IMO was the best quad ever made for 18 laps.......

[bryan.young1]

well my first official ride and first trip to the track ended in hopefully what will turn out to be a minor problem, but what felt like and still feels like a major disaster. I couldn't have been more excited to pick up this bike and to get back on the track for the first time in almost 4 years. went through all that trouble with the carrier vs trailer business, then had to drive 16 hours to pick her up, had to wait almost two weeks waiting for my new hitch receiver to show up and get airbags installed on my jeep, then wait for a ATV track day to arrive and when i got to Milestone i was on cloud nine.... went 5 laps rested 5 more rested 5 more rested (way out of shape i know lol ) then did 2 more laps clearing everything but 2 of the jumps super clean fastest laps i have ever rode, best quad i have ever owned and then all hell broke loose:( on a straight a way she coughed gasped i smelled a quick whiff of gas then nothing and the motor died. i coasted to a stop tried to restart and got no turnover of the motor at all just a metal on metal grinding sound that i am really hoping is just the starter motor or the starter clutch or something simple. drove home with my head hung low and drained the oil (all clear oil looked good) then drained the transmission fluid......tons of metal shavings everywhere...(Not good:( ). now its with the mechanic. would have tried it if it was something simple but when i saw those shavings all over the inside of the lower end i bailed out. would rather have a professional do it. any way not looking for sympathy, i know S Happens. Its not like i haven't had stuff break before it just sucked to be so excited and get her out on the first ride, and have her going so good it was making me question why I ever owned anything else and then this. Any way keep your fingers crossed for me. The motor would turn by hand and didn't seem to have been effected by what happened still not sure why it died but will find out. sigh time to update my sig.

[bryan.young1]

may as well try and make her look cool :)

[Claas900]

Sucks. Make sure you send it to someone who has worked on them before. If not you'll get it back in box's full of parts and the mechanic telling you they are junk,sell it. When in reality he just doesn't know how to work on it.
When you pulled the tranny plug was the filter/screen still there?

[bryan.young1]

didn't see any filter when i pulled the plug but something fell into the oil pan but it looked like it was just a big chunk of what ever made the shavings. The bike is at Thumper Racing in Santa Clarita CA at the moment. haven't really talked with the guy much because his father is on his death bead but supposedly he is one of the people that got in on the great parts exodus when Cannondale closed its ATV div. He says that he has built and rebuilt many of them. We will see what he says and how it comes back to me though.

[Claas900]

Did you notice any smoke? From what you say if the motor wouldn't turn over and the motor oil was clean it's more then likely locked up.
And it sounds like what you pulled from the tranny oil was the screen.
What happens if the screen isn't put in right,and it takes out the scavenger oil pump gears. I've also seen a clutch disk break and take out the same oil pump gears.
Keep up updated.

[bryan.young1]

thanks for the help
no smoke and the motor turns over by hand and it did try to turn over when i hit the start but the grinding was loud and it sounded like something didn't have all its teeth any more. Thumper Racing has it now and the guys father is in the hospital so the luck with this thing keeps the downward spiral going i'm afraid. will update as soon as i hear from him. thanks again

hmm hanfords only 3.5 hours away lol ill just pay you to fix her lol :( i have to laugh so i dont cry.

[Claas900]

If the motor does turn over thats a good thing. It should run tho,unless it spun a flywheel also, very likely.
It does sound like most of you damage is on the tranny side tho. Thats a good thing. Bad thing odds are motor will have to be pulled to fix tranny.

[bryan.young1]

that's what the first guy that looked at it said rite before he sent it to Thumper. he said if it was something that he could see easily and replace he would have but he thinks two things are going on first is that the motor will turn over but not start this is problem one that likely occurred on the track then when i pulled it over and tried to start it the motor was possibly locked up due to the first problem and all i did was rip the starter parts to shreds. all in all its just one big mess :P

[Claas900]

After thinking about this for a wile. The tranny was eating the screen and you would have never noticed it until something went wrong with the tranny or you went to change the tranny oil. You just happen to stumble across it.
I'll bet the motor just spun the Flywheel,easy fix. I hope he knows what to look for with a spun flywheel. The keyway slot should line up with the "C" on cannondale.
As for the tranny you might get lucky and get away with just flushing it out.

[bryan.young1]

i really hope this is the case. Im really hoping he knows what hes looking at as well but i have been assured that he has worked on these motors before.

