Mech failure reports from RRuns

[AdminGuy]

I would really like to see mechanical failure reports from road runs. I thought it was great to see the hard luck acknowledgements on pg 63 of this issue from the Berkshire Mountain RR.

We all make mistakes, and yes, it can be embarressing sometimes. But I feel that as a club it would be great to see some sort of data collected to try to help riders possibly identify potential problems before they happen.

So in the future it would be great to see more info. ie "He broke a valve spring on his IND Four". Was it NOS? Was it new? How many miles were on it? Was it shot peened? Did he have it dialed right up at the time?

"Sudden flat tire on his Chief". Was the tube old? Was it punctured? Was it installed incorrectly? Was the tire worn? Did object puncture it?

And so on, and so on. I think most guys are big enough to **** it up these days and admit you made a mistake. Maybe this collected data will help other club members avoid the same problem on the road. So that we can all have more fun enjoying our machines.

[Baytown]

Almost Mechanical Failure

I had my tanks off my 47 Chief to work on the mongrel Speedo drive (which keeps stripping ring gears at the rear wheel Speedo drive).
I always clean my oil tank with Kerosene after draining the oil at 1000kms, and clean out any residual with a rag.
After reassembling my machine, I took it out for a 40km test ride, and just felt uneasy re the assembly.
On the return leg, the bike began to loose power, and died on me at approx 90kph. I pulled to the side of the road, and washed off speed, before reengaging the clutch, to which the bike started again and so I chose to limp home at approx 30kph.
On getting home, I remembered that I didn't remove the rag from the oil tank.
Sure enough, the oil feed line had been blocked to some extent by the rag, causing the front cylinder to nip up. It is running fine now, 1000kms later, and I haven't had the front cylinder off, but will be inspecting it for any score marks next time a top end is due.
Close, and I learned big time to account for all tools and rags.

Best wishes.

Ken.

[exeric]

Baytown, I have to admire you for confessing that, but I think I would have kept that one to myself and a priest.

[Baytown]

G'day Eric, live and learn I s'pose. As I work with aircraft, I'm well aware of accounting for tools / equipment. I had one of those blank moments when re assembling the bike is all I can say.
For the ultimate break down, go here, and see what happened to my Chief in 1994. Scroll down to the bottom and read the article entitled Ken Kemps wreck.


http://virtualindian.org/featureindex5.htm


Best wishes everyone.

Ken.

[exeric]

Baytown, I checked out the link you provided. That is quite a story. It's remarkable how impared some people can get on booze. Even more remarkable that they would want to be that impared. I like a drink as much as the next person but after maturity sets in and one to many hang-overs, most people stop before the stupidity becomes an addiction. I am delighted to see the Chief is looking as good as before. There is something truely disturbing about seeing a wrecked antique motorcycle.

I had a wreck in 1990 on my '51 FL. I had recently restored the bike and was enjoying a nice Sunday morning ride through downtown Orlando, Florida. There was very little traffic so everything should have been ducky. I was going straight on Orange Ave. when a crazy old lady in a big Chrysler made a spontaneous left turn, with no signal, 40 or 50 feet in front of me. Of coarse I couldn't stop so I layed it down and I got high sided which sent me on a long, slow motion flight through the air. I actually remember saying to myself that this was going to hurt. . . . And it did. I was pretty messed up and so was the "51. The police had to restrain the old bag becuase she kept trying to leave the scene, and she told the cop that she couldn't understand what the big deal was. "It was only a motorcycle."

[c.o.]

As always hearing bike crash stories can be a little disheartening. It's good to see that both you fellas made it here to tell your stories!!!!

[Baytown]

I'm actually surprised that it's such a slow moving thread.
Maby move it to Parking Lot chatter, as there's got to be some amazing stories out there.
Actually over 420 people have read this with only a few replies.

Best wishes everyone.

Ken.

[Jack_Hester]

I'll post a common problem, for those who make longer than normal rides on their machines. In my earlier years of riding, distance was all I could think of. Not for the pain. But, to see as much as I could, in the little time off that I had off. On two different occasions I had to remove a head off of my bike, to deal with sticking exhaust valves. These came from sustained running for a whole day, with gas fill ups every couple of hours as the only break. Lesson learned: top end lube must be added to the gas, to prevent carbon buildup on the valve stems, and to soften the existing carbon. And, to do the obvious of lubricating where there is little or none. Marvel Mystery Oil, in particular.

Jack

[AdminGuy]

Instead of Marvel can you use air compressor oil? maybe a table spoon per tank.

[Jack_Hester]

I don't have a clue about the compressor oil. MMO will not smoke. Compressor oil may. You can give it a try. If you use the MMO, don't over do it, as there has been some discussion about the fact that it may lower octane if mixed greater than stated on the container. So, in this case, more is not better.

Jack

[kunzog]

When I got my first Chief some 35 years ago, the guy that built it said to put oil in the gas until it breaks in as the rings were tight. Well I added 30 weight motor oil, little did I know that stuff doesnt burn too well. That weekend I went on a run with the Antique Auto Club and kept fouling my plugs. Took me a little while to figure it out.

