issue is/was press starter button and just hear a click.  so i checked relay then the pulled the starter out.  starter is all good.  then pulled the plugs out.  i know should have done that first,  would have been easier.   back one came out fine,  front one was harder to get out.  this is what it looked like    ......

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second pic is to try and show the head of the spark plug has been punched back inside.

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so im thinking the piston has come up and smashed the plug.  is this possible, cause i read on the us forums that that is unlikely ?  so anyway i know its not good.   i want advise on what i am possibly looking at and the first sort of steps that need to happen.

absolutely shattered.  thankfully have already started looking at importing with the help of chopaweeza.  thought that i would be riding while waiting though 

 

Shit!

Best of luck sorting out whatever has gone wrong mate.

What would have caused the piston to smash the plug like that?

Can't imagine how the piston would hit the plug if the bike was running ok before. 

Have the plugs been changed recently.  If incorrect plugs were used they may protrude too far into the chamber and therefore hit the piston.

 

Man, that is bizarre! I'd only be guessing at a reason so I won't bother. Keep us in the loop ay coz I wanna know WTF that's about. And good luck.

 

what model bike is that on  ? , something got swallowed down the intake  is  it the air cleaner screw ?

Hard to say what happend. Maybe dropped a valve but you won't know until you pull the head. Last time you rode the bike did you hear ant rattles or clunks coming from the engine. Looks like it's time to go 95 or 103 cube with some head work. What year bike

93 sporty. originally 883 but was told 1200 conversion had been done.

edit:  hogbag,  she had been running fine.  no noises.  sad but true ....  was thinking how good she sounded only about 5 mins before it happened

Might get lucky and find fuck all damage. So you started the bike and it locked up when warming up?

Looks like it has ingested something. Remove airfilter and see if any hardware has been sucked in. Stick a torch and a magnet down the plughole and see what you can find. If you didn't travel too far then you might be ok. Don't panic. If you can't find anything in the plughole then it may have been spat out the exhaust allready. Hopefully worst case is head off .

I would have thought either ingested through a/c, or more likely valve.
If plug looks like that, then I would reckon the piston and head will as well......??

 obviously something has fouled in the chamber, dont run again until yer have done a tear down of top and barrels lest yer get more damage

 Damage like that you will need to pull the head off. Will it turn over without the plug in? You will need to check the threads where the sparkplug came out as well as they may have been damaged when you extracted it. Sounds like the head came off a valve, or something has gone through the intake. You might get out of it pretty lightly if the engine stopped quickly. 

I'll put 20 cents on ya cam going awol ... meaning what ever holds it in place on left side of motor (winged washer type thing) has failed or fell out for some reason ... just a wild and very uneducated guess.  Seriously, i dont even know what the inside of a harley motor looks like, its just a similar thing happened to me.

I just read the posts again and you where riding when it locked up. Not good news hopfully you didn't bend a rod.
Good luck

 Ow Ow Ow, FUCK ...time to take head of and look. First time I've ever seen that after motor was running, seen when apprentice dickhead put long shank in and tried to start.

 Not good. Possible that the crown of the piston has parted company with the body esp as motor was running fine then locked.

Only a head and barrell strip down will confirm what damage has been done. Have seen this before on late 70s bikes unusual but. Have also seen heads removed and not barrel and put back together with separated piston results were very bad cost mate a new motor for what would have been a piston and barrell replace.

Such is life

thanks for the feedback guys.

yep, was already prepared for advise that the head will need to come off. yipee more learning for me to do. here is the thing that is really confusing me - if i have this right that is. i look down the hole where the plug goes, on the back one (plug that came out fine) it looks like i am looking at the top of a piston. smooth finish with blacky/grey colouring. i look down the hole the broken plug came out of & it looks like the top of a damaged piston head. i cannot determine if what i am looking at is left over shards of something else or actual scuffing/damage to the piston itself.

the bit that confuses me is that i would expect to only be able to see one piston ? is that right and if so does that give hints to what may have happened ? as in, there is something stopping the piston (front one- bad plug side) from lowering ?

 Both pistons go up and down together, the rear one reaches top dead centre slightly before the front one does, but they are on opposite strokes when they fire. ie when one is compressing the other is exhausting, so you will see both pistons at the top.

couldve grabbed a ring n bent or ripped part of piston off from top land had a evo few months ago do same thing replaced pistons valves n guide an heap tig on the head then machineing

Damn - this is UGLY
Good Luck Killerchef.