Baisley Spring Install Questions

It's really not that difficult. Here are some quick instructions for a Road King Classic:

1) Remove right side floorboard.
2) Remove right side hard bag.
3) Remove right side exhaust. (Note: It helps to spray the header flange bolts and muffler-to-header joint with a good "liquid penetrant" spray a couple of hours prior to disassembly.
4) Drain oil. Note: Not sure if this is required but I needed to change my oil anyway.
5) Remove cam cover. Note: Take care in removing cam cover screws! Mine had some type of Loctite on them and I had to work them in and out slowly until they turned freely.
6) Drive the existing roll pin out using a 1/8" pin punch. Note: Drive the roll pin out slowly and make sure you catch it when it comes out.
7) Take a small hook and pull the old spring out enough that you can roll it past the cam chain tensioner spring. Note: Getting the old spring out enough so you can spin it out can be tricky.
8) Install the new spring and roll pin. Note: It is much eaiser to have help on this step. Have one person hold the spring past the roll pin hole using a small screwdriver. The other person can drive the roll pin thru. I used a new roll pin and turned the split away from the spring.
9) Reassemble in reverse order. Note: Be extra careful while torquing the cam cover screws. It is very easy to crack your case or strip theads if you over-torque the screws. I used a quality torque wrench (Snap-On) and torqued to 95 in-lbs. using 4 passes in the order specified in the service manual. I started out at 25 in. lbs. first pass, 65 in. lbs. second pass, 95 in. lbs. third pass and check pass.
10) Don't forget to refill with oil!!!!!


This was posted a while back ( by jlight). Hope it helps! Clean out any oil that gets into the cam cover bolt holes with a Q-tip. If you leave oil in them the hydro lock can crack your case.

polishing plunger bore

FWIW, I put a bit of 600 grit sand paper in the chuck of a drill, inserted it in the plunger bore and spun it a bit to smooth the bore out and open the bore up just a shade so that the plunger moved freely without a hitch and yet not allow much oil to bypass the plunger because the bore was opened a bit too much. I just guessed at how much to do it: went by feel of the plunger friction in the bore. Then I pulled the plug in the cam support plate and washed the plate passages and therafter replaced the rubber seal on the plug and inserted the plug. I used a new roll pin.

Personally, I don't think the cam support plate bypass spring/plunger does much in a TC 88 since the bypassed oil does not dump into the cam chest like it did on EVOs, but recirculates to the pump and some goes to the filter. It seems like a nearly closed loop system to me, however some of the bypassed oil does go the filter which is not a closed loop. So, the cam support plate bypass spring activation pressure must exceed the maximum capacity of the pump pressure or you are in bypass if the bypass activation pressure is lower than the oil pump pressure (which does not seem like much of a problem to me in TC88s since the bypassed oil goes to the pump and the oil filter as opposed to the cam chest).

I put a shim in mine so that the Feuling pump pressure would not exceed the bypass activation pressure under normal operating conditions and MAYBE cause the pump to "cavitate". Otherwise, it was not a concern to me since the oil will merely bypass to the filter and get to the engine where you want it instead of the cam chest like it did on EVOs.

If you take out the cam plate, be sure to use the lowest permissible torque on the doweled bolts to prevent stripping of the case threads upon reassembly.

A lot of folks have very different ideas about this. This is what an enthusiast thinks, me.

STB