So much for my mouse entry.......

Oh that's awful, Cribbs. So sorry for your sad loss. I'm glad you came out with no blood loss.

That's terrible Ron.
You've just reminded me to put a stud and nut on my
Extreme.

No worries, A new one will rise from the ashes next year!

I like that little coffin Jacob! No blood Rusty! I haven't found the prop blades either.......

I have come to realize that I need more ready spares, I have a few, but not much. I would love to find one of those parts boxes that show up from time to time.

I thought about putting a normal bee crank back in it, but would feel bad if it snapped on race day and hurt Kim or Travis.

Oh well........

Ron

What do you think started the vibration that caused the failure?

"Holy Hand Grenades Bat Man !!!!!"

Hey, don't back out for fear of Travis' and my possible mutilation ! Well...OK I can't speak for Travis...but I'll be glad to add a large pillow and fire extinguisher to our list of Tach Race Equipment. If that sucker gets crazy on us, we'll suffocate it !!!!!

Kim wrote:"Holy Hand Grenades Bat Man !!!!!"

Hey, don't back out for fear of Travis' and my possible mutilation ! Well...OK I can't speak for Travis...but I'll be glad to add a large pillow and fire extinguisher to our list of Tach Race Equipment. If that sucker gets crazy on us, we'll suffocate it !!!!!

LOL ok Kim. I will head back to the drawing board. I'll abandon the Silver Bee mouse and go Widow. My unlimited is still good to go.

Ron

crankbndr wrote:What do you think started the vibration that caused the failure?

I am thinking the crank was the issue. It's one of the older questionable KB cranks. It wasn't 100% true to begin with and I think it caused the vibration as RPM's went up. It's noticeably bent now to the naked eye.

I was using a plastic widow backplate and it just couldn't handle the vibes and ripped off my mount.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

If you believe it was the KB crank that caused it and the part originated from us, please email us a list of all parts needed to restore your engine and we will get them shipped out to you right away.

Perhaps a small disclamer ...:

At some point we sold a small quantity of KB cranks that were "off-tolearnce" at reduced pricing and expressly pointed out this fact in the listings. Those, of course, are bought "as-is".

Bernie,

This may have been one of your cranks originally, but to be honest I got it from someone else second hand so I see in no way how you would be liable for any damage.

It was my own fault, I wasn't 100% sure it was true to begin with and took a risk. I appreciate the offer and it speaks volumes about you, but rest easy as it ain't your fault. Or anyones for that matter. Except me!

Already working on another one...... Lookout Kim/Travis cause it ain't going to have a KB crank

We stand 100% behind our product. However, both Matt and we sold these cranks and we will each take care of any issues that arise with our customers.

By the same token, we sold perhaps 20 or so cranks that were not 100% at largely discounted pricing and also auctioned a similar-sized batch of such on eBay. The thought process behind such was thet they are still not bad for general use but should not be used to achieve top performance.

In retrospect we should just have chucked them as it becomes difficult to track potential claims that the product is not 100% up to specs, not knowing if they are from "good" or reduced pricing "not so good" batch.

Video of the dancing engine would have really been something to see.

crankbndr wrote:Video of the dancing engine would have really been something to see.

This is the third time it's happened to me. It really is quite a sight. The sound is horrible. It was funny at first until I started to think about all the polish work I did to the cases. I thought it was never going to run out of fuel.........

Ron

Ron, Jacob's coffin reminded me of this "kit" I picked up in New Orleans
several years ago. If you want to borrow it, to do a number on that
KB crank, let me know.
Bob

dckrsn wrote:Ron, Jacob's coffin reminded me of this "kit" I picked up in New Orleans
several years ago. If you want to borrow it, to do a number on that
KB crank, let me know.
Bob

Wooooo that was funny.

Hi Ron,
WELCOME to the high performance group! Sh..t happens in the quest for high performance. I have perhaps blown up more motors than most over the course of 40 years now. I have not experienced a bench faiure like what you just had. Although not 100% certain, usually a shaft run follows just after the front drive plate/prop ass'y shears off the engine. For me my engines are usually on a mouse racer (in flight) when that happens & my engine(s) seem to have stayed attached to the firewall.

In any event, to date NONE of the standard Babe Bee (Surestart) cranks have sheared off at the driveplate from running, unless crashed. The failure mode of those cranks is almost always on the inside at the crank throw or crank pin. That makes these failures contained within the c/case of course.
I would not hesitate to use a Babe Bee crank as like I said, they fail in a different manner.
That being said, if the internal parts fail, it usually messes up the tank & sometimes even the piston or cylinder.
SOoo...I guess it's all a game of Russian Roulette. You never know when they're going to blow!

One CAN hedge his bets with better parts though like the Bernie K/B (or even the Davis crank). Problem there is for the (relatively low) price, one often needs to try out several before arriving at a REALLY good running crank. At present I have not been able to blow up either one...but since I no longer run these engines that much anymore, that's not really saying much unfortunately.

I do lament the fact that the cheap metal backplates are no longer made. I have broken off these lugs still, but they're much tougher than the fragile nylon backplate lugs...
Keep at it Ron & good luck with the re-build.

Cheers, Paul

"Already working on another one...... Lookout Kim/Travis cause it ain't going to have a KB crank !!!"
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"Shields Up, Mr. Chekov !!!"

Scottie!!! I need more power! I'm giving all she got Captain, shes gonna blowwwwww!

I am up to 18.8K on this mouse. I cringe a little as I needle, kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. I still want to get another 1K out of it as that should make me somewhat competitive.

Thanks for the tips Paul, now I won't have to worry about Kim and Travis walking around with an eye patch and no teeth.