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5/9/2013
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Hyllykallio
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Edited Date/Time
10/10/2017 10:05am
I had Hot Rods crankshaft blown up into pieces a week and a half ago. I was getting out of 180 degree turn with throttle wide open when I heard a loud bang and my rear wheel locked immediately. After I had come to stop coolant started to run out from a weeping hole bottom of crankcase so I knew I was in big trouble. Here is some pictures from the carnage I found inside the engine:
I think culprit of all damage is small bolt holding the plastic filler piece. I think the bolt have come loose and made contact with connecting rod and caused it to break in pieces. I found half of the bolt on the bottom of the cases. The other half of the bolt was still in crankshaft.
The crankshaft had only 27 running hours and i'm really pissed about it. Now i'm thinking whether I should rebuild the bike or part it out. It will need new engine cases, crankshaft, cylinder, piston, bearings and seals and that is not going to be cheap. Has anyone else had similar issues with Hot Rods crankshaft? I guess I have lesson learned and I will newer buy their products again
I think culprit of all damage is small bolt holding the plastic filler piece. I think the bolt have come loose and made contact with connecting rod and caused it to break in pieces. I found half of the bolt on the bottom of the cases. The other half of the bolt was still in crankshaft.
The crankshaft had only 27 running hours and i'm really pissed about it. Now i'm thinking whether I should rebuild the bike or part it out. It will need new engine cases, crankshaft, cylinder, piston, bearings and seals and that is not going to be cheap. Has anyone else had similar issues with Hot Rods crankshaft? I guess I have lesson learned and I will newer buy their products again
Edit The crank was in it when I bought it. If & when I buy another 2nd hand bike, the first think I'll do is put a new crankshaft in it for piece of mind.
I'm really torn apart about parting the bike because I have some really nice parts on like SXS supension etc. Also I have really cheap insurance for it. if I choose to get new bike yearly insurance payment will rise about 1300€/year which is bit too much for me so I would probably have to carry on riding without any insurance.
The Shop
This was 6 years ago and we've never bought another HotRod crank, and never will.
Currently have a 2013 KTM 200 that needed a new crank around 180hrs, so I put a Hot Rods kit in it only because waiting for an OEM crank would have cost me a month of down time from riding. So far got about 30 hours on the hot rod kit without issue.
So I have mixed results so far. Even with that though would always recommend OEM whenever possible.
Both engines had the same failure Conrod broke almost on the same place.
Here some pictures from the KX250F
And if you guys think the hot rods are junk you should check out the weisco.
Guess the cylinder and top is done too?
Also, I have had C&E and Hot Rods specifically step in and help customers with warranty issues every now and then. That says a lot for an internal engine product that does not even carry a warranty.
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FYI: Also, I had a OEM, HotRods and Wesco cranks for a YZ250 2stroke engine I built up. The crank pin in the wesco crank was much softer then the OE one. I had to cut the cranks in half to press out the pins. When I cut the wesco one it was a LOT easier to go through the metal on the pin vs OE. I used the same tool on both. There was a noticeable difference. I didn't cut the HotRods crank in half. It's still in my garage. I did send the OE one off to Ken and he rebuilt if for me. I felt a lot more comfortable using the OE after this experience.
I maybe interested in that KTM150 chassis if you decide not to rebuild it.
HOWEVER. When you buy a bicycle from walmart, tighten the bolts. Idiots arent as good of assemblers as you. Dont complain that your front tire fell off when you didnt check the assemblers work.
It was cheaper to buy Hot rods crank than rebuild the oem crank with new connecting rod and lower bearing. I also had some bad experiences with local shop doing crank rebuilds because they ended up being more unbalanced after the rebuild. Now I know I did huge mistake trusting cheaper replacement crank it costed me whole engine. I was lucky that crank broke on flat ground instead of edge of big tabletop or something.
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