Buell Exhaust Actuator Motor

[pdksh]

The information on this forum and the other Buell forums has been indispensable. Thank you to all that post information that would take hundreds of years to acquire. Wheel bearings and idler pulley bearings changed. It was painful to fork out big money for a puller but the punch and hammer trick wasn't going to cut it. The front bearings and idler pulley bearings were fine but the rear bearings were just starting to get a little sticky. The cost savings of an early repair more than made up for the price of the tool. Unfortunately there were no local tool rental places local that ever heard of a blind hole bearing puller. Note, if your in the golden horse shoe area of Ontario I will pull your wheel bearings for a minimal charge to cover the price of the tool :-)

The second Buell weak link, the Exhaust actuator motor. The previous owner tried to rig up the transistor/resistor plug fix for the CEL 21 error code but it obviously stopped working. The bike posted a CEL of 21. I ran the servo test with the exhaust cable disconnected and the servo cycled fine. The added stress of the exhaust valve prevented proper operation. The cable and valve moved easily by hand. The only resistance was the return spring. A spring gear assembly in the actuator motor gear box looked like it was slipping and could not maintain addiquite tension. Possibly the servo motor was weak. I played with it and ended up cracking a gear, rendering the gearbox garbage.

After reviewing the various Buell forums I ended up rigging a little clip to hold the exhaust valve open and by passed the CEL 21 error with ECMSpy. The bike has a richer exhaust tone that I like. My question:
- Is there any real difference between wiring the cable open or using a proper Exhaust Actuator?
- Is there any chance of harming the engine by running a little leaner? The bike has a K&N filter. The plugs I just changed were very sooty and the bike appears to have been running rich. I do not know if the Factory MAPs were changed by the previous owner.
- Is there a part from a 93 ford that can be used as a replacement, like a windsheield wipper motor or someone online that can reliably rebuild the actuator motor gear box?

Opinions Welcome!
- To wire open or to leave closed?

[user_deleted]

Is there any real difference between wiring the cable open or using a proper Exhaust Actuator?
yes.

The plugs I just changed were very sooty and the bike appears to have been running rich. I do not know if the Factory MAPs were changed by the previous owner.
then you have no "base-line" to work from. establish what if any mapping mods have been done to your factory ecm then map accordingly. blackened stock heat range plugs is tell-tale sign of either incorrect mapping....redundant cold-starting procedure.....air intake blockage.....or faulty O2 sensor. you stated you don't know "what if any" ecm clowning around has been done. you'll need to resolve that first and foremost.

s there a part from a 93 ford that can be used as a replacement, like a windsheield wipper motor
no.

someone online that can reliably rebuild the actuator motor gear box?
no

[neilrl79]

If you are looking to replace it, I have an exhaust actuator and cable off my 09, it only has about 5k miles on it so it's in great shape. Assuming you are in the contiguous 48 I would do $50 shipped.

[pdksh]

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