Last chance riding

[jayvee43]

Hi Guys.

I hope everyone got a chance to go and ride this weekend. Possibly the last weekend of the season for us in Renfrew, Ontario. The weatherman is calling for summer to show up. Next 2 weeks in the plus 10 degrees Celcius.

My wife and I went riding today. We took the Diablo and the Snowbug to check on our trailer. Nancy was riding the bug. We had a ride cut short. My top engine mount plate broke in 2 pieces. Crazy. I started experiencing lack of power, I taught the throttle cable came loose, but after I opened the hood, I realized very quickly the issue.

I have a video from my helmet cam. Nancy was asking if we were turning to the right to go around for another tour on the lake shore, I said sure. Then. Crack. No power.
Check out the end of this video. And the pictures once we towed it back to the trailer using the snowbug.

https://youtu.be/Htd6ZzGEmLQ





PS: Bruce, Have you ever seen this kind of break; Is it normal. Or a fluke. I will put in an order shortly with you so if you can reserve me a engine mount plate for a 500 I`d appreciate it a lot. Thanks again.

Jesse

[Go Go Diablo]

Jesse,

I have seen many a busted top motor mount. I don't know if those original mounts from Bolens were just a bit brittle or if they work harden after handling all that vibration over the years. They often break right on the bend, but also crack up like yours did.

I also have seen them welded and broken again, which again makes me question the hardness of the original steel as one would think a weld is stronger than the original joint. I never try and weld them, just replace them with a new mount.

Looks like you had great snow conditions. Today, it was almost 60 F here but summer is not here yet and I suspect winter will pop back in for a visit before the real warm weather hits in May.

[Roy Teske]

Jesse
Took my last ride of the year today. Trails in Val Des Bois were still 99% covered and frozen solid, but there are bare spots here and there. My wife reminded me that this was my 3rd last ride of the year. Time to put the Diablo up on stands and get it ready for Port Washington. Here are a couple of pictures. Great day for cutting and splitting a little firewood.

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IMG_0242.JPG (173.08KiB)Viewed 6164 times

[jayvee43]

Roy! How many "last rides" can you have before your better half gets really ?

For myself, I finally got to replacing my top engine mount today. (Look at these pictures close guys) I believe there was a crack in more than one place over the years. These pictures clearly show the only two points of good steel that was left before this engine mount let go. (I can only thank the RED Devil gods) that this didn't happen in the worst of places on my trip to Val-des-Bois.
Here's the pictures of the broken pieces.


On this one there is only 3/4 of an inch of shinny steel.


and this one is the worst, less than 1/2 an inch of shinny steel was left.


I am so thank full for Gogodiablo.com; Bruce was able to send me a top mount on my last order. I just want to thank you my friend. You keep on coming trough for me every time. Thank you!

Here's the new mount in place. Notice. My spark plug wire is routed through a new hole I made. Stupid me, I trimmed the ends of my spark plug wire last year when I rebuilt the motor, and now I am actually a 1/2 an inch too short to pass it on the side. One more modification.



Anyways, I ran the engine and summerized it just now. I made a lot of white smoke. Noise. I'm gonna miss this sound this summer.
Talking of summer. I wish you all a very good one.

Cheers

Jesse