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Nice warm February day in Texas, so I took the old 77 out for a long ride. My last 2 rides were like 20 mi each. Had triple bypass late December and tested myself to see if it was pain free. Black 2 lane outta town, my favorite kind of ride. Started hearing a strange noise so I pulled off at the next cross street to investigate it. OMG oil everywhere! Bring out the tool bag. To my amazement the rear cylinder nuts were looser than finger tight. When I did the top end a few years back I did it for a hi lift cam and in January I found the Holy Grail, Andrews R5 and chrome molly pushrods. On reassembly of the pushrods I checked all the base nuts. So, this was just some weird sh*t happening. 45 mi from home my Wife to the rescue with shop towels and 2 qts 70w. Topped off the oil 1/2 qt and rode it very easy home, watching the rocker box pressure gauge. Next day, top end tear down revealed a big surprise.
Parts on order. No matter how much ya do to these old machines, ya can't escape time. Everything eventually wears out. I'm thinking it's because it old and fatigued.
I had this happen on a Knuckelhead engine I rebuild back in the 70's. The rear cylinder split all around in the middle of the cylinder. Best of luck with your rebuild.
Back in 2020 it decided to drop both valves in the rear head. Now the rear cylinder gives up its ghost. I think that rear cylinder is possessed! The new cylinder will get bored +40 for my Wiseco piston to fit. OH BOY!!!!!! Heat cycle 1 new cylinder. THANKS FOR THE WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT!
I was concerned when I read the heading for your post. What!? TexasScooterTrash is old and fatigued?! No way!
Happy to see it was merely another IronHead engine. Well, OK!
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Old & fatigued
