Please check the fastening screw on the lower cam sprocket drive gear. This is the same shaft that the water pump shares and uses on the other end.

This is a very simple problem to diagnose and fix. The part number to the screw is 1023M. Make sure this screw is tight and use locktite. If it backs out or comes loose during a pass, you end up with a catastrophic failure as experienced by a friend of mine lately at the Canadian National Championships in Mission, BC.

If he would have been told that this is an apparent known problem beforehand, he wouldn't be looking for a replacement motor right now. Please pass this along to anyone you may know who races a Destroyer.

Thanks, Pat.

Please check the fastening screw on the lower cam sprocket drive gear. This is the same shaft that the water pump shares and uses on the other end.

This is a very simple problem to diagnose and fix. The part number to the screw is 1023M. Make sure this screw is tight and use locktite. If it backs out or comes loose during a pass, you end up with a catastrophic failure as experienced by a friend of mine lately at the Canadian National Championships in Mission, BC.

If he would have been told this is an apparent known problem beforehand, he wouldn't be looking for a replacement motor right now. Please pass this along to anyone you may know who races a Destroyer.

Thanks, Pat.


**** pat thats no good. :soapbox:

thanks for posting up and letting the destroyer guys know this is an issue!

Pat this is a known issue on all the v-rod motors. Any time you have the stator cover off you should check the bolt. I checked Dan's the other day when we had his bike apart and his 02 was still very tight but there have been several reported cases of this bolt coming loose now.

Max, this occurred on a Destroyer with only 10 passes on it. Expensive lesson! This was the first I'd heard of this happening and I thought I'd send it out as an advisory to other members.

Max, this occurred on a Destroyer with only 10 passes on it. Expensive lesson! This was the first I'd heard of this happening and I thought I'd send it out as an advisory to other members.
You are not the first one to have that happen. I wrote about a friend of mine who had one lock up in Gainesville on the track at over 100 mph. It's somewhere back in the thread history.

I am wondering if Q/A wnet in the tank after the first batch was made.

Regards

I had an 06 nightrod do the same thing. Luckily I caught it before any damage was done!

Pat you might try an get with Harley on this.

Pat you might try an get with Harley on this.
I agree,this isn't something that should ever happen in a drag bike,let alone a stock v-rod.I would say it's a major safety factor,that needs to be addressed and Harley to step up,especially with the speeds the destroyers go.

That just sucks.

Pat have you checked them on both your Destroyers?

Pat you might try an get with Harley on this.

Lonnie, thanks, I think a request might already be in the works by the owner of the local dealership.

I always thought that if you bought one of these bikes and raced it competitively within a sanctioned body i.e. AHDRA or CMDRA that Harley should take the motor back and provide you with a new one if you experienced a failure.

After all, these are sealed motors that you can't tamper with in order to keep the playing field level for competitive reasons. If for nothing else you'd think they'd want them back for R & D purposes.

Another thought might be to consider publishing advisories on their findings regarding failures through cause and analysis done at the factory. This could be distributed via the dealership network or the sanctioning bodies.

This is just my two cents but I believe the MOCO could do more to support and promote the guys who race in this series who in turn provide them with increased exposure. Why is it that the relationship with the customer ends with the sale or why do you have to go to V & H for performance upgrades to your HD race bike in a box?

Perhaps a crate motor for use or as a returnable spare, for the subsequent year after you win, provided for the National champion ( Canadian and US etc. ) at the end of each season.

When I was a kid, Ford provided one of my Father's friends with motors to drag race with as long as they weren't tampered with and were sent back to Ford if they experienced a failure. The guy had the motor in the car and a second one for a spare, if one failed you sent it back to be studied and you got another one.

HD could very easily do this and it has the potential to be a winning situation all around for Fans, Racers, Consumers and HD.

Loosely based on the " we race, you win theory "

I don't think Harley has any interest beyond profit in the Destroyer. IMHO

I don't think Harley has any interest beyond profit in the Destroyer. IMHO

:stupid:

Lonnie, thanks, I think a request might already be in the works by the owner of the local dealership.

I always thought that if you bought one of these bikes and raced it competitively within a sanctioned body i.e. AHDRA or CMDRA that Harley should take the motor back and provide you with a new one if you experienced a failure.

After all, these are sealed motors that you can't tamper with in order to keep the playing field level for competitive reasons. If for nothing else you'd think they'd want them back for R & D purposes.

