Diary of a madman!

[Eville_Al]

New issue! I normally like to take the Buellie around the block at night just to see if things are buttoned up ok. Last Sunday, I'm halfway down the block and the freakin' oil light comes on! I promptly turn back and park it. Checked oil, still clear (why wouldn't it be?), level normal. Great, now what's going on??? There are no weird noises coming from the engine, no smoke pouring from the exhaust, and there are no visible leaks. I fear the worst. Any opinions on what may be causing this??? How does one check for oil pressure?

 

[Eville_Al]

Update: finally had time to work on the xb. Drained oil, pulled filter, checked ball and spring, dropped oil pump. This is what I found

Shaft was a bit difficult to turn and was grabby. I didn't think this was how it was supposed to operate. Ya think?

Chunks of metal like the one seen to the left of the gear shaft were found on the inside of the housing.

Inside of oil pump housing. What made it self destruct like this???

 

[levi]

Wow man that's scary.

Have you done a biopsy on the filter yet?

 

[Eville_Al]

It was the thrust washer above the upper gerotor that was ground down to nothing. I have no idea what would cause this kind of failure. Both gerotor sets have very close tolerances. I guess shutting her down right away was a wise decision. My main concern now is if larger chunks of the washer were flushed into the engine. The oil drain plug had a small amount of grey paste with very fine metal shavings. I swirled a magnet around the drained oil and saw the same thing. I really have no desire to cut my oil filter apart. Do you think larger chunks could be trapped in it???

 

[levi]

Well you know how long the filter has been on the bike right? When you cut it open and it's saturated with debris, you'll know that there's a lot running through the system. If the filter is relatively clean/ normal wear, then you can rest a little easier.

It's just an indicator, and only one point of data.

 

[wolfo68]

all my debris had gotten caught at the top of the pump and stayed out of the rest of the system, cutting the filter and checking makes you feel a lot better if you find nothing. but those gears inside seemed to do a d*mn good job at grinding anything that made it past the first one into a fine metal mush

 

[Eville_Al]

Happened to you too?!? I noticed that no material made it down to the lower half. Those gerotors are serious pieces of metal with really tight tolerances. I actually got like a razor cut on my thumb from trying to separate the lower set. All I did find on the drain plug's magnet and the discarded oil (after swishing a magnet around in it) was a tiny bit of that fine metal mush you mentioned. Is your Buell running ok? I hope I averted disaster. New pump from stealership runs $204 including tax. Now searching for salvage yards, but I've never seen cannabalizers pull oil pumps from Buell motors...

 

[Eville_Al]

Just checked out your post. Were the particles in the cam box from the cams themselves, or from the inside of your oil pump? My upper gear looks great with no nicks. All the damage appears to be inside the pump housing. I really don't want to pull the cam cover again. Did it once and hated trying to get it all back together.

 

[Eville_Al]

Filter was clean. Blew out oil lines. No debris found.

 

[onelogue]

Thats a good sign!

 

[Eville_Al]

Buell tech told me Friday that I should split my cases and clean everything out! I was like, "What the what?!?" I'm hoping for best case scenario as opposed to what he said. The insides of an oil pump is pretty impressive. The amount of material I found above the scavenging gerotor looks to be enough to make up an entire thrust washer. I'd have to see an intact washer though, to commit to that statement. The rest of what I found is a very fine metal mush and very little of it. Impatiently waiting for new oil pump to arrive...

 

[wolfo68]

my metal came from the cams and the drive gears for the pump

 

[Eville_Al]

Yeah, your pics were way scarier than mine, I think! Figure out shipping yet?