99 SuperHawk CCT went bang. What's it worth?
 

Bike went bang and died at 27,000 miles. It has sat in my garage for the last 2 years. I intended on either fixing it, or parting it out. I should say, "Having it fixed." as I am not a mechanic. I have hesitated on parting it out since I am not mechanically inclined. I had a guy offer $800 for it as is.

What is a honest price to ask for it?

Thanks

Why dont you fix it?
Where are you located at?

Well my view is: that bike if it were running is probably a $2000-$3000 bike depending on condition and location. (where you live)

Repairing that engine will cost over $1200, and replacing it with a used one from Ebay ~ $500 (+ship) if you do the work yourself.

With all that in mind, a bike with hard engine damage and carbs that will need cleaning from sitting isn't worth much. The only way to get a decent amount for it would be to part it out on Ebay. Otherwise if you want to sell it whole $800 is pretty reasonable.

But I am not an expert, nor should you take my word as law. :D

Located in Virginia, near DC.

I have not fixed it because I lack the knowledge for major work. I change oil, brake pads, etc, that's it.

You could buy this engine from Indierocker: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ENGIN...item19b8d2ecd8

and have it put in by a local shop. Not sure what they would charge to put it in though.

If I were you, I'd take the money. As you said, it's sat for 2 years. It probably bugs you more every time you look at it. If you were going to find the motivation to tackle it you would have already. Put the money towards a running bike or something you'll actually use.

Of course I'm not you, and I can fix mine, but that's a different story.

salt + wound = ouch.

lol

That wasn't my intent.... Basically there's lots of people that will say "don't sell it, it's easy to fix..." Which may be the case for them, but that doesn't really helps you if it doesn't apply to your situation.

For the record, mine has been sitting in pieces for going on 2 months now.

I just wish I had a garage floor, so I could start taking apart my other cycle. I have a dirt floor garage that I can't start fixing up until softer ground.

No worries. I am learning more every year. My son is racing Hare Scrambles and starting doing SuMo last year. So I have been turning a wrench more and more, just have not gotten brave enough to do engine work.

Much of this boils down to what you want to do. I feel for you because if mine died to that extent I would be in exactly your shoes.
So, you can get replacement motors for ~$500 or so, and likely you could get a shop to swap the motors for 8 hours labor so likely around $600 - $700.
That leaves you with the decision - do you say goodbye and collect $800 or do you put $1200 in and get the bike back up and running?
That's all up to you, but basically as you described your situation, that's the bottom line

What do you mean by CCT went bang? Your Cam Chain or Cam chain tensioner broke? You sound like you are not too mechanically inclined so I'm just wondering how you diagnosed what the problem was. What happened to the bike and did you have a mechanic or shop look at it?

I assume that since CCTs are known to fail on our bikes (especially the front one) he is talking about the tensioner not the chain. When it does, the valves hit the piston, thus the bang..

(it is common enough that if you own a VTR you should replace the CCTs, either periodically with oem ones, or once with a manual one)

Welcome to the scrub!

I think it was the rear cylinder. Wife and I were riding back from TX. Checked my mirrors right before we got to the Blue Ridge Parkway and she was not there. Found a few hundred yards back on the side of the road. She said it went bang and died. I thumbed the starter, it went bangbangbangbang. Had it towed to a local shop of horrors in BFE North Carolina who were completely clueless. After a few days they said it was not the CCT and they were not sure what it was. Wife did not want to ride on the back of my bike, I convinced her she deserved a new bike, so we rode down to Chatanooga and picked up a CBR1000RR that she rode home.

Took it to my mechanic here who handed me the failed CCT and said it looked like the engine had never been touched by the other shop. Lousy F'ers.

It's really not that hard to swap the engine out... It doesn't take much knowledge... All it takes is being methodical and patient...

If you have somewhere to be, the stands for the bike (or rafters to hang it from) a normal carjack and some basic tools it's more than doable... If you can swap the oilfilter you can swap the engine... It's not more difficult technically, just more daunting... Rebuilding an engine is an entirely different matter that takes some skill though...

All you need to know in terms of knowledge is in the service manual... And the parts of that you don't understand someone on here can clarify...

Just my humble opinion, but the bike is worth whatever you can get for it. Fix it and it's worth more, but will it be worth it to fix it is the question...

I've wanted a SH for quite a while and finally pulled the trigger on a yellow 99 with 5ooo miles on it. Being new to these, I read with interest that the CCT went on GoGo Gadget's at 27000 miles. Is that about the miles that this occurs?

There is no mileage guarantee.. The earliest report now is 1400 miles (yes, not even two thousand). The latest is over 50k.

Really the $120ish that it costs to get APE ccts, and the few hours needed for a non pro to do the swap is worth it.