Another thought might be to consider publishing advisories on their findings regarding failures through cause and analysis done at the factory. This could be distributed via the dealership network or the sanctioning bodies.

This is just my two cents but I believe the MOCO could do more to support and promote the guys who race in this series who in turn provide them with increased exposure.

Perhaps a crate motor, as a returnable spare, provided for the National champion ( Canadian and US etc. ) at the end of each season.

When I was a kid, Ford provided one of my Father's friends with motors to drag race with as long as they weren't tampered with and were sent back to Ford if they experienced a failure. The guy had the motor in the car and a second one for a spare, if one failed you sent it back to be studied and you got another one.

HD could very easily do this and it has the potential to be a winning situation all around for Fans, Racers, Consumers and HD.

Loosely based on the " we race, you win theory "

AHDRA last season started off by saying that they were going to take peoples motor and any time and check it but give them a new motor. They never did because harley quit making them. AHDRA did not have one to give so they never did it.

I have a destroyer and have raced it for 2 seasons. One thing that I will tell all of you to check and make sure you blue locktite one is the bolts on the rear sprocket. When I first got the bike 10 passes and they were backing out. Here are some of the other problems that I have had or seen from other racers.

The delay for the air shifter I had a friend and he had 2 destroyers and they went out the same weekend.

There is people on AHDRA that were talking about a high speed woble. I have not had that.

I do know that the front wheel it VERY SOFT. I had to get my bike dynoed to get my motor sealed in dallas AHDRA race last year and they bent my front wheel. Plus watch how hard you pull it down it down in your trailer. You can bend it that way too.

Keep and eye on the clutch hub because some of them have been cracking and comming apart. I was talking to the guy at MTC and he told me to keep and eye on mine.

Rear Tire................ I can write a paper on this. You will get one that your times will stay good all the way through. Some will be good only for 10-15 passes. Some wear bad and dont bite at first you really have to burn it down to get wear all the way across the tire and then it is good. I have to say that this will have you chasing your tail sometimes.

Your seat. The plastic cover for the back. Watch this when I put the race pack on mine I started noticing that it was breaking away from the seat and I had to put big washers on the screws. The I had to make a brace. Harley will not just sell you just the back peace. You will have to buy the whole seat I found that out.

Now, don't get me wrong I love my destroyer. With everything there is a learning curve and sometimes that is the fun part.

Here are a couple of other things that I've noted while at various races etc. For those you who don't know me I'm like a sponge, I love to talk to, listen to and help anyone who races these things. Even out on the Interstate heading to races. Be advised that none of the following is Gospel, merely food for thought for Destroyer owners / Racers by a Poser from up North, Eh!

Spend $ 10.00 and install a battery harness, which takes all of 10 minutes, and bring a battery tender to the track with you. If you are tuning your bike and have the ignition on and off after each pass for data aquisition and then are starting you bike all day with only short running periods you end up running you battery down. Plug the battery tender in between passes etc. and let it do it's job. These bikes run way better on a fully charged battery.

Get to know your machine and how long it takes to get to operating temperature. I see some of the teams are now running the Race Pak water temp gauge right on the handlebars so the rider knows without any guess work that the motor is up to the proper temperature and in the final stage for the ECM to give them their full potential.

Do your burnout in second gear, this should give you sufficient wheel speed to get the tire hot enough. I recently met a team that was doing burnouts in 3rd gear. That just might be a little to much stress and heat put on the clutch and transmission. Make sure you or a team member kicks it back down to 1st for your launch after your burnout. Repetition for these type of little things where the same person whether it be the rider or a crewmember does the same things at the line, every pass, really help the rider with consistency.

Also note that these slicks generally take about 3 good heat cycles to break in, so keep this in mind if you have just installed a new tire. Put a couple or three passes / burnouts on it in the test and tune before qualifying.

Finally, carrying a spare clutch hub, that are prone to cracking, and a spare shifter delay or kill box is a very good idea as well. :2cents:

Please check the fastening screw on the lower cam sprocket drive gear. This is the same shaft that the water pump shares and uses on the other end.

This is a very simple problem to diagnose and fix. The part number to the screw is 1023M. Make sure this screw is tight and use locktite. If it backs out or comes loose during a pass, you end up with a catastrophic failure as experienced by a friend of mine lately at the Canadian National Championships in Mission, BC.

