Posted by Dylan on Saturday, April 30, 2005 at 3:08AM :
Right before work on Monday afternoon, I started my 48' to put it away for the week. I had noticed a funny noise while it was running, but I was in a hurry so I just put it in the shop and went to work. Today when I went out to start it, all I got was a whirring sound when I hit the starter. So I got out and unbolted it from the engine. That's when I noticed that the whole nose-cone was broke off!! Now I know that it hasn't had starting problems in a while, so I make sure to only "bump" it, so as not to let it grind the gear, as it starts very easily. I was wonder if I maybe didn't stay on the starter long enough and the engine backed up slightly (because of compression)causing stress on the nose-cone, because the bendix wasn't able to retract the gear fast enough?? Any thoughts??? It looked like a clean break, no rust, dirt, etc.
I was really wanting to use it to transport my fourwheeler to a ride on Sunday. So I put the pieces in the oven, for two hours at 500 deg, and fired up "Ole Lincoln". I had some nickle Rod and the old guy down the road let me use his air hammer to "peen" it with. I haven't had much experience with welding "cast iron" but it seemed to turn out looking alright. Right now I have it chillin' in a bucket of sand.
Also called the local PW guru to see if he had a spare good nose-cone, he said he would look.
Anyone else ever had this happen??? I've seem them break before, but only after the guy changing it out accidetly drops it on a concrete floor (Only twice, and they were log-truck starters).
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