HarleyTechTalk

I have heard that you need to change your lifters every 20-25K miles if you have an aftermarket cam in your bike.  I would like to take a tally of how long you get out of your lifters and what cam you have.  I got 12K out of some S&S lifters with the Dave Mackie 580 cam.  they were the only ones that failed on me.  I currently have fuelings with the EVL-5005 cam.  runs great so far, but I only have about 1500 miles on it.  My failure was in the bearing on the rear cylinder exhaust lifter, not much scaring and only slight up/down wobble in the bearing but it caused the bike to backfire and run really poor intermittently not to mention the added noise from the cam chest area.  I had the EV-27 cam with stock lifters for a long time, probably 25K miles, no issues.

1994 FLHR
OEM lifters set #1 - 30K miles w/ OEM cam (10K miles) and with Sifton 143 cam (20K miles), then failed
OEM lifters set #2 - 30K miles w/ with Sifton 143 cam, then failed
OEM lifters set #3 - 30K miles w/ VThunder 3030, then failed
OEM lifters set #4 - currently running w/ VThunder 3030 and fingers crossed

'99 FLHTCU , 89K miles on the engine, put 26G cams in at 48K, original stock lifters.... good lord another thing to keep me awake at night.. 

There was a service bulletin that stated "inspect, and/or replace, at 25 on the clock.
Scott

  I just did my 94 RK,,heard a tick from engine,,couldn't locate..The motor has lots of S&S parts (heads,carb,pushrods,cam) but stock type A lifters..Bearing failure at 42K,,As I removed the lifter the bearings fell into my hand,,scarey "Potty mouth"...Found mark on cam and rocker pad had pitting...Cam is a S&S 560....
Parts replaced,,,cam,,breather gear,,4 lifters,,4 rocker arms,,gaskets
Dave

Lucky the rollers didn't find their way to the oil pump.
Good find.
Scott

Ok then whats a good lifter to replace with, I've read in here that the new H-D "B" lifters arent that good and someone else had problems with the JIMS. 

I hope this doesnt turn into a oil thread, as  that isnt my intention. I'm just not up to speed with the market as I was when I had my machine shop. Used to be Crane rollers sucked and JIMS were by far the best back then. Things are changing to fast in the market and quality suffers, a Co. making a good part this month, runs of to china for cheap crap the next... 

So any input

We stay with the OE H-D lifter here.
Scott

1998 FLHTCUI 103,456 miles with original lifters. I heard tapping noise in the nose cone area. Replaced original OEM 80 cubic inch evo motor with a Ultima El Bruto 127 cubic inch motor. Problem solved!

On doing some more research I find Comp Cams has a choice of 2 lifters, 14-15 dollars a piece. Good price ! I ran their cams and lifters in a couple of my drag cars and was very happy with them.


http://www.compperformancegroupstores.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=SRCH&Store_Code=VT