S&S Premium Lifters & SE Tapered Push Rods

[Thumper Buttercup]

OK,

We are running beehive springs and the 48N cam with .548 lift, so my push rods are getting
a lot of pressure.

So say we install the Smith Bro's push rods, now I guess I go in with my original 3 turns 2 flats
setting, the loctite is installed at installation.

So lets say now I need to make an adjustment, with the loctite 271 on the push rods, I take it
I now have to pull the fuel tank and the rocker arms to pull the push rods and then heat them up
so I can clean them up to reinstall???

Correct me if I'm wrong here.

[lilchief]

You can get the SB pushrods in & out of the bike by taking the tubes, rods, & lifter covers in/out all together. It is somewhat of a balancing act but it can be done. I did it on my old bike numerous times. Those were the SB quick install rods though. Once they are installed, you can make adjustments without taking them out. The adjusters are accessible once you raise the tubes. The loctite is used on the bottom, non adjustable part of the pushrod, not the adjusting part.

Lil Chief

[Thumper Buttercup]

You can get the SB pushrods in & out of the bike by taking the tubes, rods, & lifter covers in/out all together. It is somewhat of a balancing act but it can be done. I did it on my old bike numerous times. Those were the SB quick install rods though. Once they are installed, you can make adjustments without taking them out. The adjusters are accessible once you raise the tubes. The loctite is used on the bottom, non adjustable part of the pushrod, not the adjusting part.

Lil Chief

OK,

I was getting the impression that with the pushrod loctited you could not adjust it without heating up the loctite
to be able to adjust it.

So the bottom gets the loctite and the adjusting gets done and the push rod is locked down with the jam nuts
like the SE are???

[lilchief]

Yes, once the rods are assembled, they pretty much adjust just like any other pushrod. I know theres alot of guys that dont loctite that one piece on there. If I remember correctly, SB recommends it, but they say its not necessary.

Lil Chief

[Dogbone45ACP]

Back in the vendor section, under Garfields Garage, FSG has some excellent pictures of Smith Bros push rods.

[Don D]

I make up sets with S&S clips and tubes and Smiths 3/8" .145 wall pushrods. Nice thing about them is no downgraded undersized adjuster, the OD of the rod is threaded. Rock solid.

[rageglide]

I do not use loctite on the smith bro's. 

Thumper, if you change the thread pitch between pushrods yet you know the preload that works best for you, do the math to figure out the preload and do the math with the new thread pitch to get to the same.  Don't just go with same # of flats/turns.

Example  existing 40tpi pushrods (rivera) 4 turns is exactly .100"  (1/40=.025 * 4 = .100)  New pushrods with 32tpi 1/32=.031  .100/.031 = 3.22 turns    3.25 turns would be close enough.

[Thumper Buttercup]

Hey rageglide,

I figured on the change and have kept good records of the depth we've set our pushrods at.


So yesterday we set out on what was supposed to be a long day of riding only to have the racket
again, but this time it was most of the time early on.  We rode about 40 miles and pulled over
and took a break to decide what to do with our day, I was ready at this time to just ride it home.

We decided to shorten up the day and get on the back roads, we'll it seemed that once the engine
got good and hot the quieter the engine was at 55-60 mph.  Also when starting out with the engine cool
and oil temp down it was quiet.

We are going to order the SB pushrods today, I'm not going to change anything else just the push rods
and see where we go, I am also going to rig up an oil pressure gauge and test our oil pressure to make
sure there are no problems there either.

[rageglide]

Thumper,   Bummer about the continued issues.  How'd the SB work out?  Any change?  (presume not)   What oil pressure are you running presuming you have the guage hooked up now.

[Thumper Buttercup]

Thumper,   Bummer about the continued issues.  How'd the SB work out?  Any change?  (presume not)   What oil pressure are you running presuming you have the guage hooked up now.

The Harley gauge reads a little over 32 lbs at 2700 rpms, I've got a oil pressure gauge test set coming tomorrow.

On the SB pushrods we are still waiting for them, Don shipped them priority 3 day delivery and they were supposed to
be here today...but they were picked up from Dons 27 June, then they went about 5 miles, then the next day they went a bit over
5 miles and as of yesterday they were sitting about 17 miles from Don's in Kent Wa. and they are not showing anything else yet on
where they are.

[rageglide]

I see about 32-34 hot above 2k and my latest build is getting noisy right in the 1800-2200 range.  I'm at 1.5 turns off bottomed off the limiter.

1.5 turns @ 32tpi (SBs) by the way.

[Thumper Buttercup]

We'll Don called yesterday and raised heck,

The Post office overnight-ed the package and it was sitting at the local Post Office
this morning, ran down and I've got them.