[bryan.young1]

the mechanic says the crank went out. This is confusing since the kid i bought it from said he had put a Z400 crank in it not too long ago. I told the mechanic that i spun the motor by hand and it moved smoothly but he said that doesn't matter and that the crank was likely installed incorrectly and only had to be 100ths off and it could cause a failure. $1000 to fix sound rite? or am i getting ripped off again. what a great bike i payed 3500 for it rode it for 2 hours and now it needs another $1000 bucks of work maybe ill get 3 hours out of it this time. sigh

[Claas900]

Its really hard to know a price with out seeing everything. But I'll be honest again,sent it to someone who knows them and works on them on a regular bases. Sounds like it wasn't built right the first time if at all. Even with everything updated built wrong wont last. What all did the guy say was done to the motor you bought it from,and who did the work.
Heres some round about prices,this is just ball park.
stock crank 450
main bearings 70
cams about 60 a piece
rebuild decomp 50
piston 130 to 450
pull motor and reinstall 100 to 200
motor rebuild 300 to 500
if its just a tranny most times a used one can be had for about 65

[bryan.young1]

thank you for the help and the prices. this guys quoting me $1000 to fix the crank parts and labor. my concern is you said you have had whole motors rebuilt for less then that so i am wondering what a whole knew motor would cost? my other option is to part it out and get a honda but like i said when i started this thread it felt like no other quad that i have ever ridden before when she was ripping around the track and i hate to bail out so quickly but if i put over a grand more into the bike that is $4500 plus with only 2 hours on her and if anything else goes wrong i might shoot myself lol thanks again really need the help figuring out what to do here from some long time owners.

here is what the guy claimed was done to the motor

Cylinder|Head: Wistech Ported
Bore & Stroke: 95mm/61mm
Displacement: 432cc
Cam: MegaCycle
Carburetor: 46mm Throttle Body
Air Filter|Box: UNI w/Outerwear/Cyclone
Pipe|Silencer: Modified Header/HMF
Clutch|Plates: Updated Stock
Gearing F|R: 13/38
CDI|Killswitch: Optimum GP Control MC1000/Gunnar
Cooling: Liquid
Other: Aluminum oil pump gears, aluminum valve cover, aluminum impeller, Blue Bolts w/NordLocks, Z-400 rod bearing, Re-located fuel pump and pressure regulator, Larger fuel pump inlet, Dyno tuned.

[cannondale27]

Originally posted by bryan.young1
well my first official ride and first trip to the track ended in hopefully what will turn out to be a minor problem, but what felt like and still feels like a major disaster. I couldn't have been more excited to pick up this bike and to get back on the track for the first time in almost 4 years. went through all that trouble with the carrier vs trailer business, then had to drive 16 hours to pick her up, had to wait almost two weeks waiting for my new hitch receiver to show up and get airbags installed on my jeep, then wait for a ATV track day to arrive and when i got to Milestone i was on cloud nine.... went 5 laps rested 5 more rested 5 more rested (way out of shape i know lol ) then did 2 more laps clearing everything but 2 of the jumps super clean fastest laps i have ever rode, best quad i have ever owned and then all hell broke loose:( on a straight a way she coughed gasped i smelled a quick whiff of gas then nothing and the motor died. i coasted to a stop tried to restart and got no turnover of the motor at all just a metal on metal grinding sound that i am really hoping is just the starter motor or the starter clutch or something simple. drove home with my head hung low and drained the oil (all clear oil looked good) then drained the transmission fluid......tons of metal shavings everywhere...(Not good:( ). now its with the mechanic. would have tried it if it was something simple but when i saw those shavings all over the inside of the lower end i bailed out. would rather have a professional do it. any way not looking for sympathy, i know S Happens. Its not like i haven't had stuff break before it just sucked to be so excited and get her out on the first ride, and have her going so good it was making me question why I ever owned anything else and then this. Any way keep your fingers crossed for me. The motor would turn by hand and didn't seem to have been effected by what happened still not sure why it died but will find out. sigh time to update my sig.

Who is working on this thing?Tranny and engine oil are seperate you said engine oil was fine.How about filter?When a crank goes there WILL be metal in engine oil not transmission oil.Go get your motor and take it to someone who knows what they are doing.Transmission is a 5minute fix.They are cheap and can be replaced almost as simple as changing a tire once engine is out and open.

[bryan.young1]

so there is no way for shavings from the crank to get into the transmission oil? if this is true then the guy is lying his *** off to me...

[Claas900]

You motor is about as updated as it can get sounds like.
If it wont run/start then it sounds like its on the motor side. You could have had something go wrong with cam timing of the motor.
The timing chain/gears are oiled from the tranny side. So that could explain the metal on the tranny filter.
Its really hard to say/know what the problem is with out seeing it.
Unless something went wrong with an oil pump then odds are your crank is fine,plus you where able to turn it over.

[cannondale27]

Originally posted by bryan.young1
so there is no way for shavings from the crank to get into the transmission oil? if this is true then the guy is lying his *** off to me...

Not unless there is a hole in the case from damage but then you would need a case also.Go get your motor,take lots of pics with sidecover off and go from there.

