after my wee spin recently, the insurance guy wanted me to be 100% sure the engine was running okay. soo, I blocked the holes in the sump and tried starting it. it turned over once but stopped as if there was a mechanical stop in place.
before blocking the holes, i had taken the sump off to check for anything inside, and had found what i recon to be teeth from a gear wheel...
so im currently in the process of dismantling the engine
photos on archive...

Not Good!

BEC's do not like going backwards, the sprag clutch will lock and try and spin the starter over backwards at high speed until something gives or you stop rolling.

Take the starter out and peer into the hole, turn the engine over gently backards and I suspect you will see a few teeth missing as the gear turns. If you are lucky it may be the starter gear thats lost its teeth.

If you can dig out all the bits you should be able to bump to prove the engine, but check nothing is wedged anywhere, on top of cogs, behind little chains etc.

Not good.

quote:

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Originally posted by mark chandler
BEC's do not like going backwards, the sprag clutch will lock and try and spin the starter over backwards at high speed until something gives or you stop rolling.

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quote:

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Originally posted by mark chandler
BEC's do not like going backwards, the sprag clutch will lock and try and spin the starter over backwards at high speed until something gives or you stop rolling.

Take the starter out and peer into the hole, turn the engine over gently backards and I suspect you will see a few teeth missing as the gear turns. If you are lucky it may be the starter gear thats lost its teeth.

If you can dig out all the bits you should be able to bump to prove the engine, but check nothing is wedged anywhere, on top of cogs, behind little chains etc.

Not good.

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Which is why lots of us have "Anchors" as you call them!!

Sorry to hear the news, but i knew that would happen in the likely event of a spin with me behind the wheel!!

just a matter of interest who are you insured with as ive not come accross having to prove the engine is ok post accident befor payout, is this normal pratice? just thinking may be a company to avoid, hope it all works out ok

quote:

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Originally posted by the_fbi

quote:

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Originally posted by mark chandler
BEC's do not like going backwards, the sprag clutch will lock and try and spin the starter over backwards at high speed until something gives or you stop rolling.

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Which I'm sure the insurance guy will know, and he's trying to find a reason not to pay out or devalue whats left based on the engine being knackered too.

Any excuse not to pay up.....

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quote:

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Originally posted by JoelP

quote:

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Originally posted by the_fbi

quote:

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Originally posted by mark chandler
BEC's do not like going backwards, the sprag clutch will lock and try and spin the starter over backwards at high speed until something gives or you stop rolling.

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Which I'm sure the insurance guy will know, and he's trying to find a reason not to pay out or devalue whats left based on the engine being knackered too.

Any excuse not to pay up.....

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it can't reduce the amount they pay, total loss is total loss, they would only pay less than that for repairs.

Regarding the bike engines going backwards, you get plenty of time to react as you invariably have a second or two sideways before its going backwards, so just drop the clutch quick time!

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quote:

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Originally posted by JoelP
it can't reduce the amount they pay, total loss is total loss, they would only pay less than that for repairs.

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Do you actually think an insurance people would tell us there secrets ???

they would have to pay out more times if we knew the loop holes
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quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
it can't reduce the amount they pay, total loss is total loss, they would only pay less than that for repairs.

I'm guessing there's more detail in another thread about the incident, and the OP has a total loss to deal with

Could the insurance company claim that it was poor workmanship somewhere in the engine if they could blame the engine for the spin?

A guy at work recently had his claim rejected because his tyres were over inflated and were just just below minimum in the centre (OK, which I know is a completely different thing and the tyres were hence illegal etc etc) but...

If the insurance company could find incompetance/negligence/carelessness in the engine prep which caused the incident (or they could claim it did) could they get away with not paying out?

ie. if you forgot to put oil in the diff, the diff locked when you were doing 70 and you span and wrote off the car, whose fault is this? (presuming they could prove the lack of oil in the diff caused it). OK its an accident, hence what insurance is for, but if they can assign blame to the builder (who is also the driver) would that make a difference?

Somebody on here must be an insurance assessor who can enlighten us.

maybe its to help estimate salvage value?

ie being a specialist car, they want the owner to find out if the basics work, since their own assessors/mechanics might not have a clue.

Mark Allanson has worked as an insurance assessor, dont know if he still is though.

[Edited on 10/1/09 by JoelP]

its insured with nig direct. he does emm hellbent on writing it off, but i doubt it would cost half of what i spent on it to repair... he was just wanting me to prove the engine cause the sump took a knock on the kerb...

did you have an agreed value with them?

yup, ive got an agreed value, and i doubt very much that itll cost more than half of it to repair...even including the costs of driving it down to mk and back for chassis repairs...

I think you'd be surprised how much it could cost to repair. These things don't come apart easy once they're built. For instance, if you need to get back to a bare chassis and your side panels are fastened on with PU adhesive, you'll probably destroy them trying to take them off. Likewise for the rear panel and floor panel.

Phil