[partshunt]

Back in the late eightys when I put the 23J together, I noticed one intake valve spring was pitted bad. I orded a pair of NOS springs from Dave at Harbor Vintage right away. Meanwhile I continued and got the bike running with the pitted spring. When the new springs arrived I just put em away in my stash, being busy an all so never got around to install them. The engine ran fine for years with the forgotten flaw till around 1999 when the spring finally broke on the freeway. I pulled over the see why the misfiring and clattering, (sounded like a blacksmith shop with full crew tapping and hammering). After checking it out, nothing could be done with it there so decided to run on one cylinder to the show. Amazingly, it cleared up and ran on both cylinders to the show and back, about an 80 mile round trip. My guese is that it just went into the old atmospheric valve mode once the broken spring entwined itself and let the compression stroke close the valve like earlier earlier teens models with no intake cam. At the time tho, it sure jogged my memory that I did have a set of new springs somewhere and forgot to replace em. That was imediately taken care of that sunday evening and all has been well since on that old resto. Just one of those "to do" things that never got done till the problem finally exposes itself at the most inconvenient time huh??

[INLINE4NUT]

Well Im glad to hear Im not the only one thats had problems withintake springs! I had a headache one spring (no pun!) an we went though Hello and back couldnt find the problem,weak springs were the cause of my trouble after a new set ere found the MC ran like a charm!And Ill give the credit to whom it belongs!!! Robin Markey lesson well learned!

[koanes]

The fall AMCA Road Run in Sturgis was the setting for my mechanical failure. I replaced the brake linings before we left, front and rear on my 1965 FLH, which I deemed prudent in light of the steep mountain roads we would be riding. The rear wheel cylinder was only a yr or 2 old and not leaking so I decided to leave it alone. On the first day of the run, while riding at a very moderate pace (fortunately) to accomodate my riding partner on his early 4 cyl Indian, I discovered that the wheel cylinder had lost its seal and drenched the linings in fluid, making the rear brake useless. It was near the end of the days ride so we were able to finish but there were some exciting moments, the front brake being nearly worthless to start with. That evening, with the help of several of the participants, I was able to get the bike blocked up and apart, ready for the wheel cylinder to show up in the morning, ordered overnite from a local auto parts store. When I went to pick it up, the part was the wrong one as the Wagner catalog had the wrong part # under the picture. I thought we would be spending the day at the motel. Within an hour I was offered the use of three different motorcycles for the days ride. What a wonderful group of people, my fellow AMCA members. I won't mention any names, because I'm not sure they would appreciate it, but we were able to ride a great loaner bike on the day 2 journey. The next day I was able to repair the leak in the cylinder by having a local machine shop spin .060 off the piston on the offending side of the cylinder, which allowed the seal cup to move out past the rust craters. We had an excellent day 3 ride and even snuck a day 4 ride in, as the motel manager gave pemission to check out a few hours late. The cobble job has held up for a couple thousand miles with out a hint of a leak, but I have a spare cylinder in the saddlebag just in case.

[Carl N. Olsen]

I rode my 48 Pan out to the Washington Road Run last summer, Coming out of one of the last stop of the day Raymond Miller from North Carolina was sitting along side of the road on his 53 Pan with a broken transmission, stuck in 2 gears, I headed back to the lodge for the Catering truck and ran into him down the road but he did not have any room and the Crash truck did not even come that far, so I told him to drop off some tie downs with Raymond and the other guys. I went down the road a ways and there was road const. and I asked the flag girl who's pickup that was over on the side of the road, she replied that it was hers and when asked to help she replied that she was going to get off in a few minutes and would haul Raymond in. Rick Najera and I took out the trans. back at camp and we were both under the bike getting the last bolt out and when we got it he simply gave the trans a good push and it flew out and landed on the ground as he declared it was out of here. We tore it down on a picnic table and tried to fix it, but had a lack of parts. We tried to use what we had and put it back together, but it did not work. Raymond had a backup bike, but was headed for Davenport and then on to the Black Hills Road Run. Mean while Rick, Alton and Deb Morris, Tim Lien and I would be riding out highway 2 through Glacier and Montana, North Dakota, and my home in South Dakota on our way to Davenport. We had planned a day layover at mey home for some midtrip maintenance so I told Raymond to be there and we would fix his trans. at my shop. Raymond was there when we got there 5 days later and we pulled the trans. out again, tore it down and it needed a new mainshaft and shifting fork and clutches. All the parts that I put back in were used as I had burned up my inventory on the last batch of restorations so I picked through my rejects and put it together so he could go on the road run. I told him that he should get some better parts in there at a later date, but after the road run he told me that was the best and smoothest shifting trans. he had ever had, so we decided if it works, don't fix it, He went on to the Death Valley road run and will be at the Florida road run later this week. Raymond asked me how much he owed me for the trans. rebuild and I replied that one of the golden rules of the road is that when a friend breaks down in the middle of the adventure, it is up to his friends to get him going again. After all everybody loves Raymond!!! If you get a chance to meet an elderly gentleman on a restored blue 53 Panhead with white gas tanks that is Raymond, he is truely a great friend and man who will help out wherever he can, I am just glad I got the chance to pass it forward.
Carl