up brushing it aside. I guess I should be following those gut feelings. Hopefully that's the extent of it. | ||
| Ltbuell |
Rick a, you lucked out.That's a good thing.Keep us posted as to how it goes and when its up and running again.Lt | ||
| Reepicheep |
Were those aftermarket adjustable pushrods? Or did they use collapsible pushrods stock on the S1's? Popping the head and jug off on these things was easier than I expected. A nice change from OHC motors. | ||
| Rick_a |
They're S&S "Quickie" pushrods. They had the snot tightened out of them. One had a locknut break due to the torque I put on it when installed, and I had to purchase a jam nut and tap to make one as S&S would only sell me a big bag of 'em. It's a smallish nut with a big, fine thread size so it was impossible to find. Hopefully the pushrod is ok. It's kinda crazy that it could collapse completely in such short a time (literally one short block). | ||
| Buellistic |
Rick_a: SORRY for you miss fortune, "BUT" that is the very reason "i" do not run ADJUSTABLE PUSH RODS ... | ||
| Foximus |
100% agreed with Lafayette on this. I would never run adjustable pushrods in any motor I expected to run for any length of period over 4000 rpm. For numerous reasons. Get a fixed set that is tailored for you motor. | ||
| Rich |
I've had a set of them in my Buell for 18 years, they've never come loose. Yet. | ||
| Foximus |
They are heavy, and have a tendency to warp.... and sometimes bend at the join. Plus... WHY would you run them? They are expensive and just an obviously not smart method. GET SOME FIXED! | ||
| Rick_a |
The lifters have travel limiters (same concept as Hydrosolids) and the cams are on a smaller base circle. |