[bryan.young1]

Ok, just got off the phone with WISTECH, and immediately called the mechanic that has my bike and told him to stop touching it for ever. I will go and rescue her on Saturday morning and look for someone else that knows these bikes to do the work. Claas900 i sent you a PM. Thank you so much to everyone on this thread and to WISTECH. According to him i have just saved myself thousands of dollars and a return trip to the shop.

[cannondale27]

When you are there take a good look around.Maybe even talk to a few of their mechanics.I hope he didnt do any parts swapping(your good parts for their junk ones)A good indicator is if they have anything Cannondale related at thier shop.Is only a few builders I trust with a Cannondale.

[bryan.young1]

good tip i will look at it closely when i get her but if i remember from when i was last there mine was the only one.

[cannondale27]

Good luck man.

[bryan.young1]

sigh
thanks

talking to WISTECH really made me feel a lot better. he doesn't think its anything too serious just on the description and thinks if i can get it to someone who knows what there doing should be back up and running in no time for not a ton of money. I was really feeling bad and was getting ready to start putting feelers out there for parting out when i really didn't want to get rid of it. like i said for the almost 2 hours and 15 circuits that i got to run this bike it was in my opinion the best one ever built. till it stopped running that is:)

[cannondale27]

I agree we have all been there.Is a saying around Cannondale world and it applies to all great things.You earn a cannondale cant buy it.I guess you are earning it early buddy.

[bryan.young1]

well if 8 years in the military taught me one thing, its that when your broken, drug through the mud, deprived of sleep for days, locked in and mission complete, that's when you feel like a true warrior. I guess this means that when its all said and done i will have the meanest machine on the track and will feel the battle hardened rider for the trouble:)

[hontrx265r]

I know the guys who sold you the quad. I ride with him all the time. I really don't think he was ripping you off. He has put more money and time in to that bike then you could ever imagine. But things happen weather its a cannondale or a honda. I also owned a dale for awhile and it was actually a great bike, all fully updated like that one. The guy who sold you that bike built my motor for my dale the first time i rebuilt it and he definetly knows his cannondale ****. I never had a failure from my dale in three years. (haha and now its the highland quad.) Sorry about your issues but I recognized the pic of the bike and just wanted to say you didn't get "took" on it or anything. He was devasted to sell that baby, and its definetly one of the sickest dales around. Good luck with it! dont get discouraged! You'll have fun with it.

[HouserDale432]

I would take my dale back in an instant..I have an long travel trx450r now that I would trade back for my quad. who ever is working on my dale must be a retard, that motor is super solid from cams to crank. If you want to come back and give me a little cash and trade back its all good...450 for 432

480-3094044
mark

[bryan.young1]

Thanks for posting mark

I haven't been smashing you for just that reason. I happen to think that this is the greatest bike i have ever ridden and i have ridden all of the new 400 and 450 bikes except the LTR 450. I am mostly mad at myself for thinking that i would be able to work on this thing and now with the very first ride it breaks in a way that is probably simple but still so far over my head its not funny. WisTech put it perfectly when he said that i have only owned a 400ex and 250X and going from those to this bike is like going from tooling on Pintos in auto shop to being lead tech on the space shuttle (rip) :) any way i just drove up and picked her up from the mechanic today. but i am still in the same boat i was in a month ago still does not run, still cant see anything visibly wrong and still do not want to dig any deeper because i know once i take it apart i will never be able to get it back together again and then i am up **** creek with a bunch of small parts to keep track of before i do more damage. I am going to try and convince claas900 to let me hand deliver my quad to him and pay him for his time and parts to get me back up and running again as he is only a couple hours north of me. If that doesn't work then i might think about your offer man but i really don't want to get rid of her i just need to find a closer means of getting her back up and running outside of oil, gas, coolant and filters. anyway thanks mark for the post and i hope you don't think i was bashing you or your bike i have just been trying to figure out what to do and have been frustrated at my self.

[scotturban]

that quad look really mean

[cannondale27]

Class900 will fix it up.Your worries are over.The man knows these like his family and he rides the heck out of them also so he knows the frustration you are going through when you cant ride it.If I can give any advice to anyone or any brand really.Dont ever let anyone touch your quad unless he or she also rides them preferably same brand and type of riding also.Unless its so they just dont get it if you know what I mean.

[bryan.young1]

that's good advise that i will be following from now on :) bringing the bike up to Claas on Tuesday and will leave it with him for as long as it takes but at least i know now that its in good hands and hopefully i can learn a little watching him work on her so that im not so dumb next time she breaks ........ oh yes i am aware its a matter of time :) lets just hope i get more then one ride out of her this time lol

[cannondale27]

If you get the chance go with Class to Pismo.That dude knows how to ride these things.No mercy!

