What cam to use?

[tbickle22]

Need a little help deciding which cam to use. I have two new cams, Andrews "A" and a "AB". What is the best choice for a stock 76 Shovel with a CV carb and straight pipes? The bike is a FXE and will be a solo rider for general use back and forth to work, 25 miles mostly highway, and weekend runs limited to 200-300 miles.
Thanks
JD

[ramcr913]

I have been running an Andrews A grind with either drag pipes or shotgun pipes. Runs strong 1500- to about 4500 RPM- I don't run it hard.  Never dyno'd it so I can't give you any numbers.  Never tried any other cam, so I will be interested in the responses to this post. Good luck...

[Old Crow]

I'll second the reccomendation for the A.  Running 40" drags, S&S E, and an S&S 4 3/4" stroker kit.
Pulls hard from the basement all the way to 6k if you push it.
Had an S&S 514 in it before and that was way too much cam for a bagger.

[amfspyder]

I have always run Sifton cams in my shovels. This year I'm going with a Andrews BH to try something different.

[LilBill]

my 77 came with a ab andrews already in it and i've been well pleased. it has s&s wheels, rods and pistons, super e, drag pipes and stock ignition. i do notice that putting shotgun mufflers on it moves the torque threshold down about a thousand rpm. with straight pipes it comes on about 2500 and pulls till i chicken out and shift and with mufflers it starts pulling closer to 1500 and seems to top out around 5k. whenever i load it down for trips and pack a passenger i put the mufflers on and it really helps with stop and go running.

btw, i'm running a close ratio andrews gear set with a 23/51 final drive

[tbickle22]

Yea that's the same rear gear ratio I'm planning on running. 23/51. But since I already have both cams in hand I guess I could just try them each this summer. Don't think it's more than a couple hour job to switch cams? What do you think?
JD

[gryphon]

yeah, swapping out cams is a pretty easy job. They make a tool for holding the lifters up out of the way. Or else you can pull your pushrods and use magets to hold the lifters up and out of the way.

[randallwhitman]

Hey Gryph.......where do you get those special maggots to hold up the lifters?   

[dbdevkc]

This is an old thread - wondering if I can bump it back to life. 

I have a 76 FXE, Andrews close ratio gears in a 4-speed tranny (1st: 2.24; 2nd: 1.65; 3rd: 1.35), 23/51 final. Light bike/light rider, mostly 1-up. Mostly in low and mid-range RPM. Pretty rare to get it up to red-line

Cam that was in there is an Andrews A grind (maybe ~25 years old - not sure if that matters at all - still looks to be in great condition).

Should I just leave it, or are there some alternatives that might give the bike some new life to it?

Thanks 

[JW113]

Just use it, get a feel for what you like or don't like about the way it runs. You will then be able to make and educated decision about a different cam profile, it if comes to that.

-JW

[dbdevkc]

Just use it, get a feel for what you like or don't like about the way it runs. You will then be able to make and educated decision about a different cam profile, it if comes to that.

-JW

Sounds reasonable. I did ride it, quite a bit. It was a daily commuter for a while. I found it fun to ride, but to be honest I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention at the time, and it was about 18 years ago.

Other consideration is it will be kick only so not sure how an overly aggressive cam might affect that. But yeah, unless someone convinces me about a different cam, maybe that is the thing to do. Get everything else done that I am planning - dual-plugging, mild porting, etc. then if I want to try another cam, it is an easy enough of a swap.


Thanks