If he would have been told that this is an apparent known problem beforehand, he wouldn't be looking for a replacement motor right now. Please pass this along to anyone you may know who races a Destroyer.

Thanks, Pat.


I think I was the first to report on this on here and ever since there have been alot of people who have found this, there is a sticky here (http://www.1130cc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59595)

I would like to know what kind of numbers the moco has on record for this failure.

I would really like to see a redesign of this, at least key the sprockets to the shaft so the water pump continues to work if the screw backs out, then a oil pressure gauge included in the instrument cluster next to the odometer would work with out a major redesign to the cluster.

Lonnie, thanks, I think a request might already be in the works by the owner of the local dealership.

I always thought that if you bought one of these bikes and raced it competitively within a sanctioned body i.e. AHDRA or CMDRA that Harley should take the motor back and provide you with a new one if you experienced a failure.

After all, these are sealed motors that you can't tamper with in order to keep the playing field level for competitive reasons. If for nothing else you'd think they'd want them back for R & D purposes.

Another thought might be to consider publishing advisories on their findings regarding failures through cause and analysis done at the factory. This could be distributed via the dealership network or the sanctioning bodies.


This is just my two cents but I believe the MOCO could do more to support and promote the guys who race in this series who in turn provide them with increased exposure. Why is it that the relationship with the customer ends with the sale or why do you have to go to V & H for performance upgrades to your HD race bike in a box?

Perhaps a crate motor for use or as a returnable spare, for the subsequent year after you win, provided for the National champion ( Canadian and US etc. ) at the end of each season.

When I was a kid, Ford provided one of my Father's friends with motors to drag race with as long as they weren't tampered with and were sent back to Ford if they experienced a failure. The guy had the motor in the car and a second one for a spare, if one failed you sent it back to be studied and you got another one.

HD could very easily do this and it has the potential to be a winning situation all around for Fans, Racers, Consumers and HD.

Loosely based on the " we race, you win theory "


I had a hand shake deal on Motor's that never went through or I would have NEVER Gone as Crazy with my V-rod's:banghead: !

I'm Not trying to get Rich Racing ,I just don't want to go Broke:broke: ......

I did allot of R&D on my Dime,and Only Wish for A Little Help:angelwin:

I'm short a couple Motor's:hidesbeh:

Here ya go Peter.

The "sealed motor non tampering" concept went out the window last year in '06. I think there is going to be some rule changes in AHDRA Destroyer class for next year.

Paul

I beg to differ here. Changes may be on the horizon but read the following from 2007.

V-Rod " Destroyer " Class " VRD "

Check page # 39 of the 2007 AHDRA Official Rule Book " AHDRA reserves the right to exchange any competitors engine/transmission assembly. This is a SPEC class of racing and refusal to comply with an exchange order will cause an automatic forfeiture of all accumulated AHDRA championship points ".

Never happened. What AHDRA did at the beginning of the season (I was at the meeting) was to say that they had established a "performance curve" based on over 250 dyno runs and that they were going to check the fast bikes by dynoing their bikes and comparing the curves. They were not going to focus on peak HP or torque but rather the shape of the curve and establish a tolerance due to no two motors being exactly the same. They still allow custom mapping of course. I never heard anything after that and don't know how that all worked out. The new '08 rulebook will be out next month.

Paul

Please check the fastening screw on the lower cam sprocket drive gear. This is the same shaft that the water pump shares and uses on the other end.

This is a very simple problem to diagnose and fix. The part number to the screw is 1023M. Make sure this screw is tight and use locktite. If it backs out or comes loose during a pass, you end up with a catastrophic failure as experienced by a friend of mine lately at the Canadian National Championships in Mission, BC.

If he would have been told that this is an apparent known problem beforehand, he wouldn't be looking for a replacement motor right now. Please pass this along to anyone you may know who races a Destroyer.

Thanks, Pat.
Pat:

I just "bought" a unfired Destroyer from a dealer here in Jacksonville (today).

However, BEFORE I accepted the bike, I asked that they write up a request on the official HD presale delivery ticket to address this issue. If necessary, call the Destroyer support staff at the factory and get authorization to fix it on HD's dime OR tell me in writing that there isn't a problem. (I don't believe it but it will be interesting to see what they will or won't put in writing on this subject won't it?)

I TOTALLY AGREE with your assessment that this is a critical issue which could cause very expensive damage to the motor and/or injury to the rider if it wasn't addressed properly.

