Bummer....cracked frame

[Glamis400ex]

Well, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. My Houser frame has cracked. Upon looking under there at the lower motor mounts, I believe that area could have been made soooo much stronger with a little more gusseting. But, not to fear. There's a guy that lives near me that has been on the Terrible Herbst race team as a fabricator for a few years that has offered to help me out and fix it. He'll be putting a few more gussets and beefing up the cross member tube and mounting tabs. Bad news...my powdercoating is gonna be wrecked at that spot. Bummer...

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r281/alinerica/DSCF0779.jpg

[Glamis400ex]

another..
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r281/alinerica/DSCF0780.jpg

[ZRider400]

thats a bummer... the last 2 hybrids i built did the same exact thing, finally i said screw this, could never keep them together

[extremetrucker]

take it for what its worth, but i have built many 400ex hybrids, always did the same thing, finally moved the tabs out to outer frame rails, used spacers, and a longer bolt, never had another problem, that chit needs to flex i think, im no engineer, but this is what i have found to work for me. also gonna be doing this to my prp that broke just like that. dont laugh too hard at my paint skills, i edited one of your pictures to give you an idea what im talkin about. good luck

[Glamis400ex]

Thanks extremetrucker....this is actually what I'd like to do. I tried to look at a bunch of different hybrid frames on here and the ones that had the mounting tabs at the frame rails seemed to look the strongest.

[jrspawn]

Looks like your other motor mounts came loose, or were ran loose sometime before. 99% of the time ive seen those mounts crack, it was from the other motor mounts/swingarm bolt loosening up and allowing the engine to move/vibrate... the reason you have separation at the cracks.

Justin

[Glamis400ex]

ok, I dropped it off. We discussed some options. He agreed that some tabs needed to be put at the frame rails in addition to re-fabricating the original mounts. So, basically, he'll cut out the problem, re-do the original set up except with 1/4" tabs(instead of 1/8") and 1/4" tabs at the frame rails with a spacer between inside and outside tabs. I'll just need to get a longer bolt to go all the way thru.

He thought just having tabs at the outside rails would leave too long of a span with no support at the middle of the motor so the new bolt will be secured by 4 new tabs. I think it'll be awesome.

I'll post pics when I get it back.

[extremetrucker]

you would be right on that justin, the minute any other mounts loosen up, you can stick a fork in that bottom mount, but i am still a firm believer in spacers, and everyones bottom mounts are always an exact fit to the bottom of the engine, i just think they're too rigid, and with a longer bolt itll have some give. but i also think i am a top 10 frame flexer at 275 lbs and not afraid to jump anything haha. what does walsh do for a bottom mount justin? i know you have experience with those.

[extremetrucker]

glamis, dont be afraid of the spacers, once you tighten everything up it becomes like a 1" diameter bar goin across, the 4 tab idea might work out, but being that the inner tabs will still be tight to the motor, maybe run the next size drill bit throught it, so if it needs to, the bolt can have some flex, and as far as material thickness goes, remember your tabs didnt break, the tubing did.

[Glamis400ex]

Justin,
I believe you are correct also. I did have my front 2 mounts crack while at Glamis this past trip. They were made from aluminum. I was able to have a fabricator in the next town, Yuma, Az make me some identical ones from steel.

One had gone all the way thru and the other about 1/2 way.

I'd be interested in seeing the Walsh set up as well.

[Glamis400ex]

ET, I'm not afraid of the spaces, in fact I'll have a couple in there. What he said was, he was afraid only having tabs at the frame rails and the flex in the middle would possible cause the tabs to fold in on themselves. I ride and jump this quad hard and weigh 225 so....

I think I can trust this guy, he's been a chassis fabricator for a Baja1000 team for years. Not that both of you don't know what you're talking about. I respect your opinions. Lots of ways to fix this I believe.

[extremetrucker]

if i remember right walsh puts tabs on 2 tubes running on an angle from the big cross tube in the back, and forward to the frame rails, just like the old 250rs, which is a good deal also because those tubes can give a little, but i could be mistaken, justin can help us out there, he has built some bad chit, ive always admired his work, and glamis, i have always like your quad as well, such a clean work of art

[extremetrucker]

theres really no right or wrong way to build these things, just try new stuff, if it breaks, try something different. its a hybrid thing, they are love/hate machines.

[Glamis400ex]

Thanks...I appriciate it.:cool: But, I didn't build it, I bought it. Chris Kasper is the man responsible for creating it.

