I'm putting some earlier polished aluminum rocker boxes and pushrod tubes on my 83 FLHS in place of the chrome plated stock ones since I needed to replace the supposedly leakproof gaskets and I'm not having luck with the push rod tube quad seals sealing. Here's where I'm at: I have the eight long bolts properly torqued around each of the intake/exhaust valves and I notice that there's a slight gap between the bolt bosses of the rocker box and head at the ninth, short bolt on the right side to the tune of between .004 and .005. I know that the gasket surfaces should be flat flat and the ones on these older boxes are much nicer than those on the newer ones. Here's my question: should I use some shim stock to bridge that gap between the rocker box and head at that ninth bolt hole or not worry and go ahead and torque it down as is?
What I have done on a bad surface is ,,,I use a peice of marble with emery paper glued down as smooth as possible( I use a seem roller) then I run the mating surface over and in circlular motion to clean up the surface..Try not to get heavy handed or it will end sloping to one side....we call it a "poor mans mill".
Dave
I had to do the same thing dave mentions on my chrome boxes.
I was surprised how un-flat they were out of the box. That 9th hole doesn't seal up any oil so if all else is "flat flat" then at the very least I'd shim it instead of pulling it out of shape
Here is how I do them, I use the side if a crank grinder stone.
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj45/skooter_photo/rockershaftsandboxes002.jpg