- Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:57 pm
#9039
It has been nearly 4 years since my poor old Electra-X had its mechanical fit @ 17k-and-a-bit miles. Original plans to repair it were cancelled when I saw our hosts had half a ‘61 Bullet with V5C up for sale, and my Electra’s frame now lives on as one of Henry Price’s diesel conversions. I kept the engine, gearbox and a few other good bits with A Proj Too Far in mind. Meanwhile I have recently had the old crankshaft rebuilt as a spare, but you might be interested to cast your eyes over the wreckage from the original, or most of it.
1. When the big end failed, the next thing it did was to spray abrasive metal sludge over the inside of the engine, and the piston skirt obligingly picked up its share.
2. Next the crankpin, and though our hosts claim the un-sleeved outer track in the rod is the principal weakness, the crankpin hardening on quite a few early (2005) Electras has been the culprit, as happened here.
3. Note that it has knackered the outer track too, though this wasn’t the source of the problem in this instance.
4. All that’s left of the needle roller bearing assembly. The rest got sprayed around the engine.
5. Meanwhile we have a qualifier for Piston Woes No. 2. Not content with metal-spraying the piston skirt, all the mayhem downstairs was transmitting extra stress up to the gudgeon pin cirlips in the piston, as you can see from the spalled circlip groove alloy, still fresh and shiny unlike the surrounding area of the gudgeon pin boss.
6. I don’t have a picture of the scored-up mess which is the scavenge oil pump chamber in the timing cover, but unless someone has worked out how to repair these, the whole cover is probably scrap.
The moral of the story? If you’re still riding an early Electra-X on its original crank, you‘ve either got a good one which will probably get to 50,000 miles quite happily, or else yours is in the 12,000 miles plus danger zone and perhaps you need to think about a pre-emptive strike and get your crank rebuilt NOW.
The very least you ought to be doing is to fit the biggest and nastiest sump magnet you can find to keep the ferrous debris from being caught up in the scavenge pump when it passes happily through the scavenge pump “filter†gauze. Apart from what it does to the pump body, you don’t really want all that stuff getting up to the rockers or back down into the timing chest either either.
Happy days.
A.
1. When the big end failed, the next thing it did was to spray abrasive metal sludge over the inside of the engine, and the piston skirt obligingly picked up its share.
2. Next the crankpin, and though our hosts claim the un-sleeved outer track in the rod is the principal weakness, the crankpin hardening on quite a few early (2005) Electras has been the culprit, as happened here.
3. Note that it has knackered the outer track too, though this wasn’t the source of the problem in this instance.
4. All that’s left of the needle roller bearing assembly. The rest got sprayed around the engine.
5. Meanwhile we have a qualifier for Piston Woes No. 2. Not content with metal-spraying the piston skirt, all the mayhem downstairs was transmitting extra stress up to the gudgeon pin cirlips in the piston, as you can see from the spalled circlip groove alloy, still fresh and shiny unlike the surrounding area of the gudgeon pin boss.
6. I don’t have a picture of the scored-up mess which is the scavenge oil pump chamber in the timing cover, but unless someone has worked out how to repair these, the whole cover is probably scrap.
The moral of the story? If you’re still riding an early Electra-X on its original crank, you‘ve either got a good one which will probably get to 50,000 miles quite happily, or else yours is in the 12,000 miles plus danger zone and perhaps you need to think about a pre-emptive strike and get your crank rebuilt NOW.
The very least you ought to be doing is to fit the biggest and nastiest sump magnet you can find to keep the ferrous debris from being caught up in the scavenge pump when it passes happily through the scavenge pump “filter†gauze. Apart from what it does to the pump body, you don’t really want all that stuff getting up to the rockers or back down into the timing chest either either.
Happy days.
A.
