| Author | Message | ||
     Bombtrack |
I was reading one day that sportsters/buells oil pump gears on the crankshaft have been failing around the 20-30000mile range. My bike is an 03. This has bees an issue with the 03 model and I'm not sure the span of years before and after mine. I suggest if you own a xb9 or xb12 that you do research to find out the years in which this has been happening and addressing this before it fails because when mine failed it messed up the teeth on my cams. So instead of needing a $40 oil pump drive gear I also need cams because of the teeth breaking off the cam gears. I know everyone raves about the non-adjustable push rods but not having them means instead of taking the pressure off the lifters by loosening the pushrods I have to take the heads off to get the pressure off the lifters so I can get the cams in and out.that doesn't seam like much work but you can't get to the bolt to take the heads off unless you take the belt drive loose, take every motor mount off exept the rear one plus numerous other things like the lower exhaust & other things so you can then swivel the motor down. Then it is still very tight to access the head bolts. Everyone is raving about the non-adjustable pushrods but if the bike has them I would be able to take the pressure off of them to get the cams in. IMO I would rather have to adjust my pushrods once every 2-3 or four years as needed (wich rarely needs adjustment this often plus it only takes about 10-20mins to do) than to basically take my whole motor out. IMO this gear failure is totally unexceptable at this mileage! Not only do I need cams now & gaskets but also a new oil pump incase any metal has made it into the oil pump. Harley/Buell knows this is happening. They haved changed the metal being used for the gear but they are not offering to replace it. They are not offering to repair the gear, I guess because the bikes are making it to around 20000miles before this happens. I was wanting to get a 1200cc piston kit & having head work done & put some good size cams in at the end of next riding season & have some head work done. I should do this now instead though because I have it tore down to the cylinders, this just isn't in the budget right now so I'm going to have to put it all back together so I can ride the rest of this season & next season then take it apart again to do the upgrades I was talking about doing now (wich I don't have the funds for right now thats why i was waiting for aother season). Those non-adjustable pushrods are great untill something like this happens. I also was wanting to get a1200cc piston/kit but won't be in the budget untill the end of next riding season. Is there any information that would help me? | ||
| Court |
Yes. Since this problem was noted, years ago, there have been countless threads on the issue and how to prevent it. Do a search for "CAUTIONARY TALE: oil pump drive gear". You will find tons of the best information available. | ||
| Greg_e |
Changing this is not a huge deal. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Some bikes eat them, some don't. Whitebuell made a pretty good case that it was a machining tolerance problem (on the cases if I recall correctly) if you want to dig up his post. Since some bikes don't eat them, everyone with the old style gear should check them by dropping the oil pump and looking up in that hole (easy job), but not everyone will need to replace them. The upgraded oil pump gear seems to fix it, so like you say, it's cheap preventative fix. I have two gears sitting here on my desk, one from my 2000 M2 and one from my 2005 XB9SX (both sold). And you don't need to pull the heads to replace the gear, just the rocker boxes. Less work than pulling cams on an OHC motor, and you don't have to worry about dropping a cam chain or screw down the cam chain tunnel, or having the right shims to go under your buckets, or stripping those stupid fragile cam journal screws. You can do it in theory by just removing one rocker box also if you think through it, the other can sit at TDC, but make sure it is the right one so your timing marks on the cams line up when you put them back in. I've done plenty of valve adjustments on UJM's, and two of these gear replacements on Buells, it's a similar amount of work and headache (a significant block of time, but not a big deal in the whole scope of things). | ||
| Reepicheep |
(Oh, and you can click my profile picture to see what you can see by looking up the oil pump hole). | ||
| Bombtrack |
How do you get the pressure off the rods once the rocker box is off? Sorry this is my first vtwin. | ||
| Akbuell |
Pick the cyl of choice, and place the piston at TDC on the compression stroke. Remove the rocker box, pull the pushrods and place them on the bench. Don't get them mixed up. Rotate the crank so the other cyl is at TDC on the compression stroke. Now the pressure is off the pushrods, and the gearcase cover can be removed. Or, remove this rocker box, pull the pushrods, and set them aside. This way (both rocker boxes off) if a cam comes out when the gearcase cover is removed, it is easy to time the cams at reassembly. One caveat: If your XB is at all like my X-1, the engine MAY make an awful racket at start up. I decided the problem was that the lifters had 'bled down'. Took a sub 3k RPM cruise around the block, and the noise was gone; the lifters had pumped back up. Hope this helps, Dave | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
By also loosening the lower rocker box. See here for some how-to http://www.twinmotorcycles.nl/artikelen.asp?cid=20 &aid=545 | ||
| Bombtrack |
Thanks! Now that my motor is basically out I have the rockers almost off. Someone mentioned it being a cheap preventable fix. Maybe if you can do it your self. I couldn't imagine how much a shop would charge for this! I still think this gear failing at 20000miles is unacceptable! | ||
| Reepicheep |
You should definately check it, and if you don't know the history of the bike (i.e. the previous owner may have replaced it right before you got it but didn't tell you) you should probably just replace it if you are in that far anyway. But if you know the history of the bike, and you are at 20k or 30k miles with no discernible wear on that gear, it will probably run forever. Not all bikes eat them. | ||
| Damnut |
When I bought my 04 XB12R new in 05, the oil pump gear was one of the first things I changed out. 30K+ since doing that and no problems yet. It helps to do some research for known problems on a bike BEFORE you buy one. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
By the time I heard of this potential issue, my 2000 X1 already had too many miles on it. It would have gone in the first 20K I figured. (Also, I was LAZY) | ||
| Greg_e |
I had mine apart for other work and decided I'd be dumb not to change it. |
