| Author | Message | ||
     Motorfish |
Great, informative, thread Hugh. I agree with your rebuild decision. Parting out would be a lot of work. I wish you luck with it all, and hope to see a video of it running soon. | ||
| Rdkingryder |
Hugh, Buell tech says there are only four choices on the bearings and color coded. So, pretty easy to determine which one is close enough with your measurements. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Not going to go with a 1250 kit on the cylinders and pistons? | ||
| Hughlysses |
Roland- yea, that simplifies it a lot. The bearings are only $7.90 each. Whisper- I thought about it, but it'd add another ~$500 to the cost of the rebuild and then I'd have to tweak the ECM to revise the fueling to suit. I can see that getting pretty involved. | ||
| Stevem123 |
Hey Hulysses, I know its's kind of moot point now since you're planning to replace with the larger crankpin but I would really be interested in seeing the failed crankpin and the roller bearings just for curiosity sake. I truly believe that the synthetic oil has a factor in these failures although probably not the only factor. I always use dino 20-50wt and on two buells have combined nearly 100K on them. I believe that bearing skate may play a big factor due to the thinness of the synthetic oil. Any chance you could seperate the old crankpin from the flywheels so we can have a look at them? | ||
| Hughlysses |
Steve- Yea, I'd like to know myself as well. I guess worst case I could get the Sawz-all out with a metal blade and saw the crankpin off flush with one flywheel. I might check and see if I can find a local shop that would actually press it apart for a reasonable price. If so, I'll pass along the info. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Well, predictably I had second thoughts about that used 09 motor on ebay, so I dropped a bid on it right before it closed. I was willing to go up to $2k, but that didn't meet reserve, so the rebuild is still on. | ||
| Jessemc |
Hughlysses - Steve- Yea, I'd like to know myself as well......I might check and see if I can find a local shop that would actually press it apart for a reasonable price. If so, I'll pass along the info. Hugh, Thanks for documenting everything so well, like many I'm following along with great interest. Since there's relatively few failed XB engines out there it's rare that we get the chance to learn how to make them last. I use synthetic oil and I'd be happy to kick in some $ to cover disassembly and evaluation to see if Steve is right about the bearing skate. Anyone else? | ||
| Hughlysses |
While this seems like a rare failure none of the shops I've written seem very surprised by it and they've all repaired this same thing before. At the very least, I need to write Mobil and Harley about this thing. It's 2+ years out of warranty so I can't reasonably expect much out of Harley. I imagine Mobil will say "this is clearly not a lubrication-related failure" but I guess I need to give them to chance to say that. I saved a vial of oil that I drained out of it immediately before the tear down so I can send them that. | ||
| Dio |
Just curious. What is the build date on the bike? Early, mid or late model '07? | ||
| Hughlysses |
Dio- I believe it's September 2006- I purchased it in December 2006. | ||
| Towpro |
I think my 07 was built in July 06, so 9/07 might not be an "early one". I think it had a 3 digit on the end of the VIN around 3xx I questioned the build date, but I think they sold out of 06's early, and the 07's had some design changes thus the early build date. My battery was an 5/06 | ||
| Dio |
The reason I ask is, my '06 is a june build, and I wonder about late vs. early model year "bleed over" if there is a production problem. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Hugh, pics sent  | ||
| Hughlysses |
Got 'em- thanks! | ||
| Hughlysses |
OK- thanks to Whisperstealth, I can confirm that the only different part in the crankcase for the 08-up is the left side crank bearing which is P/N 24605-07 for the 08-up vs. P/N 24604-00D for the 07. The left end seal, spacer, and washer are all the same for both years, and the bearing and races on the pinion end are all the same for both years. I suppose I'll replace the seal as long as I'm in there- I think it has to come out in order to get the bearing out. And of course it's always at least slightly questionable if this stuff can be done without all the special tools shown in the shop manual. It doesn't look like it'll be that hard (let's hope those aren't "famous last words"). | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Probably already discussed and a moot point for Hugh at this stage but here it is anyway for anyone else that shells out a ULY engine. Couldn't a factory new 2010 engine, throttle body, ECM, and wire harness be installed in any ULY bike and what would the cost be if you did the work yourself? | ||
