Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge UNCLE. I quit. Going to the the Dark Side Luke.

Early 2005 America. Build date 11/04. Near 20k miles.

Left my gas on by accident, subsequent start the next day resulted in a loud back-fire. You know the drill and can read about it at Thin and Case.

I did eliminate all the cheap "pray it's not the case" ideas (new battery, solid ground connection, whirring and ugly crunching noise is coming from the starter area, etc etc etc.

I was really hoping the Hinckley's truly were "over engineered", but the fact is I have a several hundred pound English paper-weight in the garage.

My options?

- Local dealer's solution was to trade it in for one of his bikes? Thanks for the help.
- $4k+ out of pocket to rebuild with new cases with the hope that Triumph may reimburse me for parts?
- Roll the dice, pay $1.5k minimum plus my time to R2 an engine with unknown history from Pinwall?
- Find someone who can pin and weld? I can't and don't know anyone I trust to do it., ie. driving 300 miles and having the fix fail.
- Lastly, convert the bike back to stock configuration. Sell my extensive bolt-on's down to the chromed fork lowers on Ebay one at a time and sell the bike in its current state for chump change. Take what I can make and buy one of Milwaukee's finest.

Sigh. Feeling sick to my stomach and I mowed the lawn since this pic.

http://home.comcast.net/~thomas.dziak/Bike2.jpg

That is a good looking bike. Good luck with your dilemma.

Dang, I'm sorry. That is a very pretty bike. I think if it was me I'd probably trade for a fuel injected Triumph. I have a T-Bird 1600 and don't have to worry about the petcock anymore.

I seldom turn the petcock to the "off" position on my '02 BA after running it, and for that matter(not that Mark mentioned it here, and thus I'm not accusing him of the following)I never ever have attempted to "prime" a start by twisting the throttle a few times before hitting the starter button either(and as most of us know is a "no-no") And so I have to wonder what caused the backfire and this subsequent and unfortunate cracking of the starter brace section of his lower case.

I know this won't be the first instance of this happening to someone's BA/Speedy around here, and seems to primarily be or at least limited to models around the '05 vintage of our machines for some reason...if I'm not mistaken.

That bike's too pretty to make into a paper weight. If you're sure the motor's gone, I'd take my chances with a used motor, they couldn't be that bad. They are "over engineered". Good luck. KEEP the bike, you're just suffering from trauma right now. In a day or so you will see thru the fog and it won't be so bad.

That bike is beautiful. I would probably go with the new motor.

I would probably go with an 865 and put my 790 cams in it, maybe even go for the high compression pistons and have almost a 904. Always worried about this failure on my 04, 30,000 miles and so far so good.

The bike is just beautiful. It's my hope you can fix 'er up and keep on going!

+1 with that Ian.

That bike IS too pretty to leave dead.

I thought petcocks had been designed not to dump fuel if left on 20 years ago.

My TBA has EFI but I haven't turned off the petcock on my KLR since I bought it.

I've completely forgotten the petcock is even there. It's always on.

Great looking bike, sorry to hear the bad news. I think I would put a used engine in it if it happened to me.

Ar e you sure it's a cracked case? I looked at both those threads you posted and didn't see anything about your bike in them.

The last time I heard of someone starting their bike and got that backfire, it was just a cracked air box. We use to hear about cracked air boxes all the time from people twisting the throttle when starting their bikes.

Ach, it's so pretty...

Once you are certain its the starter boss cracked and ruined, either part it out and make enough to put a healthy down payment on a new ride or buy that used motor and spend a day swapping it out. Those rare tins ought to fetch a pretty penny but a new to you motor might be just the ticket.

Am I missing something, have you pulled the case and did an inspection yet? If you have, I didn't get my eyes to focus on that particular posted factoid.

I think you fellas might be wasting your breath with this guy. Have you checked out his profile page?
I did.
Email notreal@dontbother.com Picture
Member # 174
Name Tom D.
Title Learned Hand
Total Posts 1176
Birthday 5/28
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Bio Checked out. Thanks for everything guys. Didn't appreciate the dime-store Psych-Analysis, or inability to publicly respond to locked-posts insulting my character from moderator John.Bedard@ngc.com (FriarJohn).

Ride Safe.
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Registered on 01/11/05 07:28 PM

Time heals

Hello again.

Soren: I linked to those pages to avoid rehashing the known issue. I "Ghetto-Freak's" the airbox and been using the K&N pods for years now, so its already Dremel'd to death.

Ryk: The cases weren't pulled, but I had plenty of good-sized metal fragments in the oil. Even if it ends up being the sprag clutch, how long before it happens again?

tigeramerica: Yes, I had a problem with FriarJohn years ago. We never did forgive each other and it's something I'll have to live with. Thanks for pointing it out to everyone.

The Dog33: Please look at the Pinwall link in my original post. Does that engine look like one of the "upgraded" versions?

Regards,

TomD

I wouldn't invest in making it a driver. I would sell it as is to somebody for 1,000 or whatever, offload custom or chrome stuff separately and go with another bike.

Please reduce the size of the pic.

Good luck

Heck there is a T100 here in tx with a beautifull engine! Idd start looking for a used bike, transfer all the good stuff and send the other to scrap or sell the froame asn stuff for a chop.

The upgrades I am talking about are not visible from the outside but 06 is an 865 engine. I think it has the new beefed up cases but not 100% sure. I forget exactly what year they did that.

2007 heralded the 865 motors.

for our motorsickles

My o6 is a 790.

it should be

Yeah, I think the petcock being left on was coincidental. Even twisting the throttle shouldn't cause a problem. The starter is the culprit here and the one way clutch should never let this happen. I did a used motor for one guy with the same issue. The motors usually come from wrecked bikes. Check Ebay, the motors are out there and are usually complete with parts you don't need which will allow you to sell some stuff off to recoup a portion of your costs. It is a beautiful bike and must be fixed.

I know the Speedmaster went 865 in 05 thought the BA was the next year.

Why not weld the problemed case and be done with it.
Go Harley and you'll find as many or more probems. Some times ya have problems with any brand. They are man made machines. Bring it to me and I will help ya out.

Wow! I am so glad I posted here! I'm loving the buy a low miles replacement and swap parts idea. I was blinded to an obvious alternative.

So, here's my next related questions. What's the latest year America that can accommodate all my 2005 bolt on parts? Also, when did the "blacked-out" cases begin? I'm a fan of the grey case. Did the 865 ever come in a grey case? I'd sure like to make sure the replacement bike had the "beef-up" preferably grey case.

Thanks again guys.

Models Years

Nice to refresh the grey matter. 865s > 05 speedies, 07 americas

Hope you bring her back. Sure is a nice lookin bike.