[jrspawn]

Heres a pic i had snapped of one of my old walsh crf frames to show the bottom motor mounts.

The YZF frames are different though. Ill try to get some pics of those for you. They kind of have a built in skid plate with the mounts on the support tube for it.

Thank you
Justin

[ZRider400]

definitely do something other than put tabs on each end with long spacers.

i did this on my last JRD when the JRD mount wore out... ended up using long bolt and spacers.

it allowed the mounts to flex, and i could see a stress crack forming on each weld .

[Glamis400ex]

^^^This is exactly what my guy fixing it said. That's why he's re-making the original mounts as well as 2 on each end. He thought that far of a span would cause the tabs to fold in on themselves.

[quadpornstar]

So, are you going to stick with the gold paint that Chris put on that quad when he built it, or do you have another color scheme in mind? Dunes were weird at Glamis this year, lots of drop offs and witches eyes. I think alot of guys broke alot of stuff. LOL

[Glamis400ex]

I'm not sure exactly what I'm gonna do just yet. I do like the color scheme and she sure is a head turner in the dunes. I may do somethig a little darker, like a copper. It won't be for a little while though...maybe even summer/2011. Work is real slow and I need to rebuild the motor badly here soon. It's an 02 with alot of hours. I'm just glad to be getting her back in a week so I can still ride this year.

Yeah, I spent the T-day week at the dunes and there was definately alot of wind. Getting fresh sand every morning was awesome, but, yeah, it does weird things in certain spots.

lol......I busted my front motor mounts, broke the bottom mounts and cracked my radiator this past trip. I had a he'll of a time.

[quadpornstar]

yeah, alot of guys broke alot of stuff. Didn't get a chance to bring my Laeger this year, which sucked, but we still had a good time. Motor on my 450er did some really odd stuff to, so that one was down for the last 3 days of the trip. Rode my girl friends 450er, and my buddies bike, and my other buddies Laeger, so it all worked out. Looks like the dunes were about 1/2 full from what they usually are. At least over by Ogilby were we camp, there was alot less people. The road going in was super bad too, they may have been keeping people away. I was over at vendors on Friday, and I didn't see a single hybrid. Usually I can pick one or two out ouf the crowd, but nothing this year

[Glamis400ex]

If you were down Ogilby, by the tower, I ran thru there at least a dozen times. It wasn't crowded at all. We don't camp right there by the tower, we're down by the entrance to the dirt road right where it "Y"s off. If you went the other way, and followed the tracks, we're down in wash 91 or 92.

I did notice that the last 1000 ft. right at the tower was real sandy and I saw quite a few rigs stuck.

[hontrx265r]

My brid was down too... split the crank lobe in half. Pictures to come. Had to rock the two wheeler all weekend but we had a blast. Speaking of witches eyes. Buddy tore the two ligements in his shoulder...time for surgery.

[quadpornstar]

yeah the last part of the road was bad. I pulled alot of rigs out with my mega. I beat all my buddies there, so I aired way down, and just pulled out whoever I could when I was around. I saw a couple of 3 truck trains pulling out stuck toyhaulers. Some of it was pretty funny really. If most of those guys would air down, and get a good run at it, they would have been good. We stay just West, and a little North of the tower. We are planning on going back for Presidents day hopefully.

There was a couple of people that got hurt over by Patton. Some one on a Banshee hit a rail or something. I heard it wasn't good.

Hope the Houser comes out nice for you. Its a sharp no bike doubt

[Glamis400ex]

I was actually at Patton when that happened. It happened right at the bottom of the hill. We were back about a 75 yds or so, just trying to keep out of the dust and crazies. There was a sherriff suburban and a BLM rail attending to the person. We didn't even bother going to check it out...wasn't our business.

Yeah, I'm not too worried about the outcome of the bike...it's in good hands.

[quadpornstar]

yeah, its nice when you find a guy you can trust to do something correctly. takes alot of stress away. You going to rebuild your crf motor competley, or just do the top end? Is that a stock motor, or did Chris have some work done to it? I can't remember. I rode it just briefly once or twice the year that he had it at glamis, and I remember thinking that it ran very well

[Glamis400ex]

I put a JE 12.5:1 piston in it when I had a head gasket leak a month after I got it. That's the extent of the motor work...otherwise all stock. Stock piston was 11:1 I'll be getting a new 08 head with stainless in/ex valves, new piston kit, cam chain, and rod. I ride this bike hard and figure the rod could use a replacement while I'm in there. It's got alot of hours.