[bryan.young1]

well the jury is out on some of the counts and it seems that my intake Cam bearing has completely grenaded itself and all 16 happy little cam bearing balls went on a happy little bearing ball vacation all over the place reeking havoc inside of the head and possibly else where. we have only accounted for 15 and 1/2 of the 16 bearing balls so far but im sure the other one will make itself known as we go deeper into the motor. lol At least i know that it is now in the hands of experts. Oh and by the way the Crank has the perfect amount of play in it and spins completely smoothly and gives not one hint of being bad in any way.....................................uh........ ................ and that makes perfect sense because there was not one shred of evidence that anyone had even gone deep enough into the motor to be able to tell weather it was good or bad.

I am going to take some advise that i just got and not let my emotions get the best of me here and just state the facts.

FACT: My bike was with the previous mechanic/owner of Thumper Racing and left there for approximately 1 month. at the end of the month, I was told that my motor was looked at and it had a bad crank and that it would cost me $1000 bucks labor plus parts to fix, and that if i wanted to make this motor reliable that it would cost me thousands more in labor and in parts and would take 40 plus hours just in labor.

FACT: I then took my motor to a person that not only owns multiple dales of his own but has been working on them with no factory support since 2003, upon the recommendation of another person that also had multiple dales and has also been working on them with no factory support since 2003

FACT: i then watched as the motor was dissembled before my very eyes too reveal that the intake cam bearing had exploded, water pump impeller had sheared off, balls flew every which way causing major head havoc and possibly other minor but noticeable damage in a few of the areas inside of the transmission side of the motor. This whole evolution took only hours.

FACT: the Crank looked and felt one hundred percent sound

FACT: there was no evidence of the crank ever being accessed in a way to which a determination could even be made as to weather or not it was good or bad prior to today.

i will now let you all do the math:)

don't forget to show your work or you get no credit:P

[2000ex]

Not surprised one bit. Same stuff going on for years with people who know nothing about our machines.

Cam bearing failure is pretty rare and is caused by a few things typically. Either the cam caps were not correct for that head, were installed with the marks facing the wrong way, they were tightened too tight, or the least likely, the bearing failed on it's own. The guys you are dealing with now are top notch and will get you back and running in no time.

[bryan.young1]

yup thats what my current mechanic is saying almost exactly. he is thinking that the cam cap was not the one that was made with the head. as of a few hours ago my head is on its way via fedex to be inspected and see what can be done and if the cap was indeed a good match for this head.

[Claas900]

I noticed this on one of the tranny gears. It's only on three of the teeth, I'm not sure if it ate something or if its a casting flaw?

[bryan.young1]

that doesnt look good. those gears can be replaced individually rite?

[Claas900]

Yes they can tho its just easier to just drop in a new/used tranny. Looking at some of the other teeth I wonder if this thing ate the tranny filter/screen at one time.

[bryan.young1]

sigh.....ok how much is a new tranny

[Claas900]

The price is going to be your first born. :D Hey I was thinking about the tx msg you sent me the other day about them always being bad news. Then it dawned on me, your probably going to hate me before you Love me ;) LOL

[bryan.young1]

its all good man told you just want to do it rite just let me know who to call and ill buy one and have it sent to ya:)

[witech]

Ive got a pile of extra tranny parts . let me know which ones you need. Just pay for shipping.

[bryan.young1]

thanks WITECH i appreciate that. i talked to Claas900 today and he has a whole transmission on hand that he is going to use in my motor in order to be able to keep working on it and i just need to replace the one he is going to use. could you let me know how much a complete tranny would cost please he might be ok with getting parts to replace on the one that's damaged but if not then i want to make sure i get him one that is as good or better then the one he is replacing mine with. thanks

bryan


Update on repairs: So far it has been

Head: needs complete rebuild (all new parts) plus repairs from a lot of over torquing.

Engine (Motor side): new piston kit (possible leak in sleeve), and hand full of repairs from over torquing stripped out bolt holes and from the blue bolts (blue bolt kit) not being cut to the correct length during install causing wear and damage.

Engine (Transmission side):also some repairs from bolts not being cut and from stripped out and over torqued bolts. Transmission has damage on multiple gears that looks like it precedes this failure and might have eaten a filter at some point and still been functional. it still might be functional but would rather replace now instead of later if it ever decides to not be happy.

Over all it has been a very expensive lesson to learn after only 18 or so laps of riding it but bottom line is i should end up with the motor that i wanted it to be when its all done. thanks again to everyone who has helped out you guys are the best.

oh and if your keeping score...........the BAD CRANK (now completely removed) is the healthiest looking bad crank on the planet and the updated bearing that is on this very NOT bad crank is in great shape as well. so many thanks again to the mechanic that wanted to charge me 1k to replace it you are also the best. (dripping sarcasm)

sorry normally not a flamer but im still a bit smurfed about this

[cannondale27]

Guy you bought quad from owes you some $.If he is one who built motor he messed up.Those type of errors are not mistakes they are negligence.

