Rocker shaft assembly

[motorplex88]

Putting some head gaskets in a '78 FLH and decided to disassemble the rocker shafts to inspect. Found them to have the wavy shims and also some little rings that fit inside if the shaft bushings. I have never seen these rings before and my shop manual doesn't show em. Seems to me a feller should stay with flat shims or machine the bushings and/or shafts. Really just curious about the little rings

[fbn ent]

Get rid of the shims.....one wore out and broke on me an my way through Wyoming while heading to Sturgis. Only way I knew was a piece cut an oring on a pushrod tube. Was in the middle of BF nowhere so kept on going(no cell phones back then). By the time I got to camp I was hearing bad noises. Apparently I didn't get it all out. It was rebuild time by the time I made it the 2 thousand miles or so home...,

[motorplex88]

Yes, I understand that shims are not that great and the wavy shim is even worse. The little ring spacer/shim has me curious.

[motorplex88]

Seems as though the little ring is part of the wavy washer kit. No matter now. I took all that crap out and made spacers to set up the clearance to 10 thousands. Now I can just worry about other junk coming apart and going through the engine. 

[xlfan]

What kind of steel did you use, and is it necessary to harden them?

You set clearance @ .010"?

[motorplex88]

I simply used 1 inch cold roll and turned it down. Right or wrong I figured it was hard enough. Yes, I set all 4 shaft clearances to .010 by counter boring the spacer.