Thanks Don

[Ohio HD]

Get your Smith Bros push rods here.

http://www.garfields-garage.com

Ask for FSG!  : teeth:

[Thumper Buttercup]

Get your Smith Bros push rods here.

http://www.garfields-garage.com

Ask for FSG!  : teeth:

I went there and was going to order from him but his website is not "Https" so I was not
going to make an account there, I was going to order his camchest studs also.

Right now I'm on the back burner, I thought I was getting the new SB pushrods like Gary
sells but these I got are the straight 3/8" that I have to pull the top end to install.

I'm going back in today and set my SE tapered to 3 turns two flats and just ride it.  I figure it
out later.

[Ohio HD]

Get your Smith Bros push rods here.

http://www.garfields-garage.com

Ask for FSG!  : teeth:

I went there and was going to order from him but his website is not "Https" so I was not
going to make an account there, I was going to order his camchest studs also.

Right now I'm on the back burner, I thought I was getting the new SB pushrods like Gary
sells but these I got are the straight 3/8" that I have to pull the top end to install.

I'm going back in today and set my SE tapered to 3 turns two flats and just ride it.  I figure it
out later.

PM him here.     

I can assure you there is no one here more trustworthy than FSG.     

[glens]

I don't think it's a question of his integrity, it'd be that of anyone on the same network as his storefront (or the same network of the customer) if in fact personal information is transferred over an unsecure connection.

[Ohio HD]

I don't think it's a question of his integrity, it'd be that of anyone on the same network as his storefront (or the same network of the customer) if in fact personal information is transferred over an unsecure connection.

I think I understood that, that's why I suggested a PM here....   

[Thumper Buttercup]

Thanks Guys,

We are going to step back and do some riding and just live with it,

I'm seriously looking at getting a set of 06 or later heads and send them out
for some light work.

Pull the 48 cams and maybe drop in a 98 kit and then trailer to a good tuner
and have her properly tuned.

I think these 48's just create just too much noise, I like the power but there has
to be a quieter setup than this one.

[PoorUB]

I think these 48's just create just too much noise, I like the power but there has
to be a quieter setup than this one.

My buddy is running the 48's in his 2012 Ultra and they are not any noisier than stock.

[Thumper Buttercup]

Hey Greg,

We'll we've been chasing noise in this one, every time we think she is fixed she
starts up again later on.

How many turns did you end up with your push rods??

[Ohio HD]

I ran the 48's in a 96 inch inch motor for a while. There was a little chatter between 2,500 to 3,500. Nothing that was bothersome to me, but it was there.

[76shuvlinoff]

I have some very slight (slight to me anyhow) ticking hot and at speed with SB PRs, S&S premiums, and the 48s in my 12 103.  This is sitting behind a batwing so I hear everything. I took the windshield off my shovel and that one is a LOT more quiet now. 

Mark

[Thumper Buttercup]

We'll I've chased this dog for a couple years now,

Last fix was to replace the exhaust rocker arm and mounting rod with a S&S,
that quieted it down for a while, the bike was pretty quiet last year but we did
not get many miles on her due to the bad weather up here.  In fact that was the
second rocker arm we've installed in that front due to noise, I had a catch to dress
out on the rocker arm support (SE supports) also.

I did notice I was getting some noise out of her not much but we had put in the new
Gatermans last year and I got the S&S premiums to replace them.  The Gatermans had
marks in the rollers like others had shown, took them apart but they were clean inside.

We set the depth in the S&S like I usually do and you guys can see what we have.
We'll rider her now and see what happens, I know I'm running beehive springs that
are stronger than Harley's and that might not be helping the issue with the higher lift
cam.

It seems that the old girl is happy for a while then decides to mess with us.  The funny
thing is once she starts to make noise it will tick at idle with really gets me going.

[fxstdavew]

Yours sounds like mine, some days are quieter than others. It doesn't cause a durability issue, it been over 50K but it bothers me cause its only the frt. exhaust and I cant fix it. lol The biggest change I got is when I went back to conventional oil specifically Spectro 20/50 . I change my oil to the magical LM 10/60 hoping that the 60W would cushion things while getting the benefit of syn. oil  NOPE it got louder. But nothing that ear plugs wont fix . 

[Thumper Buttercup]

We'll we changed the pushrods to 3 turns 2 flats .139,

Also the bike was quiet on 15-50 Mobil one last year so we dumped the LiquiMoly 10-60.

So I start up the bike to load her in the trailer, bike is nice and quiet, let her idle for a min in the
trailer and it's still quiet.

We'll our first run today was to the dealer about 15 miles at 55 mph and 7 miles at 75 mph.
The bike was quiet for this run.

Bike sat at the dealer for about 10 min so we came out to a hot soaked engine, started her up
and here was the noise, it stayed with us all day.

I'm wondering if I don't have a valve guide that gets loose when hot.  Going to carry a stethoscope with
us next ride and try to pin this down, to my old ears it really sounds like it's coming from the front
exhaust valve with some noise in the exhaust pipe.