Author Topic: What in the world caused this?! (culprit nabbed) (Read 3073 times)

Bailgang · « **on:** October 09, 2012, 03:25:55 PM »

My oldest son sent me these pics of the cyl jugs on his 73 750. He claims he himself has no clue how or exactly when it happened and I'm inclined to believe him but if he didn't do something stupid then is this a case of vandalism? The fin below the broken one is tweaked a bit making it seem something was stuck in there and pried against. Excuse me but I'm seriously p***ed at the moment.

ekpent · « **Reply #1 on:** October 09, 2012, 03:35:35 PM »

Any chance it got tipped over and banged against something.? Hard to tell in the super close pic but is the break somewhere around the head gasket area? Maybe an old repair from another PO gave way on a previously broken fin. People do break them banging away to remove a head.

Gordon · « **Reply #2 on:** October 09, 2012, 04:48:28 PM »

Agreed. It's hard to tell from such a close picture, but that looks a lot like damage caused by using something to pry the head off the jugs.

Bailgang · « **Reply #3 on:** October 09, 2012, 05:20:17 PM »

Thanks for letting me vent guys. Right now my kid parked the bike for the season so we have the whole winter to figure something out plus I already have another set of cyl jugs. I got the bike roadworthy earlier this year fully knowing the engine would have to come back apart to be rebuilt correctly once my kids finances allowed,it's just that this is not the way I wanted it to start. I'll get over it.

Bailgang · « **Reply #4 on:** October 10, 2012, 02:01:56 AM »

I questioned my son pretty good last night about it and he still maintains that he didn't touch a thing nor has he dropped the bike. I can't really tell from the pics if it's a fin from the cyl head or not so I'll have to ask again about that but that tweaked fin wasn't there before plus the engine is still in the frame so damaging it trying to pull the head doesn't make sense but it it definitely looks like something was stuck in there and pried which makes me wonder that if he didn't do it then someone else deliberately did. I've taught both my boys that if you screw something up, it's better to get in trouble telling the truth the first time rather than get caught in a lie because a good reputation is hard to get while a bad one is real easy and in the past they have been pretty good at owning up to their goofs. That's not to say they never ever have lied to me. Once when my oldest was barely old enough to know better he broke a 10 gallon fish tank of ours spilling all the water out with a bunch of fish flopping all over our newly installed carpet. He blamed it on his younger brother who wasn't old enough to know better at the time and that's how the story went for over a decade until one day we were all setting around laughing and reminiscing and that's when the truth came out.

ekpent · « **Reply #5 on:** October 10, 2012, 05:15:54 AM »

If the the picture was a little better we would be able to better see how bright and fresh the metal at the break is or maybe be able to see if there is some residue still attached from an old JB or other type of repair. Be a bummer is it was a malicious attack,seems they would go more for the tank or something though. Don't you hate a mystery.

Jiminy Indy · « **Reply #6 on:** October 10, 2012, 06:03:19 AM »

Man, that is really weird. I agree if it was vandalism then go for something easier like the tank or the seat.

But who would bust a fin and then try to JB Weld it back on - that makes no sense.

And even a tip over would be hard to break off just one fin like that.

Since you plan to pull the motor anyway I guess it doesn't make much difference.

So overall I would tend to believe your son - my guess is aliens did it!

mono · « **Reply #7 on:** October 10, 2012, 06:07:15 AM »

i'm +1 that it probably was damaged during a previous attempt to separate the head from the jugs.

lrutt · « **Reply #8 on:** October 10, 2012, 06:50:43 AM »

how long has he owned the bike? I'm sure he got it used. PO could have used some lame epoxy to glue a broken fin in place and after the engine got good and hot, it may have just given way. Looks like paint or something black on the fractured area from the pictures I see.

freeze · « **Reply #9 on:** October 10, 2012, 07:26:01 AM »

looks just like mine when it fell over in the driveway except that break doesn't look fresh. I agree with previous post that PO may have repaired this and it finally gave way.

754 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 10, 2012, 08:29:05 AM »

I think you would probably still have the small bolts hiding under the pucks in, to have that happen. Could have been glued back on, then fell off later. Does not look recent or it would be cleaner.
Used barrel listed in 4 sale, right now.

