Trigger wheel failure
Posted: November 18th, 2011, 10:11 am
My fellow enthusiasts,
it is with a great deal of grief I present to you an issue with one of our products. A client has reported a failure of his crank pulley, citing that the screws used to fasten his trigger wheel have loosened and subsequently backed out. Thus the trigger wheel was free to flail about and do some damage to surrounding components.
It should be noted that we have made dozens of these crank pulleys, with this being an isolated incident. Even an isolated incident though, is unacceptable and thus we are replacing the damaged components free of charge.
The client purchased the part in 2009. I believe, however, we have already remedied this problem. In early 2010, I spent a good deal of time researching and testing fasteners. This research was immediately put to use to improve our products. Since then we have used Loctite 246 when affixing trigger wheels, taking care of any loosening due to vibration. We are also very careful about torquing the fasteners during assembly. For further reassurance, fasteners are marked after they are torqued, that way we know we don’t miss one during assembly.
I take any issue with our products very seriously. They have my name on them and they darn well better be perfect. That being said, mistakes happen and we do what we can to make things perfect again. I want to report this problem and hope that you will help notify anyone who has one of our crank pulleys with trigger wheels. I urge you to check the fasteners, and implement the procedures I have outlined above.
For the full write-up, see my blog.
I would like everyone to be aware of this issue, as it could happen with any setup configured in a similar way. This may also serve as a reminder of the importance of timing belt covers, which if they were implemented in this case, the damage would have been somewhat mitigated.
it is with a great deal of grief I present to you an issue with one of our products. A client has reported a failure of his crank pulley, citing that the screws used to fasten his trigger wheel have loosened and subsequently backed out. Thus the trigger wheel was free to flail about and do some damage to surrounding components.
It should be noted that we have made dozens of these crank pulleys, with this being an isolated incident. Even an isolated incident though, is unacceptable and thus we are replacing the damaged components free of charge.
The client purchased the part in 2009. I believe, however, we have already remedied this problem. In early 2010, I spent a good deal of time researching and testing fasteners. This research was immediately put to use to improve our products. Since then we have used Loctite 246 when affixing trigger wheels, taking care of any loosening due to vibration. We are also very careful about torquing the fasteners during assembly. For further reassurance, fasteners are marked after they are torqued, that way we know we don’t miss one during assembly.
I take any issue with our products very seriously. They have my name on them and they darn well better be perfect. That being said, mistakes happen and we do what we can to make things perfect again. I want to report this problem and hope that you will help notify anyone who has one of our crank pulleys with trigger wheels. I urge you to check the fasteners, and implement the procedures I have outlined above.
For the full write-up, see my blog.
I would like everyone to be aware of this issue, as it could happen with any setup configured in a similar way. This may also serve as a reminder of the importance of timing belt covers, which if they were implemented in this case, the damage would have been somewhat mitigated.