[chaplain]

I have an early 84 shovel, flh. I am doing almost all of the work myself on a total engine rebuild. Hoever, I did take the bottom end to a reputable aftermarket bike shop. They dynamically balanced the flywheel assembly and then sent the pinion flywheel to balancemaster for the mercury treatment. The shop assembled and trued the flywheels. Buttoned up the cases, and handed it back to me. I was instructed to lubricate the pinion ( an aftermarket rodset assembly that I supplied) through the pinion shaft with a trigger type oil can. I used my snap-on siphon gun instead. After I saw oil drooling out of the rods from the pinion, I was satisfied... until I grabbed the rods and rotated the wheels. The most terrible grinding sound came out and I was horrified. At first I thought the bike shop didnt clean out all the glass bead. The crank rolled approx. three times before I could stop it. I inverted the engine stand and clamped the block upside down under my steel table. After rigging up a short piece of 3/8" hose to my siphon gun, I ran about two quarts of brakleen through the pinion shaft while carefully moving the rods back and forth in 1/16" increments, then slowly rotated the crank back and forth while running two quarts of clean mineral spirits through it. I was able to clean it enough so that the sound totally disappeared and lubricated it again. I beleive that a mud dauber wasp plugged my siphon gun(which has happened before) and I shot the plug of sand right into the pinion! After mounting the pistons, rings and jugs, I screwed on the compensator nut and rotated the assembly with a breaker bar. Heres my question! WhenI bring the pistons to the top, I hear a tick-tick and at the bottom it goes tock-tock. This is happening as the crank pin passes TDC. Is ther supposed to be ANY noise while rotating the crank? My KB piston to wall clearance is only .001" When I put my finger tips on the domes, I can feel it as I hear it. With a stethescope on the domes, the noise is really pronounced. Would only three revolutions of the crank wth sand in it destroy the pinion and bearing? Please help!!

 

[JimmyK]

Welcome to the forum.

Folks around here like to help. I have taken the liberty of posting you message on another site as well in a Tech section that specializes in the area of your Shovel.

By all means, stick around here as well but as a back up use this link.

http://communities.msn.com/HarleyTechTalk/shovelhead.msnw


This is the MSN Tech Talk site and there is a lot of help there. If you have any problems getting in let me know and I will help you out.

My brother Hippo here will also no doubt respond to you here as well.

Once you get to the Tech site, the post is under "posted for The Chaplain" and you will see it was posted by JimmyK. Try and keep an eye on that thread.

Welsome aboard and best of luck to you.

 

[JimmyK]

PS. Not sure if you will need a Hotmail account to get into the site so let me know if you have any problems.

 

[HIPPO]

Yup, you need a hotmail account to join the site, but that's a no brainer. There are a lot of guys that buid shovels there, but right now MSN is upgrading something and it may be a day or two until you can get back in.


It's real hard to give an opinion without being there and there is more then one way to skin a cat, but we line hone quite a few shovel cases and when we assemble them (or any other engine) we do so dry with the exception of Torco brand molybdenum based assembly lube. They turn smooth as silk. This is a extreme pressure lubricant that protects parts during initial start up.

Using the KB's could make some difference due to the extremely tight piston gaps they use (make absolutely sure you also use the KB specified ring gaps as opposed to HD specs) but I doubt very much this to be your issue from the way you explained the problem. The smart thing would be to split the cases and inspect every single component even if you have to take the wheels apart, but that is just my personal way of doing things. See what the other guys come up with, there are quite a few smart guys there.

I also doubt any irreversible damage was done, yet, but you should discuss the situation with the shop that did the work for you and get their input before you go any further.

 

[JimmyK]

Back to the top.

Hey did you ever check the site I mentioned? Hell, there is an active thread of good techs trying to help. You came in here and asked and we were serious about helping. Check this ~~~>

Reply
Recommend (0 recommendations so far) Message 2 of 3 in Discussion

From: Samuel Sent: 6/15/2002 8:29 PM
You say you believe that you squirted a plug of dirt into the pinon shaft. I am aware of the plugs that you are talking about and I don't believe you did. Why? Because the oil journals in the pinon shaft are much too small to allow this. If you have a problem then it was My first question is; "why didn't the shop that did the work use assembly lube during the assembly of the wheels"? I believe what you were hearing was dry bearings and not dirt grinding. For that is exactly what a dry bearing sounds like. A grinding noise. And if they gave you back your lowers with dry bearings, how good was the other work? Recheck your piston clearances. Most after market pistons must be set up on the loose side to prevent gauling after they get hot. Are you sure that the piston skirts are not hitting the cases on the lower end of travel? It's best to check now rather than later. If you had the cylinders rebored it could happen. Samuel


Reply
Recommend (0 recommendations so far) Message 3 of 3 in Discussion

From: Rimcheez Sent: 6/18/2002 9:40 PM
Some cases need to be clearenced inside for the crank pin nut. When the wheels come around, the nut hits a small boss on the inside of the case. I would offer this as a check too, before going any further. I am in complete agreement with Samuel on the procedures of the shop.

*****

Anyway, if you are still interested in help, we know how to get ya some.

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