Bailgang · « **Reply #11 on:** October 10, 2012, 02:46:48 PM »

We got the bike from a cousin of mine and it had sat for a good 20 years before my kid got it last year. My cousin is currently a pretty good mechanic but he hasn't always been (hey we gotta start somewhere) and during the time he wasn't so good was when the bike was up and running 20+ years ago and I know he had the engine apart more times than it ever should've due to his amateurish skill at that time so who knows. My nephew rebuilt the cyl head for us and he had to heli-coil half the threads that the cam towers mount to due to it being taken apart and back together so many times previously and before that it was owned by another cousin who wasn't any brighter mechanically speaking so I guess there's a lot of what if's, maybes and who knows flying around. You might say the bike was lucky to end up in our hands after all it's been through

plus the bike is 2 hours away so I haven't taken a close look at it myself yet.

I've already got another set of cyl jugs in the ready, it's just a matter of time for my kid to save the $ needed to make it happen and it will most definitely be on the road again next year.

lucky · « **Reply #12 on:** October 10, 2012, 03:34:57 PM »

When I suggest to the parent that their kid may not be telling the truth I always get flamed.

So I will not say anything.
You can never tell parents anything about their kids.

Bailgang · « **Reply #13 on:** October 10, 2012, 05:08:32 PM »

Quote from: lucky on October 10, 2012, 03:34:57 PM

When I suggest to the parent that their kid may not be telling the truth I always get flamed.

So I will not say anything.
You can never tell parents anything about their kids.

I here ya Lucky and though I'm inclined to believe him, it hasn't been 100% ruled out. He's the one who's going to pay for the rebuild anyhow. If his younger bro can pay all the bills for his cbr then so can he.

phil71 · « **Reply #14 on:** October 10, 2012, 05:17:09 PM »

someone glued it and it fell off, or the newly cracked section would be aluminum colored.

Bailgang · « **Reply #15 on:** November 22, 2012, 10:55:50 AM »

Well I finally got the engine here and was able to take a good look at it. After all the anger I had about someone possibly vandalizing my kids engine and or the possibility of my kid himself messing with it, screwing it up an not admitting it I've finally determined without any doubt who the a..hole was that messed up the cooling fin and the bone head idiot was ....... me.

Yep I'm the idiot that screwed it up. Even though we've had the 750 for only 2 years now the bike is no stranger to me. We purchased it from a cousin of mine who had it apart about 30 years ago when neither my cousin nor I had hardly the slightest clue about bike engines and I helped him put it back together and it was during that time that the fin got busted because of a screw up of mine. I of course knew all about it when we got the bike and pointed it out to my son but for what ever reason that I can't explain my kid had forgotten about it until he saw it again and freaked out so when he told me about it I automatically assumed it was another fin that got broke.

The giveaway was in the photos the whole time, when I had taken the engine apart to re-ring it earlier this year I had painted the cyl jugs black which means if that fin was a recent break then the break should show raw aluminum but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see in the photo's that the break is black. Now that the engine is here giving me the ability to take a good look at it, the first thing I noticed was that the entire break is black (paint) from when I painted the jugs this last spring. I pointed that out to my kid and reminded him of that break and that's when the look on my kids face went to DOH!! In a way I still sort of smell a rat here because it was there the whole time, clearly visible yet it took him all summer to finally notice it yet not put 2+2 together? Doesn't matter because taking the engine apart again and replacing those cyl jugs was the plan all along, we didn't do it the first time around because of my kids tight budget but now we've got the parts and now I'm kicking the idea around of starting a build thread.

Killer Canary · « **Reply #16 on:** November 22, 2012, 11:27:37 AM »

Don't discount out of hand the joy of blaming others, though.

Bailgang · « **Reply #17 on:** November 23, 2012, 03:59:34 AM »

Quote from: Killer Canary on November 22, 2012, 11:27:37 AM

Don't discount out of hand the joy of blaming others, though.

I felt kind of stupid too because I noticed the black break in the photo the first time as well but I figured surely my kid remembers about that original fin break and must be talking about yet another one and the color of the break must be due to a bad camera angle.

Killer Canary · « **Reply #18 on:** November 23, 2012, 01:00:47 PM »

It's too easy to miss things that are right in front of our eyes. It's called a scotoma.

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Author Topic: What in the world caused this?! (culprit nabbed) (Read 3073 times)