Anyone ever encounter this?

[cmeripper26]

:no:.......I went riding yesterday to find when i pulled out my front flame arrestor was lying in the bilge by the gas tank with the carb adapter still inside it with no adapter bolts to be found. I get home and strip down to the reed valves to find one of the adapter bolts in the reed cage and i was not able to find the other one. I did a thourough search through the entire engine compartment with no luck. after i put the intake system back together i turned it over to fluch it out. It ran fine. I'm assuming the other adapter bolt washed out the duck bill with any bilge water that may have gotten inside. I then lifted the ski on the trailer to shake it around to see if i could hear anything rattling around, then i turned the motor over to see if that bolt could have gotten inside the crank case. Engine ran fine. Does anyone know if there is enough clearance in the crank case for a bolt that size to remain in there without the revolving crank hitting on the bottom revolution. I'm just trying to avoid stripping the motor down?.......

 

[Matt_E]

There is not enough clearance for that.

 

[nightrider05]

I think you would have already had HUGE problems by now if it was in your motor. Sounds like you lucked out!

 

[Shifty]

That is frightening, I would say you got very lucky. The top cap seperated from my brand new (2 months old) Tau-Ceti FA's last weekend. I am pretty pissed about that. Good thing there was no loose hardware bouncing around in my hull.

 

[cmeripper26]

Not to get off topic but my original Tau Ceti's had the top cap bust off pretty quick to. I like to run Wamiltons K&N FA's. yeah man i must have gotten lucky with that second carb adapter bolt, must have went out the duck bill with the little bilge water splashin around. just wanted to check with everyone else cuz the carb adapter bolts are small, only bout an inch long, just wasnt sure if they could sneak in the case and sit at the bottom, wasnt sure of the clearance between the crank and the bottom case. Thanks

 

[Matt_E]

I think you would have already had HUGE problems by now if it was in your motor. Sounds like you lucked out!

I wouldn't be too quick to judge it finished.

A few years ago, I accidentally left a case locator pin in the bottom case half.
It cranked over just fine. It just wouldn't run quite right no matter how much I tuned the carbs.
Turns out that the first cranking wedged the pin between crank web and cases and busted a hole in the bottom case half.

 

[cmeripper26]

The reason i think that the other carb adapter bolt went out the duck bill or is stuck somewhere in the engine compartment is when i pulled off the intake manifold the one carb adapter bolt was in the reed valve so im assuming if that one didn't get sucked in then the other one wouldn't, maybe because they wouldn't fit through the reed pedals? A lot of uncertainties. I have ran the ski quite a bit out of the water, to flush it and i have been repeadetley turning it over because i did a re-build and tuning on my other NOVI 42's.

 

[dbrutherford]

I have heard of reed screws coming loose and getting caught in the petals. If the one bolt didn't go through, I wouldn't think the other did. In my opinion, the engine would have came to a very sudden stop if the bolt went through the engine and something happened.

I had the same exact thing happen as you did but it was the stock flame arrestor bolt. However mine fell down inside the engine bay and not the carb. I got majorly lucky on that one!


On the Tau Ceti's. I had one do the same thing. Someone told me once you coudl send them back if they did that. I sold mine on eBay as broken for liek 5 bucks. I wish I could have gotten a replacement for as much as they cost!

 

[cmeripper26]

I just got to thinking about it.. and because those orange Novi carb adapters have such small bolts.. i started to get nervous that it could have fell at the right time and would be sitting in the bottom case half. but like i said i have rolled the engine over to flush and while i was doin a carb swap for fine tuning. something def. would have made an ugly boo boo and a lot of unnecessary noise by now....hahaha. How did u lose the stock flame arrestor bolt in the engine bay?

 

[dbrutherford]

I think I just had the top off the flame arrestor off when I fogged the ski last or was shooting some starting fluid in it. It is a Kawasaki 650 with a flame arrestor top that is held on by two bolts. I think they were just finger tight and never wrenched down. I never really rode that ski that much because my other had foot straps. So after my girl was riding it one day I popped open the hood and Oh $hit went through my mind.

Heck she never would have noticed, we were shooting guns the other day and my 38 special was acting up after having the gun shop clean it. She had three misfires because it was out of time. I was like you know that could have blown up in your hand. When was you going to tell me the revolver wasn't cycling propperly? I don't know was the answer I got. She got lucky the other day to say the least.

 

[Shifty]

I tried to contact them through email and the email came back, I hope the CA glue holds.