Cannondaleriders

can you weld magnesium??? :confused:

yes you can weld mag you have to tig weld it. no big deal. ive did a few nascar trannys that are mag.. the only thing is i dont know if you will beable to ajust valves. the cover will def come off on the bottem. so you can change trannys oil pump ect. the only other thing to do would be to cut the left spare out where the oil goes and make one with more clearance.

I'm thinking that the top part you show might be able to come off downward by cocking it but its gonna be tight for sure.No real way of knowing till its tried.Go for it.If you need a sidecover ask we should be able to find one for destructive testing.

Great job guys I love seeing this kind of stuff. Here are a couple of things we encountered at Cannondale when pondering this question.....

If you do a horizontal split, will the cover break at the bolt where the starter mounts due to the load path of the starter torque?

Also the cover plays more of a structural role than you think. What other things may be affected by reducing the stiffness of this cover with a horizontal split. Will this reduction in stiffness cause failures elswhere i.e. crankcase, crank cart plate etc...

I don't know the answers but we were thinking along the lines of azcannons suggestion. This desgine keeps the overall stiffness to a maximum even though sealing it is much harder.

Love it guys keep up the good work!

Nice to hear from you! It is cool to think you are still out there watching!

Well I just can't give it up! I wish I had more to offer, but I do what I can when I can. I would love to be knee deep again but I've got so many things going on right now. Hopefully this summer I will have a machine again and can contribute to the community more!

I've pondered the idea of a precision CNC slot cut through the cover, and with the path not being hampered by the need for a straight line. Then you would use an H-profile coupling seal, slightly thicker than the removed kerf, for the entire length of the cut. Any path with continuous same thickness would work. Depending the path, you could still keep the lower 2 head bolts in the lower half of cover, and provide some overlap strength. With less than 10lbs case pressure in there, I doubt it would cause any leaking problem -- it's worth a try, since I have so many sidecovers here to work with!.... let me know turbo...got a machine to do the notching?

I had actually talked to someone not long ago about CNC machining a complete new side cover, with the split going between the 2 starter bolts, up to the right side where the 2 bolts are super close together. I'd post a picture with a line, but my 8 year old isn't here to do it. I had invisioned to top cover to basically have a simple 90* lip with the bottom cover having a "c" kinda lip to overlap it. Maybe the same as boomer is referring to. I would love to be able to get to the oil pums without dropping anything other than the cradle.

Maybe we should overload Timbo again! :hammer:

:rotf that's a classic!

I think haydug is more on the right track if you cut and weld it right. Here is where I think you should cut it then put the kink of c lip on the bottom part so you dont get any leaks. A little rtv should work to finish the seal. My line is in white.