I think eagle eyed Greg has spotted something really important there, if the waisted head of the adjuster fatigues and fails (drops off) could what you have had occur be the consequences, or has the smashing up of the dynamo sprocket and the central rollers caused the adjuster head to fail, how will we ever know?
PD: Primary Drive Rapide Chain Problem
- Thread starter bmetcalf
- Start date
Most likely the rollers as they are breaking up and possibly wedging between the chain and the lower tension blade.........Overloading this part, may explain the bend at the rear of the blade, plus the loss of your knob in the process..........sounds drastic doesn't it........
Much like a rear chain the dynamo sprocket mesh should be checked in several places. Most of the time they have a tight spot. If the sprocket has a tight spot the primary chain will also.
The BIG question for me is where the mess starts: When you look closely at the broken rollers, all got their indentations. My thinking this is from the remains of broken teeth on the sprocket when the lot does no longer fit in the pitch as soon as some teeth have gone. This can put a very high load on the chain when it rides on top of the remains. I am no longer so sure about breaking teeth from shocks going into the chain from the ESA. We can see some windings from the ESA springs lying lown down in the rubble. So in this case I´d look at all broken rollers for traces of spring windings on them. I wonder if springs might cause broken dynamo sprocket teeth when they get between chain gears. So then all the mess starts at the springs going round in the oil to reach places you don´t like to have them.
I´d like to know if broken rollers are in each case in combination with broken ESA springs to be found in the sump. So in the end it is not a case of poor chains today but an effect of springs going round in the oil and starting the mess ??
When thinking about these indentations on rollers my guess you´d have to replace the dynamo or Alton as well, don´t believe the bearings in there will tolerate that kind of forces from deforming the rollers. So this is a big sh** really - from small defects turning into big mess.
As to design team, when this is not the proper address for designing improvements of spares and the Spares Co neither, who then is the man to think about more "radical" changes when obviously old designs were not so great in cruel life in the long run ?? Kirker, Parr and all have told there is no interest in developing modifications, just providing original spares, not even willing to look at my test set I´d send them on request. So for me this is ignorance to new ideas that can overcome well known troubles. And I am not the first to speak out about shortcomings of the old ESA which is ineffective to put it mildly.
After some thinking I believe there is a very good reason to add a magnetic drain screw to keep the sh** down in the sump for preventing it going around and getting into chain mesh.
Vic
I´d like to know if broken rollers are in each case in combination with broken ESA springs to be found in the sump. So in the end it is not a case of poor chains today but an effect of springs going round in the oil and starting the mess ??
When thinking about these indentations on rollers my guess you´d have to replace the dynamo or Alton as well, don´t believe the bearings in there will tolerate that kind of forces from deforming the rollers. So this is a big sh** really - from small defects turning into big mess.
As to design team, when this is not the proper address for designing improvements of spares and the Spares Co neither, who then is the man to think about more "radical" changes when obviously old designs were not so great in cruel life in the long run ?? Kirker, Parr and all have told there is no interest in developing modifications, just providing original spares, not even willing to look at my test set I´d send them on request. So for me this is ignorance to new ideas that can overcome well known troubles. And I am not the first to speak out about shortcomings of the old ESA which is ineffective to put it mildly.
After some thinking I believe there is a very good reason to add a magnetic drain screw to keep the sh** down in the sump for preventing it going around and getting into chain mesh.
Vic
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I think we should resurrect PEI and have him flogged!
What else should we do, make the crank differently, there is a lot of talk about that, do a better job with the cylinders and liners, and of course tapered rollers in the head stock, and those hemi heads are a disgrace, not to mention all that funky stuff going on under the timing cover, and surely they could have found better suppliers for generators, lighting and sparking equipment, and why those tall skinny tires, well except on the D's and touring models, and that horrible seat mounting affair, and I forgot to mention the nasty and very problematic clutch. If he was such a future thinker why has it taken us close on to 80 year to now start finding "proper" solution to this horrible piece of machinery. I've only managed something like 150,000 miles on them with only one breakdown that required retrieval, and even that was self inflicted. Should have pulled the crank apart after a major bearing failure and I would have found the hard bit plugging the oil hole in the crank pin, even then it took around 10K miles to rear its ugly head.
No, I have an RC51 that has all the trick stuff, but never my first choice to go out and live life with.
What else should we do, make the crank differently, there is a lot of talk about that, do a better job with the cylinders and liners, and of course tapered rollers in the head stock, and those hemi heads are a disgrace, not to mention all that funky stuff going on under the timing cover, and surely they could have found better suppliers for generators, lighting and sparking equipment, and why those tall skinny tires, well except on the D's and touring models, and that horrible seat mounting affair, and I forgot to mention the nasty and very problematic clutch. If he was such a future thinker why has it taken us close on to 80 year to now start finding "proper" solution to this horrible piece of machinery. I've only managed something like 150,000 miles on them with only one breakdown that required retrieval, and even that was self inflicted. Should have pulled the crank apart after a major bearing failure and I would have found the hard bit plugging the oil hole in the crank pin, even then it took around 10K miles to rear its ugly head.
No, I have an RC51 that has all the trick stuff, but never my first choice to go out and live life with.
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