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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Jobs update

Tools received, will replace the inner cam bearing and start putting her back together this weekend if the garage isn't too cold.

Special tools are from Georges Garage. I would reccomend this guy to anyone looking to buy any special HD tools. The quality and finish is very good, the tools work well, and the prices are very competitive. Tools were shipped on a Saturday, and I had them on Monday via USPS. It just can't get any better than that.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Spring 2010 motorcylcle jobs.

Balls. At the end of the season 2009, I replaced the shifter shaft in my 1996 Harley Davidson FXDS, and all that goes along with that. Gaskets, seals, O-rings, etc.... Fast forward to the beginning of riding season 2010. Life was good. Nice tight shifter, better shifting due to the adjustment of the shifter pawl and it looked like smooth sailing.

After commuting for a grand total of 3 days, I heard some funny noises coming from the right side of the engine that really screamed for attention. With close to 40,000 miles on the clock, it was time to open the cam chest up and see WTF was going on in there. Bike was bought used, so I had no idea if the cam was stock or not. When purchased, it had SE mufflers, and everything else appeared to be bone stock. I put a Screamin Eagle air cleaner / intake and re-jetted the carburetor.

According to various forums and legend, some stock EVO's can lose the inner cam bearing, or eat lifters at or around this milage. Some have gone to 100K with nothing but oil changes, and others have had serious engine damage caused by lifters or inner cam bearings grenading even sooner than 40,000 miles.

Fast forward to this weekend. It's all apart, including the oil pump. It was suggested by someone on the V-Twin forum to pull the pump, inspect, and clean it since there was a small amount of ground up looking metal bits in the bottom of the cam chest. Lucky for me, there seemed to be nothing in the oil pump other than oil.

One change I'm going to do is a mild cam upgrade. I selected a VThunder EVL-3010 NG (No Gear) and had the cam gear pressed off my old stock cam and onto the new cam. This was done at my favorite Harley dealer, TSI Harley Davidson in Ellington, CT. Great bunch of guys for the most part. I give TSI a B+. I think the reason I don't give them an A is due to one guy that I think is no longer there. No surprise. If not for that, they might deserve an A.

One thing I don't yet have is an inner cam bearing puller. It's on order, and on it's way. I expect to have that before next weekend. If I'm really ambitious I might motor up to TSI after work some evening and pick up all the shit I forgot to get today. Oil pump gaskets, new Jesus clips for the oil pump shaft, and a rubber seal frammis that goes on the line that runs from the oil pump to the filter. Just not worth the screwing around and trying to re-use a $1 part. Fuckit.