| Author | Message | ||
     Hangetsu |
So, since we're all on the subject of isolators, has anyone out there had a rear isolator go out? I'm on my second front - the stock unit went out at about 25K - but I'm curious about the longevity of the rear isolator. Any comments? Cheers! A - | ||
| Tpehak |
I even do not know how you can determine the rear isolator is bad. | ||
| Hangetsu |
Me neither. That's why I'm asking. | ||
| Court |
>>>>> I even do not know how you can determine the rear isolator is bad. Nor did I . . . Nor had one ever failed before, while test riding in the mid-90’s, I had an incident. Felt......in a right turn, with decreasing throttle, like someone was banging a hammer on the swing arm. I noted it in my daily report and called Dave Ulicki immediately. Hahahahaha. . . . The next day was a side stand switch failure. About 3 months later, On the way from Fort Worth to Kansas City.... I had a rear shock eye shatter at about 80mph on I-35 near Ardmore, OK. Always fun. . . . . | ||
| Evilphoton |
I replaced a rear isolator with about 65k miles with a new one from St. Paul and didn't really see a difference. There was no cracking, etc. in the old one, it wasn't distorted or loose or anything. | ||
| Ourdee |
I had heard of a rear isolator part failing after a crash. That is all I had ever heard of. | ||
| Tootal |
The rear isolator is much closer to the pivot point of the engine therefore it doesn't move near as much as the front one does. | ||
| Hughlysses |
The front isolator has relatively thin scrubber sections that are loaded in shear. They can tear or the rubber can pull away from the metal to which it’s bonded. The rear isolator is basically a big solid rubber bushing with metal around the outside and a bolt through the middle. The front isolator “works” a lot more than the rear to isolate the engine. I had heard of a rear isolator part failing after a crash. That is all I had ever heard of. I saw that happen on a bike; the guy low-sided, spun, and went into a shallow ditch backwards. The rear wheel apparently impacted something and the rear isolator mount broke around the 4 bolts that secure it to the top of the engine cases. Nobody realized at the time, and the rider actually rode it back to camp this way ~10 miles through the north Georgia twisties without realizing it. Later that afternoon, I just happened to notice something didn’t look right and spotted the broken mount. A crew of us spent several hours that afternoon/night swapping the broken mount for a good one off of a demo bike. After seeing that, I think it’d be pretty much impossible for the rubber to fail on a rear mount. | ||
| Bernhardgrave |
A rear mount failure of sorts: I needed to remover the frame to fix a chafing wiring issue and found the metal bushing had enough metal loss along the entire length of the inner diameter that the bolt could be twisted in it about ten degrees total. One end was so corroded as to be non-existent about a half-inch into the rubber, just rusty dust. full disclosure - I commute on it rain or shine. I had never seen this level of corrosion of a bushing on any of my vehicles, except maybe the 1969 Volvo 122 I bought in Houston in 1998. When I installed the new rear mount I slathered the bushing and bolt with a high-pressure grease to attempt to keep moisture out of there, which is something I do anyway when reassembling any bushing assembly. Funny though how slow degradation of performance or feel goes unnoticed, then when when you find it and fix it you fall in love all over again because things are all anew. Maybe I should have applied that knowledge to my 5 failed marriages! | ||
| Smorris |
that is a fine looking xb. those wheels really set it off from the crowd. sorry it has nothing to do with the rear iso |