HouserDale432 its time to step up.I am sure even a small gesture would be appreciated.Look at it as a learning experience.

[bryan.young1]

I can only really be mad at my self. I really wanted this thing and should have paid a mechanic to check it out first or something but I just went and picked it up and took a chance. Any time you buy something used you run the risk of there being things wrong with it that wont surface until after you own it. According to the Legitimate Dale people working on this thing now they are absolutely sure that this motor was going to fail in at least 3 places at some point in its near future due to over torquing of bolts. im not sure how you can catch that prior to purchasing a bike other then to get the person your buying from to agree to let you pay a mechanic to tear it down bolt by bolt to check. Any way I will just be glad when its all back together and i can start to enjoy my investment.

[cannondale27]

That there is the reason HouserDale should step up.There is no way of knowing at purchase time.If houserdale put the motor together himself he maybe doesnt realize his incompetence.Now he does or should.Man up admit the error and make it right.I admire anyone who does so.I have had to many times.That is called learning.I however see this type of thing way to many times and am sick of it.Study the problem learn best solution no matter cost or time and do it.If any of those steps are not committed to DO NOT TOUCH A MOTOR!

[cannondale27]

Originally posted by bryan.young1
may as well try and make her look cool :)

While waiting do something about the brake lines hanging there.Dangerous.

[cannondale27]

I just found a bigger cluster than what happened to your motor.Anyone who sees this will get a shiver down there spine that there is actually Idiotic Ghouls that work on motors!This here is the ultimate act of Laziness/cheapness or just plain idiocy!Probably minutes from failure.

[cannondale27]

Wow!

[cannondale27]

This was not in your motor Bryan.In one I am doing today.Figured I would post it as a very good example that if you dont do your own work.Find a mechanic you can trust and treat him well because there are idiots out there that do things like this.Too lazy to go get the correct size shim:eek:

[bryan.young1]

that really sucks. thanks for posting that. Yea if i learned anything from this whole ordeal .....

1. i will never ride any bike again that has not first been stripped down to bare bolts first so that if its a grenade waiting to go off i can kick it back before it explodes.

2. that I will use only proven mechanics for what ever bike i need worked on and not just some shlub i find on the internet that is 5 min from my house.


hope that persons motor is back to good health soon. will probably be a while still for me but making progress.

[cannondale27]

You have nothing more to worry about.You have the right men on the job.

This guys head just needs some parts and a valve job.He got lucky.Now I just have to convince him to spend the $ to do the rest of job best possible.Good example is the buckets.Some factory buckets were junk.No way to tell short of destructive testing.We have Acceldyne buckets available.I use them in all my motors and they have NEVER failed.But they cost $.He doesnt want to spend it.Oh well.Pay now or pay later.

[bryan.young1]

I cant remember the brand name of the buckets that im having him put in but there $85 a piece. im told there the best ones you can get and they never fail :) lets hope so. Megacycle Cam for the intake, exhaust cam was still good just needed to be cleaned up. all new bearings all around, new springs new valves, new cam caps (machined and measured to fit correctly) and i told him to use the best type of each. the head is costing me a chunk of change to rebuild but like you said pay now or pay later:) time to dust off the old credit card lol the company is probably going to think its been stolen since its had a 0 balance for so many years..

[cannondale27]

When you are riding you will forget all about that real quick.Sounds as if your doing it right.Good for you!

[bryan.young1]

This one stung not even going to lie. but my hope is im avoiding spending any more money on it for at least a couple years maybe other then normal upkeep. (fingers crossed)


Here's the paypal invoice and part break down for the cannondale head.
Head repair and 4 new cam caps $80
Decompression rebuild $25
Intake cam water pump seal $10
Intake cam seal $5
Sticking bucket bore $20
Valve seals $4
Valve springs $88(11 eachx8)
Impeller and washer $8
Megacycle intake cam $125
Cam ball bearings $56(28x2)
Cam needle bearings $12(6x2)
4 ti valve spring retainers $40(10x4)
4 valves int. & ex. $50
Head assembly and valve shims $40
4 xceldyne dlc buckets $355(85x4+15shipping)
Shipping $25
Total ------------------------------------------$943

[cannondale27]

He is giving you some real good deals there.It would be similar or much more on any other make to do same.We have a expensive hobby when things go wrong!

[bryan.young1]

could have done it for less then half of that if i went with the cheap parts but i elected to go for the best ones that i could get in the hopes that they would either never fail or take at least a couple years to need replacing. (fingers crossed)

[cannondale27]

You made the right decision.---- happens but you have done best you can to prevent it.

