First time post. I lost my son last month to a crosswalk accident, and inherited his 1995 XL1200 Sportster. He never missed a chance to make fun of me for not riding a motorcycle. The only right thing I feel I can do is take his cajoling to heart, finish a bike class, and get on this Harley to help me carry his memory, if at least for around town cruising. In the box of parts next to the bike, I found a couple of old lower rocker covers. One of them has a gaping hole in the middle with some edges polished and other edges fractured; I cannot tell if it was blasted through, worn through, or a combination of both. Any ideas how this kind of hole could have happened, and what I should check on as a follow up?

The longer story:
When I collected his belongings, the bike had its rear rocker upper and middle covers unscrewed, and what looks like a new aftermarket lower rocker cover installed. The lower rear rocker cover had a partially stripped upper bolt hole on the rear right side due to a torque wrench malfunction. I am not sure why he had taken it apart; I was told that it was operational and used around town in recent times. His roommate said he stripped the thread while doing some simple modifications (no idea what but it probably wasn't complex in nature). In a box I found some more H-D rocker cover parts. And yet another set of (wrong model, wrong shape) H-D lower and middle rocker covers arrived in the mail after he had passed.

The bike was heavily chopped down by a previous owner. There were no turn/lamp/start button assemblies, no instrument light cluster, no turn signals, and the associated wire connectors were cut off and looms wrapped with tape. I'm no stranger to electrical work and knuckle busting under a hood, and I've now got parts to restore all the DOT requirements while maintaining the minimalist look. But before I try to turn this bike over I want to make sure I get the upper engine back together right. A Clymer manual and another pair of eyes from a longtime Triumph car restorer next door will help. We're both struggling to play detective here on what exactly happened. Are there clues among this stuff that inform what we should look into before reassembly?

Here are some images of the hole in the rear lower rocker cover, and below that some of the bike. The seals he had put onto the rear cover look brand new. It looks like the front rocker box was already completed and reassembled just guessing by how clean the seals are when looking down inside. The stripped bolt hole goes all the way through and it looks like there are at least four more full threads in the bottom that I hope to use with a longer bolt, after gently cleaning with a tap and a vacuum to catch any shavings.








And here are some more photos of the bike.

 

Sorry for your loss . As for that hole , I have never seen anything like it . Looks like it's taken a hit from a firearm or an alien energy beam weapon .

 

I'm sorry for your loss; I lost my son last June. Good for you for tackling this project and keeping his spirit with you.

I can't help with that hole; never seen anything like it before. But there's a lot of experienced people here who can help you with your project.

Good luck and stick around!

 

Also sorry for your loss, There is nothing in life which is harder to endure than the loss of a child.

That hole looks like it may have been made in a few steps, Part of it is cleanly punched, and part of it (with the rolled over edges) appears to have been worn. I don't know the relationship, positionally, between the pushrods, and this hole, but the first thing I would look at would be the upper ends of the pushrods to see if one of them is.... well ... worn away, or the pushrod is bent. I'm thinking pushrod, as this looks punched.

Just a wild idea, based upon the pictures. I'm not an HD mechanic, but I am a retired machinist/engineer who has seen a lot of strange holes in metal, I have got to admit that this is a new one on me!

Good luck getting it running, and fulfilling your goal in memory of your son,

 

Upon further looking at the pic's, It almost could not have been a pushrod, due to where the hole is. The rocker arm under the hole seems to be worn where the 07 number is. Given this, I would ask if it is possible that some foreign object wedged between the rocker arm and the casting, and when the lettering "Bump" caught the object just right, it "punched that hole on the casting, and then bounced around creating the curled up portion. Again, just a guess based upon the pictures. I'd look for a chunk of something like a bolt that is really beat up in the "wreckage".

 

Thanks all for your replies and kind words so far, and MikeBel I am also very sorry for your recent loss.

I don't have any actual proof that the not-installed lower rocker cover with the punched/worn hole was ever a part of this specific bike. It was just in the parts box, coincidentally, with my son's bike that had one of its rocker boxes disassembled. Acrodave22 I totally agree with you, any pushrod that could reach that spot would have to be boomerang-shaped. Interesting theory about an object lodging there and banging around until it disintegrated -- I will have a look for matching marks or deposits.

 

That's what came to my mind. Looks like it was shot at and hit.

 

Are there any kind of custom parts that would clamp upwards with pressure against the underside of the rocker box and pinch/wear it away? The hole is bursting upwards from the underside of the lower rocker cover, above the exposed ventilation "breezeway" that passes through the cylinder head. Nothing normally goes in there.

Could it be from prying upwards with a tool on the unwanted lower rocker cover to free itself from the cylinder head? I am not sure how baked-on these things can get after being installed for a couple decades. EDIT: there is a noticeable amount of metal totally missing, so this probably isn't the answer.

 

I just measured the hole and it so happens to be 0.707 inches ID, which coincidentally would be the OD of a 12ga shotgun slug (minus sabot). Looks like group consensus is probably right, this rocker cover was likely taken down range for fun/revenge, shot at and hit. At least I can forget about this mystery and keep working on the bike. Thanks all for having taken a look.