Top end help!

[jimmydsmith7]

Hi all, I need help. Have an 06 Ultra that had a base gasket leak. Pulled the head, and all has gone well. Change the oring, got the cylinder back on the deck, cylinder head back on. Here is where I screwed up. Put the push rods in wrong. Instead of the Lt rod to the inside lifter, I had it in the outside lifter and the Rt rod to the inside instead of the outside. Bolted the rocker box on and went to check to see if pushrods spun freely and of course they did not! Realized my mistake, and switched them to their correct location, but now after bolting on rocker box, they still are stiff, will not spin freely. WHAT DID I SCREW UP? Did I damage the lifters or am I missing something? I have checked to make sure the piston is TDC a half a dozen times and it is.
Any help would be appreciated.
SLim Jim in Texas

[Uncle Salty]

Are you sure it's TDC on compression stroke (vs TDC @ overlap)?

[jimmydsmith7]

I am pretty sure, like I said, have checked a half dozen times. I have adjustable pushrods, could I possibly have the pushrods wrong? Meaning the left on the right and vice versa. As I recall the right one is the longer of the two as far as length wise.
Will recheck TDC again when get home from work today.
Any other thoughts?

[Uncle Salty]

The pushrods for exhaust are longer than the intake. If you have them backwards the exhaust will be too loose by a bunch and obviously the intake will not. Make sure the pushrod is positioned in the lifter properly also.

edit: actually the exhaust pushrod is a little over .100" longer than the intake and the lifter has about .200" travel so if the pushrods are backwards the exhaust may not appear extremely loose.

[springer-]

Originally Posted by jimmydsmith7

I am pretty sure, like I said, have checked a half dozen times. I have adjustable pushrods, could I possibly have the pushrods wrong? Meaning the left on the right and vice versa. As I recall the right one is the longer of the two as far as length wise.
Will recheck TDC again when get home from work today.
Any other thoughts?

If I understand you correctly are you suggesting that you have both long pushrods on 1 cylinder and both short pushrods on the other cylinder?? If so, the long ones are for the exhaust and the short ones are for the intake. 1 of each on each cylinder.

[jimmydsmith7]

Sorry for the missundstanding, I ment what if I had the exhaust/intake pushrods reversed. Intake pushrod in place where I should have put the exhaust pushrod and vice versa. I have one pushrod that is a little longer than the other for this one cylinder.

[jimmydsmith7]

Also, could I have damaged the lifter in any way. The reason I ask, is I removed the lifters. They are not solid lifters but hydrolic. The inside of the exhaust lifter is movable, spongee, the inside of the intake lifter feels solid, not spongee or movable like the other one. I think that is a problem.

[djl]

Do you have the service manual? If no, you should get one.

Best to start over. The adjustables should be marked, intake and exhaust. Collapse the pushrods and remove them. Set the front piston at TDC on the COMPRESSION stroke, not TDC at overlap. Reinstall the front cylinder pushrods, correctly and adjust. Let the bleed down so you can rotate them with your fingers. Set the rear piston at TDC and repeat.

[djl]

Originally Posted by jimmydsmith7

Also, could I have damaged the lifter in any way. The reason I ask, is I removed the lifters. They are not solid lifters but hydrolic. The inside of the exhaust lifter is movable, spongee, the inside of the intake lifter feels solid, not spongee or movable like the other one. I think that is a problem.

Sounds like one lifter is primed and the other is not but don't see how you could have damaged a lifter. You can disassemble the spongee lifter and take a look.

BTW, it sounds like although you have adustable pushrods, you R/R'd them from the top like you would OEM pushrods? If you installed them that way, you shouldn't expect to be able to "spin" the lifters; they would need 10-15 minutes to bleed down, so you could spin them; unless they are Woods directionals.

Since the pushrods are adustable, why not start over and install them they way they were intended to be installed.?

[Uncle Salty]

Originally Posted by djl

Since the pushrods are adustable, why not start over and install them they way they were intended to be installed.?

makes sense.

[jimmydsmith7]

ok, took the one lifter apart that you could not compress and unstuck it. Started all over with finding TDC and things went together as suppose to. Pushrods rotate freely etc.
Thanks for all of the suggestions.
Great board!