Broken cam chain = big mess

Big bummer. I have a 2007 TC450 with less than 20 hours on it and the timing chain broke due to there being a valve shim dropped into the engine and left there by the factory.

Such a bummer. The engine had never been opened or serviced due to the low hours on the bike. It sat for almost 3 years. And yes the other four valve shims are still in place.

On the lighter side of things, does anyone have suggestions for internal upgrades for the rebuild? Valves? Piston? Cams?

Nope I know for a fact this engine was never opened. You can't even put the head on with the cams in place...the nuts that hold the head to the cylinder are under the cams...

You might want to send a note and pics to Husky NA.

Before BMW bought Husky, it was not unheard of for Husky NA (ferracci) to go the extra mile when it was clearly a factory mistake.

that included bikes on their second owner, bikes a couple years old, etc.

Rob Keith used to get on the internet and personally take an interest, and often go the distance, it was really awesome.

of course things are all corporate and cold now so who knows, but doesnt hurt to ask.

upgrades for an '07?
that was a very very good year. only thing i would consider is hybrid ceramic crank bearings, its a 6302 if memory serves me, and its got one metal seal.

Thanks for the response.

With the help of GP motorcycles, my local shop, for parts, it's already back together. After having been on Hondas and Yamahas for so many years, it sure is cool to have such a good shop to go to. The place is really a dying breed with people that ride and race the bikes they sell and support.

The shop did offer to submit to Husky and see what they said, but I'd rather just fix it myself and go riding this weekend. The fix was basically just a couple of valves, a timing chain, gaskets and lots of cleaning. Luckily, I used to build engines for cars in a machine shop and have also rebuilt thousands of heads.

Fixing it also gave me an opportunity to take a look inside the entire engine and see how they are engineered. Man, the head casting was really good and I didn't see a whole lot more I would have done with a porting tool anyway.

All things considered it was a good experience overall.

20 hours??? It should have been serviced at least twice by then! Maybe you'd have found the 'extra' shim, maybe not but 20 hours is too long to run a competition engine before any attention.

Dave

That's because it thinks it's a Ducati.

Why would I have had the ignition cover off to service the bike anyway? That just doesn't make sense.

All I know is my new TE250 better last the whole enduro season this year w/o anything but oil air filter and a few valve adjustments.

My Yamaha Wr400 lasted 10 years and is still going strong with the same program.

As I said maybe or maybe not have found it, it depends on where the shim was dropped and how long it took to make its way down to do some damage.

I've seen extra shims in motors before (Not Husky but Kawasaki) and on two occasions they had been found sat in the head on the first service before they had the chance to do any damage.

Dave

Yes, I guess I should hold myself responsible for this happening and not the manufacturer. Thanks. And 20 hours was an estimate. It's probably not even half that.

Valves should be checked every 10 hrs but if the shim was a fifth wheel then of course it wasn't your fault. Take the ignition cover off about every 2nd time you change oil filters[every other oil change for me] to do a visual & clean the magnets ect. Sometimes it gets messy in there.