Now dont forget about your chassis.Nothing can be trusted anymore.Go over every bearing,nut and bolt.Loctite is your friend.Hate to see you have a great running quad and then have it fall apart or worse yet get hurt.Dont forget those brakelines I saw dangling in pic.

[witech]

Speaking of your parts I shipped them out earlier in the week with the extra stuff Patrick requested.

[bryan.young1]

thank you sir much appreciated. if you have tracking numbers those would also be appreciated. :)

[polyesterpig]

$8.00 for an impeller and washer. Sounds like a plastic impeller. I would opt for an aluminum one.

[bryan.young1]

i requested an aluminum one if it turns out to not be one then i will make sure and trade it up thanks

[witech]

aluminum impellers are required on bikes which dont have a cooling fan to keep coolant temps down in slow speed riding . Unless the quad has a fan failure or the impeller was one of first year ones then its a non issue .

[bryan.young1]

yea it was explained to me today that there were 3 versions that Cannondale used and the first 2 were garbage and the 3rd one was great. The guy building my head only uses the 3rd version so im good there plus it turns out that the aluminum one that was in my grenade... i mean motor..... is still good after the tear down so i can always have that one put back in once the head returns from the dead. also bought the pre wired version of the 3 light LED kit for these bad boys. After as much money i have had to put into this bike to get it to the point i thought it was in when i bought it I dont want to take any more chances on anything. it is well worth the $58 to increase my chances of catching a problem in the cooling system before the motor explodes yet again.

[m_mcgranahan]

Hi,

Welcome to the cannondale world. I hope things get much better for you in it soon. Btw I am going to drop the money on the Xceledyne buckets here soon too, so good call to bite the bullet now before you go through 3 sets of cams...

One other thing you may want to consider... a guy on the cannondaleriders forum is now selling an oil pump seal kit (requires a core swap for some machining) that boosts oil pressure from 3-6 psi that most stock ones run to 6-9 psi based on his tests. Costs $58 for the kit. I think its well worth the money while you are in there.

I hope you get to ride again soon.

God bless...
Mark
Ps. Guys screen name is Cannobommer

[2000ex]

Any updates on progress?

[ACEwrench]

I second that, I hope it turns out okay for you!

[Claas900]

We got him going a few weeks back, it runs good. Bryan has been happy with it so far. The ported 432cc run good, its a good combo.

[bryan.young1]

I have been busy trying to ride and working as much as I can to pay off the recently maxed out credit card :). Thanks to everyone who helped out. The bike is finally running like the amount that I paid for it when I first bought it :P had it to the track three and a half times now and she's running GREAT. There was a minor snafu when I went off a jump and the axel decided to fly off of the bike when I landed but that was operator error on my part:) I know now exactly how my anti fade nut and keeper relationship is so vital. Anyway the bike runs great and I couldn't have done it without claas900, dave m, tim m, and pete. My advise to anyone thinking of buying these machines is DON'T. But if you .. Fly one of these guys out and pay them to take the perspective machine apart piece by piece and then put it back together again in order to prove that the person that worked on the bike knew what they were doing. They will always SAY that they do and now I know that they will always NOT know what they are doing unless they are personally proven too. I will vouch for every one of the above mentioned people they have personally provided parts for or worked on my cannondale and taken it from a grenade waiting to go off too as solid a performing bike as any cannondale can be. Thanks again guys.

[TNTWARRIOR]

I just read this thread from start to finish and am glad you got your quad back on the track but find it funny that HouserDale432 quit posting after the problems were found due to negligence.

[bryan.young1]

Lol well what can I do:). At least its in the kind of shape I can sell or ride it in now. The risk was on me to have the thing torn down by a good cannondale tech and I failed to do this so I guess I got what I deserved. I would have appriciated if houser would have returned some of my money just to offset some of the cost but you can't make someone do the rite thing:). Anyway this bike is forsale now and it might be the best running cannondale in existance so spread the word :). I will attach a link to the sale post when I'm not at the airport.

[hontrx265r]

