My dealership said they did the crankcase stud update, but I"m starting to wonder now. I started hearing a noise as I was pulling up to where I was pitted after my last moto.

Could someone please explain, in detail, how to check to see if the update has been done. What do I have to take off of the motor to see? Do I have to drop the motor to get to it? Sorry if these are dumb questions but I'm not a very mechanically inclined person. I can just do the basic maintanance crap.

 

1. Drain Fluid (transmission fluid of course)
2. Pull Gear Shifter
3. Pull case cover (the black one with the great big c on it)
4. Theres a clutch cover with 6 allen bolts, remove that
5. pull clutch plates (easier, they slide right out of the basket)
6. Remove C clip from the shaft
7. Pull the clutch basket out

You will see the allen head bolts behind where the clutch basket was. Unfortunately you cannot get to all of them, you must drop the motor for that!

 

Hey yo, Did you have your engine out previously for a valve adjustment or somethin? If not, then your dealer did not do the stud update cause it didn't exist when you bought your quad! I've not heard of any of the gen 1 engines like ours grenading from this problem. Have heard of crank bearing failures though.

There are detailed instructions on that other forum. Pulling the clutch basket gives you a view of only 1 of the crank plate bolts, most of what you see is tranny plate bolts.

 

I had my quad at the dealership a couple of months ago. I told them to do the crankcase stud update and that engine rail motor mount recal thing they had (can't remember exactly what that one was called). I called them later on to ask if it was ready and they said, "Yep, she's all done, but we didn't have to do the motor mount update."

So far it seems like I've picked up the "golden child" of the C-dales. For what I've put it through, it's been absolutely bullet-proof (knock on wood), but I still want to make sure mine won't have any of the problems that others have had. I'm a firm believer of the "better safe than sorry" saying [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img].

The thing is, I couldn't hear the noise today after I cleaned it. After my race, my quad was extremely muddy and my left heal-gaurd was awfully close to my tire so it might just have been hitting. Sometimes it's just hard to tell if it's really a motor noise of just something on the quad, but I'm gonna check out the crankcase stud bolts to make sure they're ok. I have to change the oil this week anyways so I'll do it then.

Oh, if Mark or Todd or Kip reads this... I'll send Kip those bolts back tomorrow.

 

ryanstones,I don't know if this would be the problem of the crank bearings but,I tore my 03 le down and the crank bearings are plastic caged.Seemed kind of odd to me.I'm going to see if I can find steel caged for mine.

 

Hey ryan, are you saying that most of the problems are in the 03 or the 2 gen engines?? I have an 02 so how can I check (which I have the allen heads) to see if I do in fact have the 1st gen engine??

 

I'm not 'knowing' anything. But from hanging out on the c'dale boards since 5/01 there are some patterns suggested. Others would have a better overview but:

I call the gen1(01-early02) engines those with a gold/bronze colored left side case and aluminum valve cover(no corrosion). I think gen 1's mostly came with 500ECU's. They had some crank/carnkbearing failures and were prone to oil puking.

Gen 2 has the white/grey side case and magnesium valve cover. The early ones may be the most reliable of all the dales, but later production had electrical and mapping problems(stalling~fixable). I'm wondering how many guys with these have had the bolt backing out problem. Markvette? Others?

Gen 3 are the motors with the silver/white sidecases and i guess are the SSM cast cases. Are everyone of these going to have the backout problem? Or do these already have the stud update?

Cannondale had problems with supplier and production tolerances every step of the way and components specs changed dozens of times over this timeline, so having a certain color case is no guarantee. I hope some of the Gurus can fill in the gaps here. Somebody knows the answers, but maybe it isn't wise to get too particular til after the auction. On 'riders a cannontech is asking for VIN#'s, & problems in order to figure out where the fatal flaws are.

 

Ryan,

I have an early Gen2 and I totally agree with your assesment. Good Job man. I checked all of my crankcase bolts and they were good. I opted at this time not to do the stud update. I will pull the motor again in 25 hours of time.

For those of you opting to go without the stud update, I would religiously change your oil and look at the tranny filter very close. Look for metal shavings which would indicate a problem?

And for god sake clean your air filter!!!!!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

This might answer a few questions and create a few more but from what I gather somewhere in 2002 Cannondale's crank vendor started giving Cannondale cranks that weren't as balanced as the earlier ones. Same vendor, just not as good a balance on the cranks as the earlier ones in early '02 motors. This causes the engine to vibrate slightly more than the earlier '02 motors. With this extra vibration and engine heating and cooling the bolts come loose much quicker than the early '02 motors.

Don't ask me the date when they started using the unbalanced cranks because I don't know. Can't tell you how to identify your crank either. Maybe someone else can help here. Also, don't freak out about your crank if you think you have an unbalanced one. They are all good it's just the later ones could be better and the tiny headed stock bolts can't handle the extra vibrations.

That said I don't think the bikes with balanced cranks are immune to the bolts backing out. It may take longer but I think all motors with the stock bolts are going to fail eventually.

My personal feeling is the stud update is not a permanent fix. It may stay tight much longer due to the extra contact area under the nut but I think because of the forces going on here they may eventually loosen as well then it will be a nut busting up everything in the motor.

Some guys are looking into locking clips whatever those are. Myself and a couple guys are are looking into ways to safety wire these bolts or nuts like in aircraft or racing engines. I found some titanium metric bolts that are flanged and drilled but those things are like $12 each.

If anyone has a source for metric alloy drilled flanged hex bolts please pm me.

Jim
www.cannondaler.com

 

I have a few questions about my moto. I think its vin #137. It is an 02. The main question I have is I haven't did anything to mine as far as updates. All i have done to the quad other than stuff I break is clutches and changing my oils. Other than that I havent had the first update. My sponser says that a lot of them don't apply to the moto. Any help on which ones applys to me. I know you all dont know for sure about the crank case as of which vin #'s are affected or if all of them are but any help with the other updates are appreciated. I haven't had the first problem though that is why I haven't sweated them. Mine has been so reliable!!Thanks