Well I suffered a CCT sudden failure
 

The bike started making a rattling noise on the freeway. I drove for a few minutes wondering what the noise was when it dawned on me. It was the dreaded ball bearings in a paint can CCT failure noise. I headed for the freeway exit ramp and as I slowed the bike stalled. When I tried the starter while still coasting in an effort to make it to city streets the engine would not turn. So...is this usually a total lose, or is it just hung up and could be repaired. I hate to say it but if it's a total lose this is my last envolvement with superhawks.

Sorry to hear that. No worse feeling than having your ride go down while riding it. How many miles on your bike? Have you verified that was the deal?

I wouldn't say total loss.
Take the heads off and see what happened. I know it's a pain, but... worth the effort.

Instead of investing so much time into it, see which cylinder you can get to TDC. The cylinder that you cannot get to TDC is the culprit. Remove it, take some carb cleaner and shoot it down the intake and exhaust tract. Look on the combustion side to see who's leaking... those are your bent valves. Take it to your local shop, have them replace the bent valves. Order up some A.P.E. cct's and never worry about this again.

This may be of use to you.. https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=16159

member here selling an entire engine... low enough price to make it worht a look..

I'm not sure what I want to do yet. By the time I fix it the riding season will be over. Right now I'm more interested in unloading so I can get anything to ride the rest of the season. In my world riding is more important than the hawk.

If you destroyed the engine, why is this your last involvement with superhawks? You know CCT failure was eminent if you've been on here for any amount of time, but you gambled on it. That makes as much sense as dumping your g/f because you got her pregnant after boinking her without protection.

There's a low mile engine for sale for $350 on here. You won't get squat for the bike trying to sell as is.

Your analogy makes no sense. The bike should have been engineered properly from the factory. In the two years I've had this bike I've had the R/R failure and now the CCT. As an engineer myself it does not make sense to have any devotion to a machine that requires fixing from the factory. Aside from that I haven't decided what to do with the bike.

you could always part it out if you need too. best thing to do if you have an inop vehical and want to get some sort of money back

As an engineer, you should be able to see that the analogy is perfectly on point.

If it is a known possibility, the pregnancy or cct failure, and you don't take the necessary precautions to avoid the problem, pregnancy or cct failure, then it is a weak or lame move to get rid of it because the possible problem occurred.

You have over 200 posts on this bulletin board, so it should be safe to assume that you have spent an adequate amount of time on this bulletin board, and knew of the possible problems with the motorcycle that you currently own.

So in another analogy, if you had a child with a birth defect (known defect from the factory) would you not try to fix it?

Anyhow, good luck with your choice.

As an engineer you probalbly did your homework before purhcasing and should have known about the "factory defects" before purchasing. Yet you purchased anyway?

Wow, rough crowd. Actually i impulse bought the bike. I had read that many people had had no problems with the CCT. In light of that and never having heard any unexpected noises from the bike I did not worry about it. I didn't expect the thing to go from fine to broken in a split second.

Okay continue to post how I should have known better...

Rough? perhaps.

Loyal? Definitely!

If you had stated originally that it was an impulse buy, and not gone the "engineer" route, probably would've been a whole different scenario.

My $.02 for what you should do: keep it, fix it, ride it. Unless you ride all year, your season is at the tail end isn't it?

What's with all these engineers lately? Shouldn't they be buying BMW's?

Engineers, not managers they actually do something, and people who actually do something never get paid what they are worth, it's those sitting around telling them the wrong thing to do that get paid..

Rule #1
If it has tits or wheels, it WILL give you problems

Rule #2
If it is something mechanical, It can and will eventually break.

Just a little common sense.

LOL Rule #1 is sooo true and common sense has nothing to do with engineers :)

AMEN brother!!!!

BMW's for cars, I prefer more affordable motorcycles as they are much easier to damage. Tip overs, crashes, etc. I've had my share. (Oh yeah and Jeeps for four wheel drive)

Well no matter what I do my season will practically be over before I get it sorted. Once I'm done feeling let down by my bike I'll take it apart and see what's wrong with it. I haven't done much research yet, but do I have to drop the engine if I need to change the valves? If I can leave the engine in for any repairs I'm far more inclined to do them.

And I was only a couple days away of being done working on all my vehicles...

Taking up walking? :bananadance:

you got to remember this forums is full of people who are passionate about this particular bike...

hey, leave us engineers alone :spank:

I have the bumper sticker on my toolbox for all to see. As a mechanic, i've seen a lot of broken/problem items as well as plenty of stories.

Probably the first thing I learned as an engineer is not to bother defending myself. Just ignore them and it will get old after a while. Engineering the most useful and most made fun of profession.:)

What are you doing with just one bike anyway? Just buy something else to have fun with while the 'hawk is down. Once the 'hawk is back up and running well you have two bikes to choose from and a spare if one goes down again. Heck, I've got FOUR and I might be adding another this weekend. That'll be five if I can't sell my VTR or XR.

