broke the woodruff key

[Cory9584]

I was riding today and about a mile into the woods the bike died and the engine was making bad noises. After pushing it home i realized the flywheel came loose and the woodruff key was broken. I put it together with an impact gun which i thought would be perfect. However when i put it together i noticed the woodruff key wasnt sitting into my hotrods crank very well. Has anybody else had the hoodruff key break?

[jmd0346]

I was riding today and about a mile into the woods the bike died and the engine was making bad noises. After pushing it home i realized the flywheel came loose and the woodruff key was broken. I put it together with an impact gun which i thought would be perfect. However when i put it together i noticed the woodruff key wasnt sitting into my hotrods crank very well. Has anybody else had the hoodruff key break?

 

 

 

 

Is it a degree key or stock? Never heard of a stock key breaking. Its almost impossible to get it in there wrong. The tolerances are pretty tight.

[Fireroad Express]

look in your clymers manual and find out the torque spec on the flywheel nut. the woodruff key is mostly only for the correct positioning of the flywheel on the crank. the taper on the crank is what keeps the flywheel from turning on it when it's tightened to the correct torque spec. the key will break if the flywheel is not fastened on the crank tight enough

Edited January 14, 2008 by the grinch

[theshee]

When you put it back, loctite the flywheel nut on. Mine wouldnt stay tight on my 10mil without red loctite.

[BigRed350x]

When you put it back, loctite the flywheel nut on. Mine wouldnt stay tight on my 10mil without red loctite.

 

I had the same problem with my 10mil and it cost me. One of the first few times I ran it I sheared a timing key and it jacked up the end of my crank. Nothing that wasn't fixable, but still a headache I could have done without.

 

On my 10mil I always had to put blue loctite on it. I also do the same on my 4mil.

[Cory9584]

I got it back together today and it wont start. I think i flooded it bad, how do i dry it out quick? i was screwing with it for an hour turning the motor with no plugs and nothing. It has good spark and compression.

[Cory9584]

I also just drained all the gas and put 2 gallons of 93 at 28:1 since i didnt really have a good mix before. The engine ran fine before the flywheel came off. i hope this is only a matter of being flooded, the whole engine is brand new with a little over an hour on it

[Snopczynski]

I was riding today and about a mile into the woods the bike died and the engine was making bad noises. After pushing it home i realized the flywheel came loose and the woodruff key was broken. I put it together with an impact gun which i thought would be perfect. However when i put it together i noticed the woodruff key wasnt sitting into my hotrods crank very well. Has anybody else had the hoodruff key break?

 

Your gonna need to clean up the slot for the woodruff key and get all the metal out of it. You need to lap the flywheel to the crank when you get a new one also.

[FireHead]

I was riding today and about a mile into the woods the bike died and the engine was making bad noises. After pushing it home i realized the flywheel came loose and the woodruff key was broken. I put it together with an impact gun which i thought would be perfect. However when i put it together i noticed the woodruff key wasnt sitting into my hotrods crank very well. Has anybody else had the hoodruff key break?

It can break for four reasons:

 

1.) Keyway in flywheel is messed up.

2.) Keyway in crankshaft is messed up.

3.) Key is messed up from prior improper installation.

4.) The flywheel was assmble at an improper torque (most of the time too low).

 

:geek: