Scooterotica

Just been up to Rayspeed with my RB kit & crank and have to thank Ray & Ben for all theyre help & advice. My engine siezed on the way back from kelso last sunday. When I stripped the engine I found that crank's big end bearing welded itself up and siezed solid, cooked the piston & cracked the spigot on the barrel,

Anyway Ray has done me proud and replaced the barrel & piston at a reduced price & also uprated the conrod & big end at a reduced price, I was expecting to have to fork out well over £500 for a new kit & crank but thankfully that was not the case,

Thanx again all at Rayspeed

Also got to see the new wide tubeless alloy rims, looked the dogs dangleys bits,

jonashford wrote:Just been up to Rayspeed with my RB kit & crank and have to thank Ray & Ben for all theyre help & advice. My engine siezed on the way back from kelso last sunday. When I stripped the engine I found that crank's big end bearing welded itself up and siezed solid, cooked the piston & cracked the spigot on the barrel,

Anyway Ray has done me proud and replaced the barrel & piston at a reduced price & also uprated the conrod & big end at a reduced price, I was expecting to have to fork out well over £500 for a new kit & crank but thankfully that was not the case,

Thanx again all at Rayspeed

Also got to see the new wide tubeless alloy rims, looked the dogs dangleys bits,

Crikey !

Never heard of that before !?

jonashford wrote: When I stripped the engine I found that crank's big end bearing welded itself up

Interesting ? What crank was it? why did it fail? What % oil were you using?

Reason i ask is ive had two big ends go on my rb20 within the space of about 1500 miles.
The first one was an AF crank recomended for the kit, it shot the cage up the transfers and wrecked the lot. AF replaced it all, but with a sil crank rebuilt with a new italian con rod, and that went on the way to Cobblesoul.
so im interested to know if you know what caused yours?
Russ

Thats interesting too,i've just rebuilt my friends engine as his (AF CRANK) only lasted about 500 miles and the big end failed, but not causing to much damage to the piston or barrell ,seems to be a lot more failures out there than i thought

Returning from Kelso a 220 mile trip back to sunny Grimsby, 20 miles from home my big end siezed. Last fill up with fuel was at york 50 miles before the breakdown, the bike had been running up to 80 mph and no problems, 5 miles after the humber bridge the breakdown occurred the road has a slight incline and it was windy so although at the time I was only doing 65 ish mph the engine was loaded.

The big end was cooked inside piston was brown from heat and burnt oil, Rock oil synthesis I always use this @4%. Oil was bought from a dealer at Kelso rally, the barrel has done 1800 miles the crank was an Af race crank with an rb 15 roller bearing fitted done 1550 miles. This is the recommended bearing if using the smaller con rod, if u want the full rb big end 18 roller type then u need to change the con rod, at the time I replaced the bearing I chose to go for the cheaper option. I now have the meaty 18 roller version with a new con rod.

The barrel & piston showed no sign of siezure, a light scorde from big end debris and a spike from the bearing in the crown, the damaged spigot Im pretty sure was not caused by this breakdown. As I didn't want to wait for it to be repaired I chose to buy a new barrel, my choice.

After all deliberation no one could put they're finger on why it had failed, and rayspeed were under no obligation to do anything but they did, they could quite easily have said sorry tuff luck but they didn't. They also spent around 3 hours with the parts & were curteous.

I left happy.

These scooters are not meant to do the speeds and distances we do on them, so I think we can expect a few breakdowns here and there, s**t happens.

Had similar service from AF's in the past when i dropped a ring peg on a rb20 and again on a ts1 225 , both times new top end free of charge and gaskets etc , they get a bad rep sometimes but all i've ever had is excellent well done to the lads !

Aren't they obliged by law to replace faulty goods that they've sold?

Muttley McLadd wrote:Aren't they obliged by law to replace faulty goods that they've sold?

Define faulty in the lambretta world! All performance parts are non standard

jonashford wrote:

Muttley McLadd wrote:Aren't they obliged by law to replace faulty goods that they've sold?

Define faulty in the lambretta world! All performance parts are non standard

It would be almost impossible to prove that a specific part was faulty unless it fell to bits before you fitted it. The variables are so large that the cause of any failure could be blamed on almost anything.

jonashford wrote:
After all deliberation no one could put they're finger on why it had failed, and rayspeed were under no obligation to do anything but they did, they could quite easily have said sorry tuff luck but they didn't. They also spent around 3 hours with the parts & were curteous.

I left happy.

These scooters are not meant to do the speeds and distances we do on them, so I think we can expect a few breakdowns here and there, s**t happens.

I agree mate, im not knocking AF at all, they replaced my first kit and crank F.O.C. and im happy with the service.

Before the first crank failure i was running 3% fully synth oil, but after i rebuilt it, and reading Rays comments on the RB kits in scootering about not going below 4%, because of the Boysen feeds, the big end is not getting the full charge to lube the big end, i ran 4%. So when it went again, it makes me suspect the AF cranks / bearing or is it some sort of RB design flaw? As now im looking for a new crank which one do i choose
Russ