I sent another message to Bullet:
Hello Chris,
You did not reply to my last message.I talked with my son who is a mechanical engineer, like me, and we came to the same conclusion, the tie bar was not subjected to any stress (it has no signs of wear). It must have broken due to vibrations because it was fragile, probably due to poorly performed heat treatment.
Furthermore, only the action of the cam on the roller can create a torque on the lifter. This can happen if the surface of the cam is not perfectly parallel to the axis of the camshaft, i.e. the cam is slightly "conical", as is the case for cams intended for flat tappets where you deliberately want to rotate the tappets.
Another possibility is a lack of perpendicularity between the axis of the tie bar retaining rivet and that of the roller. Under the effect of the spring pressure, the roller is oriented parallel to the axis of the camshaft, it therefore rotates the lifter and thus creates a bending force on the tie bar.
In any case, it cannot be an assembly problem, it is necessarily a defect either of the camshaft or of the lifter.
I am aware that the satisfaction of a customer living in Europe may not be important to you, but know that I am a member of a major American forum on which I created a post. Here is the link:
https://pantera.infopop.cc/
I await your response with real technical arguments.
Regards
René
and here is their response
I do not have an answer for you.
I have turned this over to Kirk to see what can be done.
There will not be any warranty on this 6 year old product.
I answered this:
6 years old but with only 1600 miles!
And how do you explain this breakage?
If I don't know why it broke I'm not going to take the risk of reinstalling one, nor ordering another camshaft from you.
And how do you explain this breakage?
If I don't know why it broke I'm not going to take the risk of reinstalling one, nor ordering another camshaft from you.