You guys have beat this horse to death.. I'm going to defend houserdale because I'm so sick of this. He is a personal friend of mine, and because this motor blew up and some (special cannondale mechanic, which is a joke in itself) said it was not "worked" on correctly. Is no concrete evidence of anyones wrong doing. Now I'm defending him not because he is a friend, but because he took rediculous care of that bike when he owned it. He knows and talks to every cannondale guy there is. All the "best" you speak of and had done more research then most would believe on these bikes. He was extremely educated on everything about them, faulty castings, bad parts, updates.. everything. His bike ran flawlessly the entire time he had it. Its called luck of the draw here. No matter how you put a bike together or what parts you use, there is no guarantee there won't be failures. Yea it sucks that it blew up right when you got it. But it would have happened to him if he rode it that one last time. He had no idea that was going to happen. That doesn't make him a bad mechanic, or a bad guy to deal with. The only reason he hasn't responded to these posts, (because I'm sure he would like to tell all of you **** talkers where to shove it, if he knew what you were saying) is because he doesn't have access to the internet. So sell your bike let this topic die.. and hope the bike holds up when you sell it to the next guy. Its a cannondale... Houserdale loved, and still does love those bikes, and I'll tell you like I tell him when he says he'd buy another one. They are f'n garbage which is why they are no longer around.
Bryan,young1.. yes the guy who actually had the bad luck.. I'm not directing this towards you, because you have actually been very reasonable and not bad mouthed anyone.. OK bring out the tough guys.

[bryan.young1]

Lol I'm pretty sure that you just woke this thread back up with that post, but like you said I never accused houser of intending for that to happen:) the risk was all mine and had I not been in such a hurry to get ahold of the bike then it would have blown up on him instead.

The only thing I will defend is the discovery of all the overtorquing. This was shown to me during every step of the rebuild and there is no doubt that this is what caused the cam bearing fail. There were also other areas of the motor that were being worn and would have eventually failed due to the correct length motor bolts not being used. This was the only thing I felt houser did wrong if he was the one doing all the motor work while he had it. But again not that he intended to do this just that it wasn't done rite for what ever reason. :)


Anyway I'm cool with this thread dying out I just want to make sure it isn't deleted because it may help someone looking to buy one of these in the future.

Ps I left him a message but he hasent called me back. I wanted to know if he wanted to buy this bike back from me for the same price he sold it to me for :). If you add up the 1500+ I spent getting it back to tip top shape its a great deal for him. Baisically he gets the same bike he sold me after only 6 rides and a complete motor re build. :) so let hime know :)

[TNTWARRIOR]

Originally posted by hontrx265r
You guys have beat this horse to death.. I'm going to defend houserdale because I'm so sick of this. He is a personal friend of mine, and because this motor blew up and some (special cannondale mechanic, which is a joke in itself) said it was not "worked" on correctly. Is no concrete evidence of anyones wrong doing. Now I'm defending him not because he is a friend, but because he took rediculous care of that bike when he owned it. He knows and talks to every cannondale guy there is. All the "best" you speak of and had done more research then most would believe on these bikes. He was extremely educated on everything about them, faulty castings, bad parts, updates.. everything. His bike ran flawlessly the entire time he had it. Its called luck of the draw here. No matter how you put a bike together or what parts you use, there is no guarantee there won't be failures. Yea it sucks that it blew up right when you got it. But it would have happened to him if he rode it that one last time. He had no idea that was going to happen. That doesn't make him a bad mechanic, or a bad guy to deal with. The only reason he hasn't responded to these posts, (because I'm sure he would like to tell all of you **** talkers where to shove it, if he knew what you were saying) is because he doesn't have access to the internet. So sell your bike let this topic die.. and hope the bike holds up when you sell it to the next guy. Its a cannondale... Houserdale loved, and still does love those bikes, and I'll tell you like I tell him when he says he'd buy another one. They are f'n garbage which is why they are no longer around.
Bryan,young1.. yes the guy who actually had the bad luck.. I'm not directing this towards you, because you have actually been very reasonable and not bad mouthed anyone.. OK bring out the tough guys.

Hey hontrx265r
Here are some of the commens you made:
I really don't think he was ripping you off Nobody said he intentially ripped the guy off.
He had no idea that was going to happen. That doesn't make him a bad mechanic, or a bad guy to deal with
Again nobody claimed he knew it was going to happen. If he did in fact overtorque and use wrong sized motor bolts, which was the claim, than he was negligent plain and simple. Defend him if you want to, talk s#!t if you want. Bottom line is all the names of the cdale mechanics that were involved are exactly that, cdale mechanics that I have never heard bad things about.
Do you really think the guy that worked on the quad just made that up about the overtorqing or using wrong size motor bolts? You have bryan young here being as respectable as possible and yet claiming to have witnessed it because Claas900 showed him as he worked on it. Bryan bought a used item and took a chance, Houser sold the quad not knowing of the problems, I believe that. However, overtorquing and wrong size motor bolts if true, is negligent and yes if that is the case and although Houser can't see the overtorqued bolts now. He can probably see the bolts that were wrong length and should make it right. If Houser screwed up even if not intentional he should man up if thats the case. I live in PA but hey if you want to run off at the mouth, I'll be in Phoenix late June or early July. Houser hasn't excepted or denied the claims and nobody was bashing him anyway, looked like they were just stating what they found when working on the quad. Hows about a contact number for you when I come to Phoenix tough guy than you don't have to play keyboard warrior anymore?

