Subject: RE: The Big Bang!! SOLVED????
Author: Keith Ruff
Date: Sep 16, 2002, 5:56 AM
Post ID: 1711019250
Been giving John's e-mail alot of thought, and initially thought he is
right. I took a quick look at the disptick and thought it was in good
shape. I then went and checked and rechecked everything I could but saw
no evidence of looseness or anything else out of sorts. Figured I was
out of my realm and needed to send her off to a pro for further eval.
Cam stopped over after reading the board and seeing my latest dilemma
and asked to see the dipstick. What he noticed was enlightening that
perhaps this dipstick indeed caused the knocking. When I held up the
culprit dipstick, he immediately noticed it was bent. I took a closer
look and indeed it was bent. Another friend stopped over last eve and
wanted to see the bike, he oohed and ahhhed over it, then he checked out
the insides of the motor after I told him what had happened. He took a
look at the dipstick also, noticed the bend, but also noticed there were
shiny spots in various places on it, signifying that it had been
"polished" by metal on metal contact. One end of the diptick looked
flat, the other was rounded off. He took the dipstick and placed it in
the gouge on the crank, and low and behold it fit perfectly. Now I am
really hoping this was the cause of the knocks, but have to wait until
the new oil pan gasket arrives to put her back together and fire her up
to see if the noise is gone. Right now I have my fingers crossed, but I
feel 75%+ that the dipstick caused the problem, especially after seeing
one of the latest post about rod bearings going at 120K miles. With 6K
original miles, and though she sat a pretty long time, there was
virtually no sludge at all in the case, the oil screen is perfect, and
the engine appears to have only 6K miles on it. While I am in there,
Gordon at MG Cycle told me about some 3-Bond goop stuff that adheres
nicely to metal, so I am going to clean out those 2 flange bolts coming
through the case and plug them up with this 3-Bond stuff and I believe
this will stop the oil leak coming from between the cases. I also
noticed one of the old oil breather hoses is developing some cracks (the
center large one going from the breather to the case) so I am going to
replace that also, perhaps that was another source causing the oil leak
between the cases. I also bought an O-ring for that tranny actuator
plunger where my trans oil is leaking from and hope that cures that
problem. Hopefully all goes well and all oil leaks and knocks will go
away and I will be riding with confidence. Will post the results when
she is all back together. Thanx for the inputs and advice.
Keith Ruff
71 Police Ambassador - NJ
John Prusnek wrote:
| Keith: I don't know about your big bang theory; I would imagine that the dipstick would most likely lay at the bottom of the pan in the sludge. If it was the contributing factor it would be pretty beat up, what shape is it in? And when you turned the engine over by hand, did you go back and forth and notice any play in the lower end bearings? John Prusnek
|