| Hughlysses |
Craig- I can give you an idea. The cost of a new 2007 engine complete was about $4800 (it's somewhere early in the thread) and I imagine a 2010 engine will cost about the same. A 2009 wiring harness is ~$360, an ECM is ~$200; not sure what the throttle body would cost but for a 2006/2007 I believe it's around $300, so a 2010 with its Idle Air Valve (IAV) might be a little more, say $350. That all adds up to $5710, say around $6000 total. | ||
| Rdkingryder |
"The reason I ask is, my '06 is a june build, and I wonder about late vs. early model year "bleed over" if there is a production problem." I don't think that's a factor as mine is a very late '07 with a June '07 build date. Probably one of the last ones built before the '08s. My brother suggests a class action on Harley since they built the engine, maybe that's a little extreme though. (Message edited by rdkingryder on April 03, 2011) | ||
| Hughlysses |
Roland- did you try checking your primary sprocket nut yet? My brother suggests a class action on Harley since they built the engine, maybe that's a little extreme though. If we had ~50 people posting here with the problem instead of ~3, we might have a case. I'm just kind of putting this in the category of "s**t happens" and moving on. | ||
| Hughlysses |
BTW- there's a 2009 XT on Craigslist near Chicago with ~2500 miles on it for $5100 if anyone's in the market. http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/mcy/2300104493.h tml Tempting... | ||
| Rdkingryder |
Not yet Hugh, I will though. Been tweaking the other bike since it's become my commuter for now. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Hugh, thanks for the heads up on the Chicago Uly, my neighbor is looking for one.. | ||
| Itileman |
It's almost worth that much as a spare. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Hugh, Glad the info helped! Holy crap, that 09 is a great deal! An XT for $5000 with only 2500 miles. Hugh, you might want to really look at that bike. I'd love to beable pick it up and store it, for when mine finally wears out. Then as froggy sugested, drill O2 hole, buy ECM. 2010 for less than $5500. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
 | ||
| Hughlysses |
Thanks for the bump, Nate. I'm still on the fence about moving forward. I've rehashed my list of parts for the rebuild about 10 times; as near as I can tell, it's gonna be about $2k worth of parts for the rebuild plus an XB9 primary conversion. I did stumble across most of a low-mileage 2008 Uly engine on ebay this week; apparently the bike slid on the right side far enough to destroy the oil pump and right side cover. Cams are gone too. I could buy that engine, remove the crank, rods, cylinders, and pistons, and use them in my engine. Then I'd have two extra heads, a set of cases and a transmission I could sell. That would save (net) about $400 compared to new parts. I'm a little worried the tip of the crank could have gotten bent though. There's also a good 05 crank and rods and a set of 05 cylinders and pistons (from the same engine) on ebay. I could rebuild my engine fairly cheaply using those parts depending on what I had to bid for the parts. Finally, I noticed that guy in Chicago has re-listed that damn 09 XB12XT about every other day for the last week, so I e-mailed him to see if the bike's still available. No response yet. I've got to move one way or the other pretty soon here; I'm losing a lot of good riding days (I do have my Honda but it's just not in the same league as my Uly). | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Hugh, Here's a wrecked XB12 in california for sale. http://www.easyexport.us/cars-for-sale/2009_BUELL_ MOTORCYCLE_22683940 | ||
| Hughlysses |
Well, I finally managed to bump myself off of dead center on this thing- I just bought the 2009 XB12R engine off of ebay. I made the guy an offer and he gave me a reasonable counter-offer, which was a little off the BIN price. Hopefully it'll be here in a week or so. The more I thought (and read) about the updates to the 2008-up engines the more I was convinced I needed to go that way. Major question remaining is if I can adapt the 12R wiring harness or if I have to drop $350 on a 2009 XB12X wiring harness (and pray I can get one!). I will be listing some parts in the classifieds in a couple of weeks once I'm sure I can make this thing work. Stay tuned for the install... | ||
| Trevd |
Looking forward to it!  |