[Claas900]

If you don't know what your looking at then I'm not going to explain whats wrong. I don't think houserdale is a bad man, I just think he shouldn't touch motors. I also don't claim to be anything special, I just try to use common scents is all. Theses pics are a very small part of all that was wrong.


hontrx265r, I don't bag what you ride please don't bag what we ride.

4 holes where like this

[Claas900]

more

[Claas900]

..more

[Claas900]

I have more pics but I think you get the point, this whole motor had things.

[m_mcgranahan]

Oh, man, after all that work, you're just gonna jump ship on it and all of us C-dale riders? That's to bad. (Guess I might have done the same thing if I got burned to the tune of $1500 after one ride) Just curious, what are you goign to get to replace it?

God bless....
Mark

[hontrx265r]

Sorry for going off on a tangent guys, It was one of those days. And I'm sorry for bashing your brand... I too have owned a cannondale. Actually my cannondale is the one that was on the cover of dirtwheels with the highland motor! class900 its not that I didn't believe you ran into stuff in the motor, but again how many times are the majority of these motors assembled and disassembled? Of course Houserdale was not the only one to ever touch that motor.. and flat out cannondale used sub-par materials on all sort of stuff. Their castings are far from the best. My idler gear bolt for my cam stripped out while I was riding my bike.. I was racing flat track and although c-dales have their noises I could tell something was up. I could hear a whirling noise... turned out the bolt was backed against the cover and the gear was floating around.. I didn't touch it, and I didn't think the bike had been worked on much before I had it? This is what I'm talking about... these bikes are weird in many ways. The point I was getting at is the guys that jump on here and start getting on the bandwagon of pointing fingers, and your making a bad name for someone who is actually a great mechanic, and has a good local reputation. Honestly I'm telling you right now if he had the money he would buy the dale back. i guarantee it. I bet he would trade the trx he is riding right now for it. (He's never wrenched on the 450 since he's had it..so no fingers to point haha)

[Claas900]

Theres no dought Cdales have some WTF things going on. I know because I have 3 of them. But I can honestly say 90% of the things wrong with this build where from the guy who assembled it and or had it before and it wasnt something Cdale did. If this motor didn't lose the cam bearing it would have the motor and tranny oil mixing soon anyways and then it would have lead to a cracked case more then likely. The sad thing is even if it didn't lose the cam bearing first a simple test would have reveled the mixing of oils and reveled bolts torqued wrong, then the motor would have never made it into the frame,saving everyone a bunch of money and drama.

hontrx265r I'm sorry to hear about you having a bolt back out, but I have never heard of a bolt backing out after its been properly torqued and lock tight ed witch we all know Cdale didnt do but we have learned to it with every build.

Its really hard to know what a motor has been threw in the past, who knows what the previous owner did to it. Often times tho its not done right and the new owner gets taken to the cleaners. The one thing neat about owning a Cdale is that where a very small group, so for the most part we know who to trust for a build and who not to.

[bryan.young1]

im not selling because i want too Mcgranahan:)

unfortunately im being punished by the US and California for not having any investment debt, no home loan for 500K, no 10 kids, no school loans, and basically being as financially responsible as i possibly can be and for some reason even though I claim 0 fed and 0 state i still end up owing almost 6k in taxes at the end of the year.........uhhhhhhhhhh.......yeeeeeahhhh that makes sooooooo much sense. sigh sorry im still trying to pick my jaw up off the ground from my trip to the tax guy. There is nothing like spending 8 years in the military working 80 hours a week making just enough money to pay bills to getting out and for the first time in your life making enough money to save about 5k a year only to find out your only saving to pay that savings rite back in taxes at the end of the year.

only this year i tried to spend some of the money i saved at the beginning of the year (on the bike) ended up spending a lot more then planned and then have to sell that same toy to get the saved money back so that i can settle up with uncle sam again.

any way that's enough complaining out of me for one post:) any way i wish i didn't have to sell her but im i only wanted to be into her for 4800 and ended up being into her for 6300 and i need a big chunk of that back to pay taxes this year.

I might buy another bike again but only after i figure out how to either cheat on my taxes without getting caught or start getting in debt up to my eyeballs and popping out kids so i can shelter some of this money :)

yikes this turned into a complain about the tax man maaaaaannnnn post lol sorry about that :P

[m_mcgranahan]

Yikes! Man, I am sorry to hear about that. What a nice thanks from our Gov for all your service. :-( Btw, thanks for your 8 years. Our nation is better for the service of you and people like you and it is not unnoticed by average people like me.

One thought, have you thought of moving to Arizona? Would save a fortune on state tax :-) I lived int Tucson for 5 1/2 years and loved to weather, the mountains etc.

God bless...
Mark