I know, don't think the tought didn't cross my mind last night. I'm running out of money and garage space though. I might pick up something cheap for the moment just so I don't lose the rest of the season, the problem is it has to be capable of making the 25 mile commute to work.

How many miles on your 'Hawk?
 

I think what folks are saying is the first time you do any real maintenance on the engine like a valve check or at least by 20K miles some APE manual CCT's need to be on there. That seems to be the consensus of opinion that I've read. Or the first time you hear ANYTHING funny grab some clutch and kill it.

Now, I've got about 5K on an '03 with autos still on it so I'm not trying to rag ya'...

Any 125 or larger dual sport will do 25 miles no problem.

Most of the engineers I have met are book smart and common sense stupid...........most of them, not all.

I get paid to fix engineer's lack of engineering. The bike is a good bike and worth fixing . But to each is own. good luck.

Curious what you mean by that dig exactly... being an engineer and all.

Engineers are not above making mistakes, but usually there are enough reviews and analyses performed prior to a production part that you rarely see the effects. Some will seem to slip through the cracks because you can't always predict the way the equipment will get abused.

Not ragging on you... but look at it this way...

You've had the bike two years... It's a 98, ie it's 10 years... an R/R that lasts 9-10 years isn't really that defective... It's a part that is put trough a lot of heat cycles and takes a lot of ageing in daily use... Had it died in 2-3 years of life it would have been defective... by it's tenth birhtday it's what I consider maintanance...

Also CCT's should be serviced at regular intervals like anything else in the engine... There is actually a recommendation from Honda to have them replaced at a specified intervall... I can't remember the number, but it is a "disposable" part, like all other parts in the engine with wear limits dictating when to replace... If your bike is low mile, it's a possible "defect", otherwise it's like about 99% of all other high mileage CCT failures reported... Failure wasn't in the part, but in maintanance...

It was rather a lot of people talking about the CCT's being defective and prone to fail... and several people reporting theirs having failed... but most of those where high mileage bikes... a few wasn't but they where and are a minority...

APE CCT's aren't any different... they will wear out sooner or later, but the difference is that in the stock ones it's the spring wearing out, in the APE you set the bolt, and re-set it during regular maintanance... and several years on, you might need to replace it as the chain guides wears out...

My solution is to swap the stock ones at a reasonable interval, like Honda recommends... I'll let you know how that works out... It'll take me a while though...:D

Are you SURE you heard no unexpected noises?
 

"One thing however, are these bikes noisey as all hell or what? I don't know if I developed an exhaust leak or something or if I have simply forgotten how noisey and obnoxious the superhawk engine is. I do have the Jardine round pipes, but even I was disturbed by the amount of noise the thing makes. It sounds kind of like an old ratty race bike. I guess it had to have been just as loud last year and I just forgot."
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https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=14262

Once again, not trying to rag ya' but...

How many miles ya' got on her?

Tweety,

I can't see any way the manually adjustable tensioners would wear out. In use they have no moving parts and the pressure against them just isn't that high. I have used them on previous bikes, one of which I owned for ten years with an APE tensioner on it, and never even thought about replacing it. I suppose anything is possible, but it's really unlikely that a manual tensioner, adjusted properly, would "wear out" over the lifetime of an engine.

Again , I would like to know how many miles were on Kendricks bike when it failed ????????? I have 13k on mine and just trying to guage when I need to change mine to APE's . ( The sooner the better I guess)

I wasn't saying it was likely to wear out... The stock WILL wear out... The APE most likely won't as long as you keep it adjusted as you said... But if not adjusted as part of maintainance it's as likely to fail as anything else...

BTW... The main point of my rant was that I'm personaly more likely to attribute a failure to high miles and lack of maintainance if a CCT fails than to faulty engineering... Seeing as rather few low miles one's have been reported... Not saying this was the case with Kendrick though...

I changed mine at around 28k miles to stock replacements... not because I really needed to... Mostly because of paranoia... And I'll probably succumb to that again when next 30k ish miles rolls around...

I pretty much agree. And I think hamfisted riding "techniques" probably contribute to CCT failure in some cases.
An R/R failure after 10 years is not faulty engineering.

Hind site is always 20/20, good homework, and thanks for the kick while I'm down. 17K, you're welcome...

Hey inderocker ( and anyone who is sure)Can you elaborate on the a.p.e. ccts and should I pre-emptively go for these to prevent great unhapiness later? Is cct failure a foregone conclusion for us or should I motor hapily into the future without worry.I DO NOT want to learn this the hard way. Whats the deal??

I agree that the design of the tensioner is flawed, take the kawi tensioners, they are far superior to Honda's design, they can't back up, it's impossible, it's a spring loaded ratcheting device that need to be taken off and reset every time you take the tension off.
May be the only thing of proper design on Kawis tough :lol:
These parts are a stain on Honda's legendary reliability, when a Honda motor goes boom for whatever reason, the company loose points, engineers need to think ahead of that.
Still, the machine work and quality level is above the other big three and even KTM.
Sorry that happened to you, it could happen to me since I still run the stockers, but on a 04 they are upgraded...I think !?