Numbers of Conrod Failure over the Years
- Thread starter Vince
- Start date
Perry
Hero member
- Location
- West Dorset UK
Enough already ! I'm ordering up a glass case. 
Exmoor beast
Hero member
- Location
- Minehead,Somerset, ENGLAND OF COURSE
Was this a track bike or road bike?
Road registered track bike. Ex Croatian championship winning bike. 5th gear going into Tower at Croft when it let go and locked up!!!
My fault, 8500 rpm too much for 50 year old rods.
Lucky to glide to the outfield on a slick of oil without a tumble.
All fixable, except my underpants that went in the bin.
My fault, 8500 rpm too much for 50 year old rods.
Lucky to glide to the outfield on a slick of oil without a tumble.
All fixable, except my underpants that went in the bin.
1200ts
Hero member
- Location
- USA - Riverside CA
Are there any reports of Carrillo's or any other rods beside Laverda factory ones ever breaking? If there is some design flaw in our bikes causing undue stress on the rods, I would imagine even these may eventually go bang? But it may take a lot longer.
been trying really hard to break a Carrillo conrod for the last 5 years and not had any luck so far
though my race engines do not see the 4,000 +/- rev range very much either spending most of their time between 6,000 - 9,500 rpm
broke a lot of gearboxes though before we changed to the outrigger bearing set up
Darwin pits
though my race engines do not see the 4,000 +/- rev range very much either spending most of their time between 6,000 - 9,500 rpm
broke a lot of gearboxes though before we changed to the outrigger bearing set up
Darwin pits
piranha-bro2
Hero member
- Location
- Melbourne
Not trying hard enough, Red 
1200ts
Hero member
- Location
- USA - Riverside CA
I have to agree. A friend of mine who was a famous builder of Triumph race engines in the 1950's said if the engine did not explode as you crossed the finish line, you were not running it hard enough.
Guy in the middle. Name was AJ Lewis. He died a few years ago. Also was a mechanic for Maserati when they ran at Indianapolis in the 1940's
Guy in the middle. Name was AJ Lewis. He died a few years ago. Also was a mechanic for Maserati when they ran at Indianapolis in the 1940's
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Dellortoman
Hero member
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia
That quote might be OK for a factory race team with a bottomless pit of money and spare parts, but a bit facile if you're an average privateer on a limited budget who wants to compete in a series of races without having to rebuild the engine each time.
Anyway, that's exactly what Mike Hailwood's Ducati did in his now legendary IOM comeback in 1978.
To quote Steve Wynne (builder of Mike's bike) "the bottom bevel gear on the rear cylinder disintegrated just as Mike shut off to cross the finish line".
GregT
Hero member
- Location
- Christchurch NZ
Last broken Carillo I saw was a turbo'd1400 Kawasaki in a Radical sports racer car. New owner went the wrong way on the sequential shift - at peak revs in 2nd gear....
He was the sponsor of one of the sidecars I was doing the engines for so I got the job of building a replacement engine.
Basic difference car vs bike racing. I gave him a list - starting with "another 1400 engine please" then Rods and forged pistons etc etc...
Everything arrived asap airmail and courier. Remarkable. No quibbles on costs.
He was the sponsor of one of the sidecars I was doing the engines for so I got the job of building a replacement engine.
Basic difference car vs bike racing. I gave him a list - starting with "another 1400 engine please" then Rods and forged pistons etc etc...
Everything arrived asap airmail and courier. Remarkable. No quibbles on costs.
Thomas aus LAU
Hero member
Here is the data from the connecting rod crack on the Jota 120°, frame no. LAV100018919, first registration 01.08.1982:
Mileage when connecting rod broke: 57,600 km. Happened while idling at approx. 4000 rpm during carburetor synchronization on the lift. The engine seems to have never been opened until then.
Engine ran perfectly before, mechanically smooth and had no oil consumption. There were no visible traces of a lack of oil.
In the cases described, I see an accumulation of cases on the middle connecting rod.
Maybe this is similar to the Ducati 500 parallel twins, where it was only discovered afterwards that the crankshafts had twisted during operation.
The engine could not be usedreliable above approx. 4000 rpm. Even an experienced Ducati racer (Egid Schwemmer) had given up trying to find the fault.
Thomas aus LAU
Mileage when connecting rod broke: 57,600 km. Happened while idling at approx. 4000 rpm during carburetor synchronization on the lift. The engine seems to have never been opened until then.
Engine ran perfectly before, mechanically smooth and had no oil consumption. There were no visible traces of a lack of oil.
In the cases described, I see an accumulation of cases on the middle connecting rod.
Maybe this is similar to the Ducati 500 parallel twins, where it was only discovered afterwards that the crankshafts had twisted during operation.
The engine could not be usedreliable above approx. 4000 rpm. Even an experienced Ducati racer (Egid Schwemmer) had given up trying to find the fault.
Thomas aus LAU
Andy J
Hero member
- Location
- Isle of Man
Rob Munro threw two rods in very quick succession back in the mid ‘80s on his Monty. Not sure if they were standard or not, but he was racing the bike. He did have a tendency to rev them to 10+ though.
Schurminater
Hero member
- Location
- Surrey Hills
Zed coming out of the bag this year Perry?Enough already ! I'm ordering up a glass case.
