Cam Gear broken - need ideas ...

Hi Folks,

I need some ideas or advice what to do: As I mentioned in another post, my 1997 FE501E quit all of a sudden while riding in the woods. The diagnosis: the cam gear broke apart and punched a hole in the head towards the water pump. Besides this, there is some metal scraped off from that area, but nothing structural seems to be affected.
My question now: what should I do? The whole motor was rebuilt less than a year ago, and this part was replaced. Total riding time not more than 25 hours! Should I shed the hundreds to buy a new head and all the other goodies that are shot, should I try to get it fixed (welding, etc.)? Since the only pressure there comes from the water, even JB Weld might work ...
OR: forget about everything, and part it out? I loved riding this bike, but my confidence level is somewhat off since the motor did not last at all.

I am trying to add pictures. Any advice is really appreciated.

Thanks, Franz

First, thank you for all your input so far. It makes me feel a lot better that there seem to be various ways to fix this thing again ... javascript:emoticon('')
Very Happy

The cam gear came this way, it was put in about a year ago, but I had only about 20 hours put on the motor since it was fixed. I did not touch anything on the bike aside from oil changes and a valve adjustment. No need to!

Other damage: I don't know yet. The timing chain is toast, the cylinder and the piston seem to be ok, and the valves seem to be ok, too. I have not reached the bottom end although ...

By now I think to fix (better: to have fixed) the motor again, but the whole project is going to be delayed a little bit. I am a graduate student, so the new 450 is not really an option, although Dan is a really nice guy and I am sure we could come to an agreement ... and Vacaville is only 20 min from UC Davis ... Anyway, I have a big exam coming up, and I plan to start working on the rebuild sometimes early next year. To have Dan's shop do it is sure an option, but there are other ones out there, too (no offense, Dan!!!). We shall see!

Franz

Taffy said:

Franz

i'm sorry mate but call me thick! where is the expense in this? you pulled it all undone so we can presume you're going to try and put it all together.

so where is the expense?

get on with it and stop being a tart!

regards

Taffy

Click to expand...

No offence taken! It is not about the expenses involved - these I tried to relate to me being not able to get a new one, it is about the time that I am able to spend on other stuff than school right now. Therefore the delay. I plan to get it done early net year, and put a sound file here. Too bad I don't have one, especially since it sports a nice Big Gun!

Franz

Re: Cam Gear broken no more ...

Finally, I took a couple of hours off, put the fixed motor back in and hit the magic button: the bike is back alive!!!

Peter Hardsteen had to take a dive into his shed with spares: a used head, a used cam ( mine was bent!) and a used counter balancer. New cam bearings, and a new rod bearing, and some smaller stuff came from him, a couple of greens from me ...

What most likely had happened: one of the bolts holding the cam gear in place came loose, and started to grind off material from the head and the valve cover area. When it finally broke, it snapped timing chain and somehow broke the cam gear, with consequent massive damage to the head ... and lots of aluminum everywhere else in the motor.

When I had it fixed for the first time, I was really optimistic that it would last. Timewise, it was ok, but the riding hours sucked. This time, I sure hope for better durability.

Thanks for all your input when I was really pessimistic about this: right now, I am all smiles and I sure do hope that the weekend will provide some riding weather.

Franz