Crank?

Message

bknight · #1 Post by **bknight** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 10:59 pm

With no timing gears, no piston and sleeve,no top dead center bolt left in my engine. On the stator side , the fly wheel moves up & down alittle bit with the crank still in case, with the crank rod all the way up the side clearence is about 7-8 & no up and down movement for the rod. Would it better to take the crank out to make sure its ok

I know you can get a new crank
can you send in the crank to ATK to fix them?

Happyboy · #2 Post by **Happyboy** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 1:07 am

ATK does not fix the cranks. They will sell you a new one but that is about it. And to be honest, its cheaper to buy a new crank than it is to fix these. Not to mention you will get a balanced crank which is one of the big problems with the quad when they came from the factory.

haydug · #3 Post by **haydug** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 1:13 am

sounds like you need a stator side crank bearing. Side to side play is norman in these cranks, but up and down it not tolerable. Let me know and I can get you out a new crank and bearings.

bknight · #4 Post by **bknight** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 12:03 pm

thanks hay ill give you a call later on

bknight · #5 Post by **bknight** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 12:10 pm

if im going to get a new crank
will i still have the prob with oil to the crank and bearings.
so what good with getting a new crank if its going to go out in 40hr like my old one:confused: :confused:

WJR · #6 Post by **WJR** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 3:05 am

Yes, you would end up with the same problem, eventually. There are a lot of factors at play here. The biggest two are vibration and oiling. If you do your research, there are several versions of cart plates out there, the later revisions have a "fix" in place to force more oil to the crank, its at the piston pin access cover interface. But that apparantly doesn;t solve the problem at high rpms. I have a pic on cannondaler.com of the cart plates, one with and one without the fix. So, even if it;s balanced and even if you have the later rev cart plate, I suspect you still will have a problem prematurely with the crank due to oiling.

Winkey knows a lot about all these subjects. He is busy as heck right now, but for my dollar, he's the one to go to. He has done a ton of R and D and stands behind his work. We'll see how his fix holds up, but it makes a lot of sense and his workmanship is awesome.

It is a tough call, new--balanced or rebuilt with oiling mods. I chose to have mine rebuilt because I didn't think putting a new crank in would do anything but fail in 40 or so hours, like you said.

WJR

bknight · #7 Post by **bknight** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 12:22 pm

thank you wjr
well i would like to get my crank fix to but right now there is none

haydug · #8 Post by **haydug** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 1:09 pm

I will partially agree and disagree with the oiling problem. As one motor stands in my mind currently that I rebuilt. History of the motor:
1 year no problems
sends it to me for 450 kit. I talk him into crank upgrade as well:
1 ride: crank failure
Rebuilt again with different crank and no problems yet
This was 6 months ago, and he races 2 times a week plus practice.
So, same motor, same owner, same maintenence pratice. 1 crank lived 1 year, next crank 1 ride, and now going on 6 months on another crank with no failures. :confused:

CdaleRacer0128 · #9 Post by **CdaleRacer0128** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 2:25 pm

all stock cranks or which ones were used dug?

kdeal · #10 Post by **kdeal** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 2:30 pm

I agree with Haydug. I have seen several cranks that have went with less than 5 hours ride time. Some of these were from the factory, some were rebuilds. Then when a new or rebuilt crank is installed in most cases it seems to last longer. I think there are numerous problems here. The history of the newer ATK balanced cranks seem to be pretty good so far, as I have not heard of anyone reporting a failure, YET. We are talking about a shorter period of time here, but as time goes on this is the most reliable alternative yet. I am eagerly awaiting the release of the new Falicon cranks, and I believe that we will have an even better product.

Fact is, a lot of people who do not work on these motors for a living are doing a lot of hemming and hawing about what to do, yet several engine builders are still rebuilding these motors as we speak with excellent results. Why don't we listen to them, instead of someone (like myself) who has only seen or had experiences with very few cranks.

You would be blind to the fact that there have been several Cannondale factory cranks go bad quickly. You would also have to acknowledge that more than the fair share of rebuilt cranks have gone bad rather quickly (I will not mention any names here). Yet there have been no reported failures of the ATK cranks, but few people seem to be singing their praises. Go figure.

Bottom line... Go with someone who is currently rebuilding motors, and has a good reputation within the Cannondale community. BF HINT: Thanks Haydug