Cracks in case

Or these cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/kawasaki-1979-KZ...fPartsQ5fAccessories

I'm sticking to my story. I was replacing the points this evening and discovered the points plate was bent. Not a great deal, just a couple waves easily straightened with a gentle touch of a hammer. It may have been worse after the crash. The crank only had to be moved a few thou past where the shim stopped it's sideways motion to crack the web. The right end of the crank is pretty short and stout. The bolt holding the cam on could have taken the worst of it without bending the crank. The hole in the web where the pin fits was wallowed out some. The pieces fell out after I removed the crank. I've put about 4000 miles on the bike since I got it. There's 18K on it now. The bike could have slid and the points cover hit a pot hole or the bike could have bounced. It's hard to say cuz I don't know what might have been replaced. All the covers are chrome. Points, clutch, sprocket, alternator, cam, carb bowls and covers. Are all these chrome parts stock on an LTD? I don't know. I'm only guesstimating. I think they were all replaced after the crash. The crash is the best guess I have as to why the web cracked.

TomW wrote:

I'm sticking to my story. I was replacing the points this evening and discovered the points plate was bent. Not a great deal, just a couple waves easily straightened with a gentle touch of a hammer. It may have been worse after the crash. The crank only had to be moved a few thou past where the shim stopped it's sideways motion to crack the web. The right end of the crank is pretty short and stout. The bolt holding the cam on could have taken the worst of it without bending the crank. The hole in the web where the pin fits was wallowed out some. The pieces fell out after I removed the crank. I've put about 4000 miles on the bike since I got it. There's 18K on it now. The bike could have slid and the points cover hit a pot hole or the bike could have bounced. It's hard to say cuz I don't know what might have been replaced. All the covers are chrome. Points, clutch, sprocket, alternator, cam, carb bowls and covers. Are all these chrome parts stock on an LTD? I don't know. I'm only guesstimating. I think they were all replaced after the crash. The crash is the best guess I have as to why the web cracked.

Then I would have to pose to you that all of the pins should be breaking out of their respective webs not just one after all they all had to move the same..

andy9802gt wrote:

TomW wrote:

I've checked the bearings for freeness (is that a real word) and noise and scraping and such, all seems good. I'll set it up on vee blocks and check for run out tomorrow. What controls the end play on these cranks?

The #5 bearing has a thrust washers on either side. Standard is .001, wear limit is .020 on the 1000 and .024 on the 900.

I checked today. I've got .013" end play, well within service limits.

andy9802gt wrote:

TomW wrote:

I'm sticking to my story. I was replacing the points this evening and discovered the points plate was bent. Not a great deal, just a couple waves easily straightened with a gentle touch of a hammer. It may have been worse after the crash. The crank only had to be moved a few thou past where the shim stopped it's sideways motion to crack the web. The right end of the crank is pretty short and stout. The bolt holding the cam on could have taken the worst of it without bending the crank. The hole in the web where the pin fits was wallowed out some. The pieces fell out after I removed the crank. I've put about 4000 miles on the bike since I got it. There's 18K on it now. The bike could have slid and the points cover hit a pot hole or the bike could have bounced. It's hard to say cuz I don't know what might have been replaced. All the covers are chrome. Points, clutch, sprocket, alternator, cam, carb bowls and covers. Are all these chrome parts stock on an LTD? I don't know. I'm only guesstimating. I think they were all replaced after the crash. The crash is the best guess I have as to why the web cracked.

Then I would have to pose to you that all of the pins should be breaking out of their respective webs not just one after all they all had to move the same..

All the rest of the bearing outer races are free to move sideways a lot. Only the #5 race is constrained by the thrust washer Only that pin takes end thrust of the crank. I would expect more meat around that pin in the web. It's a weak spot IMHO.

andy9802gt wrote:

TomW wrote:

I think I know how the bearing web got broke. It was right in front of me the whole time. The original owner had a crash. The bike was laid down hard on the right side. There is significant metal ground off the bottom of the rear brake lever, the headlight rim has road rash, the front brake master has been replaced and there is rash on the header pipes. The original master cylinder was included in a box of parts I got with the bike. It was severely ground down. I figure the points cover and the ignition housing was smashed and the end of the crank banged to the left cracking the case. There is evidence the cases were split before I got it, probably after the accident and the owner didn't want to spend the money on new cases and buttoned it up and sold the bike. There are case guards on the bike now. They should have been on there earlier, would have saved a lot of time and money.

That's a negative, Ghost Rider. If it hit the ground hard enough to smash the ignition housing it probably would have bent the snout on the crank when it slid into whatever it hit. If it was airborne, which is what it would take to shove the crank out the other side there would probably be more dents than rash. bouncing= dents, sliding= rash. Just a thought.[/quote
the crank doesnt extend past cases on right side of motor,the ignition could have possibly pushed it over on impact.

Watch for the UPS truck Tom... probably about Monday or Tuesday I would expect...

Thanks, Larry. Did you get a tracking #?

TomW wrote:

Thanks, Larry. Did you get a tracking #?

It's at the shop. I'll email it tomorrow.