Never Know What You'll Find

[Ohio HD]

Got my buddies '85 FXWG on the lift, I built this motor for him, say 17 years ago. Been a good bike for him, always runs. About a year ago, he had the rear exhaust lifter lifter loose the rollers, damaging the lifter block, cam, and sending bits of metal through the motor.

When this happened, I had just had knee surgery, and wasn't able to help with the repair. He put Velva Touch Lifters in it, a new Andrews EV-59 cam, and cleaned the motor out, and rebuilt the oil pump. So now about a year later, the bike has been puking oil from the crank case breather hose.

So I pulled it down to lap the oil pump check ball seat, and just have a look around. Pulled the point cover off, and first thing I see is metal shavings. WTF! The advance unit was rubbing against the rear of the Dyna ignition plate. Further into the motor, I find that a lifter roller from the roller failure last year was still running around the motor. Made it's way into the scavenge side of the pump, taking a few small chunks from the gear teeth. Amazingly the pump body wasn't hurt, really just some normal light scoring that you might find on a 17 year old pump. The roller I found was unhurt, so I assume there "was" another in there, that went through the gears.

So I flushed the case through the cam bearing with kerosine, the S&S cases have a nice drain plug, with a nice magnet that didn't catch anything. I saw nothing come out of the case, so am hoping it's all out now. While waiting on a pump rebuild kit from S&S, I made a quick check ball seat lapping tool from a Twin Cam push rod, and a standard  3/8" ID x 3/4" OD shaft collar. The shaft collar fits nicely into the recess in the pump body for the check valve cover screw, centering the push rod. Got the seat lapped, pump cleaned out, shaft seal pressed in, and just need the rebuild kit to assemble.

Tomorrow I'm picking up the old Andrews EV-51 that was in the bike from my buddies garage, I want to measure the depths of the cam nose, and compare to the EV-59 that's in there now. That advance unit rubbing the Dyna ignition plate has to be related to the cam. The motor has the same nose cone it always has had, the bushing in the cone is fine, no real wear at all. The cam end play was at 0.005", but still it can't come out more than the cone will let it.

Other than the cam being machined wrong, any ideas what may have caused the advance unit to start rubbing on the ignition plate? The ignition and advance unit are the same parts that have been in there all these years too. The advance unit is tight, the bolt was tight. 

 

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[Old Crow]

The pivot holes in the advance weights get worn, allowing them to move outward and hit the back of the plate.  If it goes on long enough it'll eat the tabs on the little springs.  Then the whole thing comes apart, snaps the screw in the end of the cam and the locating pin in the rear of the advance base plate and then you're walking...800 miles from home, and 50 miles from anyone you know(guess how I know this). 
Look for an advance unit with needle bearings in the weights.  Jireh used to sell 'em but they've been out of stock forever.
My old Ironhead used to eat an advance unit every year until I got one with the bearings.

[Ohio HD]

Yeah, I too thought at first the advance unit must be sloppy. But it's tight. It actually is one we got from Rivera Engineering that's built from stainless steel, it's a tight unit. If you look at the picture of the rear of the Dyna ignition plate, the mark is isolated to one of the pivot studs rubbing on the plate. Somehow the advance is just out to far. That's why my next step is to measure the old Andrews cam and the new one that was put in a year ago. 

[Ohio HD]

Found the problem with the advance unit rubbing the ignition plate. One of the studs that hinges one of the advance weights had started to move outward, about 0.050" further out than the other one. There is no wobble or looseness in the fit, how ever it did push back into place easier than it should have. So I pushed it out, cleaned up the pin and the hole, applied a little Loctite bearing and sleeve retainer, pressed it to the correct depth.

Should be good as new, I guess all those years of vibration caused the pin to work it's self outward. First time I ever saw that with out the hole being wallowed out. 

[Old Crow]

I just love easy fixes.   

[Hillside Motorcycle]

We just "found" what was left of a s/s band clamp, inside a 116", that was recently built by another outfit.
Made a mess.
Scott

[Ohio HD]

We just "found" what was left of a s/s band clamp, inside a 116", that was recently built by another outfit.
Made a mess.
Scott

Doesn't take much to ruin the party does it!   

[Hillside Motorcycle]

Noise makers and hats work well, not pieces of s/s in motion, loose, inside the engine.
Whoever did this, also determined that an aluminum plug in the crankpin was a smokin' idea.
That too, migrated,( must be the interference fit, wasn't an interference fit) and was hammering the cases, both sides, to include the cam bearing bosses.
Hurt the pump/plate, crank was semi-fuct, cylinder had an actual step in the bore, but new pistons were recently installed, and the cams were ruined.
Other that that, it was a good running engine................
Scott

[Ohio HD]

Noise makers and hats work well, not pieces of s/s in motion, loose, inside the engine.
Whoever did this, also determined that an aluminum plug in the crankpin was a smokin' idea.
That too, migrated,( must be the interference fit, wasn't an interference fit) and was hammering the cases, both sides, to include the cam bearing bosses.
Hurt the pump/plate, crank was semi-fuct, cylinder had an actual step in the bore, but new pistons were recently installed, and the cams were ruined.
Other that that, it was a good running engine................
Scott

      

[Ohio HD]

OK, so I got the oil pump rebuild kit from S&S late Tuesday, and worked on it for a while yesterday, went riding, then finished up this AM.

I lapped the check ball seat, took oil bag off, cleaned it out, there was some sludge in there, replaced the two gears for the scavenge side of the pump as there were nicks in them from a lifter roller. The pump body had very minor scarring in one spot, so I let that go, and decided to try it anyway. And I found a whole roller in the scavenge side, probably soon to go through the pump. Cleaned out the motor as best I could, found nothing else.

Bike is not puking oil any more, and I believe the problem was the scavenge gears. Reason I say that, my buddy had just change the oil a few weeks ago, we went riding a week ago, maybe 80 miles. Other than that, the bike has not been ridden since the oil change. When I pulled the cam cover off, drained the cases, I probably only got about 2" inches worth of oil, in a small plastic drain pan, that's about 12" in diameter. And the oil bag had next to nothing in it. 

I think the scavenge side of the pump couldn't keep up, and the crankcase was filling constantly. And while riding the bike, I think it just lost oil all the time, scary, and not safe either. So I think it's fixed, but I think he needs to invest in a new pump at some point, as there was slight scarring in the body.


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