I am fortunate enough to have the mechanic who was racing Destroyers last year when his went up on the 12th pass at Gainesville. Fortunately when the motor let go he was at the other end and was doing just over 100mph. So he knows what the risk is.

In my case I bought this Destroyer for resale and I personally don't want to be responsible for anyone unknowingly getting injured or having to incur a large expense for such a trivial thing.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD ASK THEM TO DO IN YOUR OR THE OTHER GUYS ASSESSMENT??

I will be storing this item in an air conditioned and heated garage (yea I know it's Florida but the humidity is deadly.) with the battery disconnected and no fuel in the bike and the oil, filter and coolant just as they were when it was serviced. I will also put a floor jack under the bike to take the weight off of the tires and wheels--right??

HERE'S ANOTHER PIECE OF INFORMATION I TURNED UP--Please be sure when you take delivery on one of these new bikes that you get all of the pieces and parts that were to be included;

Owners Service, Set-Up Manuel--P/N 99450-06

Section 2.2 Uncrating and General Setup Page2-9 Item 2 Verify component Inventory Items 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3

1. Airbox Cover Lift Bracket
2. Side Stand
3. Owners, Service, Setup Manuel P/N 99450-06 (I also asked for and got a Parts Catalogue P/N 99452-06)
4. Race Tuner WITH CABLES and CD and SECURITY LINK that works (I understand that there have not been any software updates i/e newer versions since the original disk was cut--right??
5. Clutch Tuning Kit--springs and buttons.
6. CVO Cover
7. GOLD KEY (Yea I know what is it for but if they want you to have it then so be it.)
8. Wheelie Bar Kit
9. Wheelie Bar Side Panel Kit

Best Regards

Jerry

Jerry, the only thing that comes to mind right off hand is something to cover the throttle bodies with while sitting in storage or transporting between races. I gave a guy here the top lid off and an airbox from a bike I run topless to help keep debris out.

THANKS Pat!!

Hey my wife has some nice tupperware lids--NOPE better not touch those I wouldn't survive if I "Borrowed a couple of those".

I'll let you know how things come out. The "Secret Handshake guys are huddling "as we speak".

Pat:

No word yet. the dealer said if the factory didn't step up they may be willing to absorb the expense themselves. I'll let you know the out come.

I was pondering this Quality control issue and I am wondering if it is confimed to a specific segment of production--something we may be able to narrow down further via the serial and motor numbers.

Just a thought.

Pat:

REPORTING IN

Well they all huddled and talked with the "HD Mothership"--they said and in the end my mechanic who works at the dealership fixed it at no expense to me before I took delivery.

It is my understanding that the dealership absorbed the expense--for now. So regrettably, I don't have an official HD answer for anyone else that wants to get the fix done or obtain some support for a damaged motor.


Regards

Pat:

Are you "Battery Tendering" your "unfired" Destroyer batteries???? I was thinking that it would be better to let the battery go dead -- and leave it out of the bike.

Pat:

Are you "Battery Tendering" your "unfired" Destroyer batteries???? I was thinking that it would be better to let the battery go dead -- and leave it out of the bike.

Jerry, normally the first thing I do with any V-Rod I buy regardless of model is install the battery harness and rotate the battery tender between them. So far I haven't even opened the boxes on these but my intent is to tender them. I bought one of those dual tenders that does two at once especially for them.

I'm going down to the dealer this morning (Saturday) to pick up my title. I will spend a few minutes with my mechanic and see what he thinks.

ALSO, do you plan on getting Pingel to give you updated launch boxes for your new bikes while they are in the mood??

As you mentioned in your earlier posts, it's good to be able to share strategies on these bikes.

79 degrees and sunny here.

I'll check with Pingel and see how long they plan on upgrading them and either have them upgraded or buy 2 new ones and include them with the bikes, if and when they are sold. $ 158.50 to buy one outright from Pingel according the their site. Pingel P/N 33227-06

Bolt backing out---I asked my mechanic friend IF the bolt in mine was loose for the fatory. Her said it wasn't. BUT he backed it out anyway, cleaned the threads and put blue lock tight on it and torqued it to 25 ftlbs.


LAUNCH BOXES--Sounds like a plan!!!

Bike Week is 2/29 thru 3/9. I hope you are planning on comming down to Gainesville to get warm.

76 degrees and sunny all this week --nice!!!!


Regards

Another Great thread with more detail on the Launch Box!!