Primary Cover Broken-Common or not??????

[captain chaos]

So I noticed the other day that my clutch was dragging quite badly; to the point that stopping required holding onto the brakes to keep the bike from moving. After a clucch adjustment and then another to be sure I got it right the problem persisted so I tore into it and one of the little tangs in the primary cover that support the clutch release ramp had broken off. [mad] A little Google searching has revealed that this is not an unheard of problem.
My question is, just how common is this? I ride between 5-10,000mi/yr (it varies a lot) and if this is going to be an every-other-year problem I'm going to have to find a permanent solution or move on to another bike ( [sad] !!! )

 

[Cosworth]

From reading up on this problem it seems that its more prevelant when idling at lights for long periods of time with the clutch pulled in. Now my bike has 26k miles on it with its original cover and never had an issue.

Dflack makes a kit to fix this with a sturdier material, it may be worth looking into to fix yours.
Heres a link http://www.buellxb.com/Buell-XB-For...B12Ss-CityX-XB12Scg/Fix-for-the-Primary-Cover

 

[user_deleted]

maybe 5 in 100 XB's have had this happened. causes?
happenstance
holding clutch lever in for extended periods of time such as stop signs and traffic lights

 

[WIGGLE2]

Dflack makes a kit to fix this with a sturdier material, it may be worth looking into to fix yours.
Heres a link http://www.buellxb.com/Buell-XB-Forum/Buell-L ...

^^ [up]

 

[2004xb12s]

its pretty common.

 

[50dro]

It's somewhat common mainly on the older XB12 since they had stiffer clutch springs than in the XB9 and later model XB12's. It happened to me at around 11k. I picked up a used XB9 primary cover (which in theory had less abuse due to the lighter spring. Being black in color was an added bonus! ) for around $75 and got a newer, lighter clutch spring as well as a new clutch pack and a newer cable with the Teflon lining (don't think this helped the primary but made for a smoother pull). Runs great...Time will tell on the primary cover. I'll be adjusting the clutch cable at each oil change. A badly adjusted cable can cause undue stress in this area as well. Good luck!

 

[WIGGLE2]

I HOPE I don't jinx myself here, but.....! 36-37K miles on my 9SX so far.....all OK!!

 

[Macbuell]

It is pretty common. Happened to me. I permanently fixed it. Take a look at my pictures and somewhere I have a thread talking about the step by step fix also. There is a guy on here selling the perm fix.

 

[Honch777]

Just had a thread about this (see "Clutched Up...") and this exact same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago. Ended up having to buy a new cover / gaskets off American Sport Bike for about $300.

Also sold my old, damaged cover to DFlack (he may be interested in yours as well?), good guy to work with.

 

[dflack001]

Hey I got a fix for that! Also, it seemed to be the whole range of Buells that this has happened to...at least that's who has ordered the kits from me. Doesn't seem to really trend any particular engine size, mileglage or year.
Hit me up if you have any questions!

-Dave
[email protected]
*Thanks for the recommendations everyone!

 

[konarider94]

I dont think its fair to say its common. Certainly not unheard of though.

 

[captain chaos]

Man, I'm not exactly getting the warm-fuzzies here. I know all bikes have issues (I've owned a number of bikes over the years) but just don't like the thought of having to deal with broken primary covers on a bike that has been out of production for the last 5 years (IE: parts are only going to get harder to come by).
Still, I love my Buell. I'm going to have to mull this one over for a while. [sad]

 

[WIGGLE2]

Sell it!! Us hardcore aren't afraid of it!! If you can't buy it, build it!

 

[Cosworth]

^

Its really not a hard problem to fix, either get a new cover or get the dflack cover fix. The buell's are a pretty hardy motorcycle plenty going to high millage.

 

[Macbuell]

I just say it is common because it happened to me

I am an idiot and I was able to fix mine with a little help from the guys at work. Really wasn't too bad to fix.

 

[StarWolve]

I had it happen on a "used but in good condition" cover I bought from eBay, and when I discovered the damage it was too late to dispute the purchase.

I keep it with the intention of using it for a repair if either of my XB's develop that problem.