The swap is easy, but it is picky.. you HAVE to do it right, otherwise you will end up messing up the cam timing. But don't let that stop you, do it and be careful to do it right. (read up, take your time, if you can turn a wrench and screwdriver you can do it)

With all due respect to those that will bash me for "being harsh on the newbie" but that topic is the most discussed around here, along with oil and tires... You should be able to find the answear to you question and the next 5 follow up questions that you will have once you get the answear by browsing some of the more recent threads about CCt failures... You don't even need to search to find one, I'd be more surprised if you manage to miss all of them...

My CCT let loose and I hit the kill switch as fast as my thumb could hit it. It cost me about $500 (dealer discount) for all the parts and valve seats to be cut. I did the labor myself.

all i know is this place more than likely saved my bike. when i found this place i had no clue that our bikes spontaniously self destructed. got the a.p.e before anything else.

You could easily swap it, it's pretty much remove bolts, wires, hoses and replace in reverse order.
May need a torque wrench tough, but most of the other tools you need are common, except one weird socket for one frame bolt

It's a hundred bux in parts and it's either a bike or it's trash. This is truly a no brainer. If you read all the posts (i have) the most common threshold for failure is 16K miles. Not a difficult repair although you do have to pay attention. Common tools, shitloads in the KB.

SUPERHAWK PROBLEM
 

Now I know what our "self-destruct" problem was all about. All I heard was a big bang one evening when my husband got home that sounded like an old fashioned car backfiring. The next morning he was towed home. He took the entire bike apart, all pieces in baggies and labeled, using the manual. Bought the new parts. The most difficult part was finding the "mechanic's tools" as this work is usually done by mechanics, I assume. They were expensive. As I recall, It was a big "C" shaped clamp, A wrench that was listed in the manual, a lot of regular supplies as one would need to calibrate, clean, replace with new all parts that had worn out, a lot of sticky stuff and adhesive stuff (these are the technical terms!lol) and, as the man mentioned before, at one point a bolt is actually impossible to remove. We broke a tool trying. We finally loaded up the whole motor, drove to Motoworld and, because we had done a lot of business there, the mechanic was nice enough to just unscrew it for us and we took it home. We decided to go ahead and fix it because... We had just spent 18 months bringing it back from a total loss.

My husband lent it to his son for one day and in the first 30 minutes of rearending someone it was deemed a total loss. We towed it home and just didn't want to give up. I kept looking at the frame, the ONLY untouched part and it was still good. I had never heard of anyone bringing a bike back from a total, but my husband really loves that bike. It did not take much discussion for us both to decide we wanted to do it, as long as it would take. One problem was, as you said, not having a garage. We have a three bedroom condo. (My aunt said I am not allowed to let her husband know that my husband is allowed to have tools in the house! This is a joke as my uncle has a huge red barn with loft built perfectly for every job imaginable but is not allowed tools in the house. If we need something done, we just lay out plastic and do it in front of the TV or whatever. I think the difference is that I've attended frame school and enjoy reading the manuals. My husband is the genius who does all the work.) so... under not perfect conditions...having to pack it all up after each time we worked on it, it took 18 months! The dog did eat one rubber part, but it was replaceable. Had we known that it would "self-destruct" a few months later... it was a challenge. But Superhawks are great. Now I'm studying the geometry to see if there's a way to decrease the "sway-bump" felt on the back tire when going over a bump. Any easy fix? This is a great site! Hope this wasn't too long. Please don't be too harsh on this newbie... This is all I have to say...

The C shaped tool is a spring compressor. That can be done as well, take the head off, make sure you hook the timing chain somewhere, if it fall to the bottom you'll need to fish it with a magnet or remove the clutch cover or stator if it's the front head.
Inspect the piston crown for damage (there will be some, check for cracks or a hit close to the crown that could have swelled the crown enough to scratch the cylinder. If the piston pass, bring the head to a machine shop and have a new seat and guide pressed, new valve installed and lapped.
Once home, new head gasket, head torqued to spec in 1/3 increments, cam timing placed on the notch, manual CCT tight, two turns by hand to make sure it's free (don't wanna do it again don't you ??) valve cover, header, carbs, yada, yada and have a cup of coffee.

We have a member in, I think, Centreville who owns a repair shop. Jason goes by superchickencornermonster on here. He's helped a lot of us down here in Richmond with maintenance on our bikes. Of course he owns a Super Hawk, too. Here's his website:

http://www.brookscycle.com/

he said his wife was riding it ( her bike ? ) & he bought her a new cbr1000rr. sounds to me like the problem has already been solved.

take the $800.00

tim

Buying the CBR solved the problem of her having a bike to ride. The question I posted about, was "Is $800 a decent price for a non running VTR where the CCT went bad?"

Take it or could I get more is really the question. Moot point now as I told teh guy I would take it. As one guy posted, if I have not done anything with it now, I am not gonna, so I might as well take what I can get for it.

When I first read this I thought you meant she was on the back seat!!! :eek: