FYI - Reed block wear/failure pics enclosed

[mousewheels]

This is a reed block that didn't look bad, but ran like crap. The reeds recessed themselves into the block, and passed the 'light test'. But failed it is. Took it apart and found they were born to fail, reeds were not well aligned. This contributed to severe wear on the side of the reed block with little support.


Pic of reed - wear shows how little of one side was contacting the block.

ReedBlockFailure0.JPG (12.79 KiB) Viewed 5434 times

This is the side of the block with little reed contact. notice how the block wore unevenly, and the reed needed to bow & twist to seal

ReedBlockFailure1.JPG (15.65 KiB) Viewed 5434 times

Troubleshooting included looking for light, checking carb/manifold for leaks, removing spark plug and rotating crank - it didn't give a nice 'pop' from the crankcase pressure feeding the ports. So down to a guess as its the reed anyway, or maybe crank seals, the reeds were swapped.

Oh, I think also the reeds were cleaned up and I blew the reverse direction through them, but yuk how many put parts in their mouth?

Edit: Replaced broken photo hosting links with locally hosted images.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

I do it all the time! Probably gonna get some kind of kidney cancer, but a man has to know when his reeds are leaky!

[noiseguy]

Ooo, that's an interesting failure mode.

[mousewheels]

I do it all the time! Probably gonna get some kind of kidney cancer, but a man has to know when his reeds are leaky!

Eeek, thought only that injector oil aftertaste was the risk....

interesting failure mode.

Here's a pic better showing the slanted wear, also measured the relative mismatch of reed to block seating at about 4:1. Note the left reed had even wear. P.S. In addition to the factory misalignment, this bike served duty as as beach rental. Maybe fine sand contributed to the reed block wear - does anyone have reed block wear stories?

ReedBlockFailure2.jpg (13.92 KiB) Viewed 5434 times

Edit: Replaced broken external photo link with locally hosted pic.

[Wheelman-111]

Greetings:

That Beach sand will do it to it! There's not a Scooter filter in the world that can hang on to diatomaceous husks. Sharp as razors, hard as diamonds. Well, OK hard as glass, anyway.

[mousewheels]

Thanks, yeah, guess its whatever could get by the filter.

Forgot about the scooter's history. The beach rental life was 2 owners back. Would be interesting to talk to the scooter techs about keeping the rentals alive.

[motormike]

..."this student consistently shows attention to detail, and solid, fact-based diagnosis of problems.
...thus yielding an academic grade of A+...every time.".....
Nice work mousewheeels...

[mousewheels]

Reed block is from of 4 Gyros which spent their life from day one as salt water beach rentals (Ocean Shores or Long Beach WA).

The engine was trashed, but not in a catastrophic manner, whole thing was junk. The rental place ran it until it would run no more...

I got it running as received, but it had very little power. Put in a new top end, found reed block issue, worn main bearings, leaking crank seals. Guessing the big end bearing would be a matter of time, and could not locate the trans side seal, so swapped in another engine.

Been ok since then

Shanes_Gyro_after_restore.JPG (79.16 KiB) Viewed 6131 times

[Mustang Man]

I believe I have reed issues on my Gyro as well. I have had no luck in finding the block assembly or just the reeds. What was your cure? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
MM

[LMH]

Way too cool, Id rent a gyro on the beach for sure.

[ped]

Very informative information on reeds. thanks for posting