The engine had a lot of oil blowing by the valve guides which led to the valve seizing in the guide for a fraction of a second ,but,long enough for the push rod to ride up on the rocker and push the piston into the top of the piston.
The motor guy told me that those years Big Dog 05-06 Didn`t use only S&S parts to build there motors. They put a very small cam in them and ran them way to lean. The motor would run hot.
Alright, this sat if the bike in Dallas I'm going to look at runs good and rides true I'm going to pull the trigger on it. I wasn't worried about anything until I came across some threads this morning stating the 05 models have issues because BDM had switched some things up and ect ect. I'm looking at a 05 Ridgeback with a 117 with not quite 5k miles on it. Dealer states it starts and runs great, a really awesome guy on here went by and gave it a one over and gave his approval.
Main concern, since the 05s had "growing pains" is this something I should reconsider and to the owners of 05 models how has yours stacked up? I'm not afraid of wrenching and I know enough to get by. But def don't want to purchase a "work on it all week so you can ride it on the weekend bike". Like the old school Harley's. I ride daily with my bike as my primary transportation and my bmw as my ah shit the bike broke again car. Any opinions and personal experiences with 05 models would be greatly appreciated!
Pre '05 is a more reliable machine. But, they all have a few problems here and there. Like Ray said, he has over 90,000 miles on his and still going. A lot of it is how you ride. I would make the dealer give you a list of all the items that have been replaced. The biggest concern would be the Main shaft in the transmission. If it has not been replaced, it can be a safety concern. The other would be some electrical components. But with that being said, I would not jump to replacing the EHC or anything else until needed. A lot of guys on here are convincing others to replace the EHC the first time they have a head light blow. 90% of the time, it's most likely something else causing the problems, such as an ignition switch, or the ignition system itself. Keep in mind, all the parts on this bike can be replaced with an upgraded part. Replacing the EHC with wire plus is NOT an upgrade.
As far as the TP rocker boxes go, it's still not determined that in fact it was and is the problem. I have had just as many 100% S&S built motors apart with the same problems as I have had of the mixed S&S/TP motors. The valve guide failure is NOT caused from having too much oil to top end or from running too lean. If anything, it would be caused from not enough oil to top end. PEOPLE, MAKE SURE YOUR CLEANING YOUR TAPPET SCREENS DURING SERVICE INTERVALS!!! The most common cause of pre mature valve guide failure is, not sizing the valve guide up from day one. The valve guide to valve stem clearance was most likely out of spec after they reamed it to size. No one will ever admit to that, but it does happen.
Good luck with your purchase. I say go for it if you get a good deal on it. Less that $10k, go for it.
