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When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:57 pm
by Adrian
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.



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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.



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3. Note that it has knackered the outer track too, though this wasn’t the source of the problem in this instance.



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4. All that’s left of the needle roller bearing assembly. The rest got sprayed around the engine.



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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.



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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.

When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:59 pm
by Adrian
Apologies for the formatting glitches there.



A.

When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 6:55 pm
by Norm
Well described Adrian, what a dog of a company they are as these piles of junk failed almost immediately after purchase and this dog mob just continued to claim it was the owners fault.

When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:18 pm
by Adrian
Hi Norm, I thought this might get your attention. ;)



This business kept the previous UK importers quite busy at the time, even for a number of Electras which were already out of warranty, but had replacement cranks fitted as a goodwill gesture. My AVL hybrid actually uses one of these failed cranks which was rebuilt with an Alpha Bearings crankpin and re-sleeved rod.



Hopefully our hosts will have part number 90125C back in stock before too long.



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When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:32 pm
by Norm
Hi Adrian, I thought you might have been winding me up. Out here the importer wiped his hands of it,he was good at that, although one club member I know had his motor replaced, he then offloaded it immediately. Any reputable company would have issued a recall but not Royal "its not our fault" Enfield India. May they rot in hell.

When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:43 pm
by Leon Novello
And so it came to pass, that these engines will forever be known as Norm`s Nightmares.

When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:04 pm
by Norm
Adrian, about 10 years ago I wired one of the flywheels to the front of our washing basket trolley as a counterweight to stop it tipping over, about all it was good for
Leon it is no longer my nightmare but I will never forgive such a dirtbag company

When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:33 pm
by Adrian
No wind-up Norm, that's what mine did. The bits are still downstairs if you're up for some paperweights or more trolley counterweights! I gather from previous posts that yours was possibly the very worst of the lot. The thing is I actually enjoyed mine for most of my 17000 miles with it. But I notice that low and low-ish mileage examples are still being sold here on ebay and elsewhere, and I would like to think that with a little pre-emptive action on behalf of suitably warned owners, the better examples (which you sadly never came your way) can be kept running and actually giving riding pleasure for a few more years to come without the main pitfalls cropping up.



The whole experience has understandably destroyed any credibility for RE (India) in your eyes, I'm concerned that anyone considering taking on an Electra-X now can learn from others' experience. They can either do the thanks but no thanks thing and walk away, or if persevering start to take precautions if they still want to be riding it in a couple of years.



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When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:50 pm
by Norm
Adrian we did that with a number of them out here, running fine with no sign of problems but pulled them down and rebuilt them using non Indian junk and all of these run around happily today. Mine I built as a crossbred used Bullet flywheels, conrod,barrel and head and then it was a fine machine which I have not heard of where it is in the last couple of years. Somebody is going to be a bit confused one day if it ever gets pulled down again

When An Electra-X Big-End Gives Up

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:51 pm
by Norm
And I still have 4 forged pistons sitting here that I had made at great expense because at the time I could not get a decent piston for them