Been searching around trying to find some info on this subject. I've found some info, but nothing specific to my problem.
As a few of you know, I blew up the engine on my 1000 last weekend. For those of you who don't know, let me give you a little background info.
I let the sled warm up for about 10-15 minutes while I was getting ready, then shut it off for about 10 minutes while I waited for the rest of the group. When I fired it back up to leave the parking lot, my temp was right around 100, mabey a few degrees less. So, we headed down the (groomed) road, and 4 miles up the road i'm cruising along at about 45mph, about 6k rpms, and temp was around the mid 130's and BAM! At first I thought I blew a belt, then when I opened up the side panel and saw the belt was still there, I tried to rotate the crank and could hear all sorts of nasty noises in the engine. So, I got towed back, got home and started tearing into it, and found that I had busted a connecting rod.
I can't find any evidence of any kind of seizure. Everything still moves nice and free. The only thing I could think of was mabey the connecting rod had a weak spot or something. Then I just happened to come across a thread on here about balancing the clutch. Wasn't looking for anything clutch related, just happend to come across it and it sparked my interest, so I read it. After reading a few different threads on here and little bit on the net, I got to wondering if an out of balance clutch could have caused or contributed to my problem.
Ok, so on to the clutch portion of the story (sorry for long read).
2 weeks ago, I rode about 45 miles with no problems, other than needing to make some adjustments in the clutch. So, I pulled the clutch off and I split it apart, but I forgot to make marks on the sliding half and fixed half before I split 'em. I did mark the outer part of the sliding half and the governer cup before I pulled that apart, so I'm pretty sure that part got put back together right, then I lined up the arrow on the governer cup with the notch on the back side of the fixed half when I put it all back together, but now i'm just not 100% sure that everything is balanced.
So, the BIG QUESTION. Could an out of balance clutch have caused my connecting rod to break?
As a few of you know, I blew up the engine on my 1000 last weekend. For those of you who don't know, let me give you a little background info.
I let the sled warm up for about 10-15 minutes while I was getting ready, then shut it off for about 10 minutes while I waited for the rest of the group. When I fired it back up to leave the parking lot, my temp was right around 100, mabey a few degrees less. So, we headed down the (groomed) road, and 4 miles up the road i'm cruising along at about 45mph, about 6k rpms, and temp was around the mid 130's and BAM! At first I thought I blew a belt, then when I opened up the side panel and saw the belt was still there, I tried to rotate the crank and could hear all sorts of nasty noises in the engine. So, I got towed back, got home and started tearing into it, and found that I had busted a connecting rod.
I can't find any evidence of any kind of seizure. Everything still moves nice and free. The only thing I could think of was mabey the connecting rod had a weak spot or something. Then I just happened to come across a thread on here about balancing the clutch. Wasn't looking for anything clutch related, just happend to come across it and it sparked my interest, so I read it. After reading a few different threads on here and little bit on the net, I got to wondering if an out of balance clutch could have caused or contributed to my problem.
Ok, so on to the clutch portion of the story (sorry for long read).
2 weeks ago, I rode about 45 miles with no problems, other than needing to make some adjustments in the clutch. So, I pulled the clutch off and I split it apart, but I forgot to make marks on the sliding half and fixed half before I split 'em. I did mark the outer part of the sliding half and the governer cup before I pulled that apart, so I'm pretty sure that part got put back together right, then I lined up the arrow on the governer cup with the notch on the back side of the fixed half when I put it all back together, but now i'm just not 100% sure that everything is balanced.
So, the BIG QUESTION. Could an out of balance clutch have caused my connecting rod to break?
