Hey Guys,
Ok I have a 2002 Road King that has rocker noise after ten mins of cold start warm up. Here is what is going on. I took the timing cover off and it has a Se hybrid cam plate , adjustable P rods and andrews cams that were recently done. I re adjusted the P rods first with no change. So I took apart the cam plate to check for debris and see what is going on. I did find 2 small parts of shoe liner in the camchest. I cleaned out the plate for any extra debris. I checked and tested the pressure valve which was fine and blowing off at 40 psi. The cam plate had very small wear in the pump area on the annodizing but i couldnt feel it with my finger. I re installed everything corrctly. The oil pump and spring are good....new seals. I have good oil pressure even when the rockers start to clack......I am thinking possibly the rockers worn or bushing? any help would be great.. Thanx

 

I am not sure what "shoe liner" means but assume that you are referring to the hydraulic tensioner shoes. If so and you have found pieces of the tensioner shoes in the cam chest, you need to replace the tensioner shoes and make sure the replacements are installed correctly; easy to get the plunger and spring in the reverse order which will result in premature wear.

How many miles on the motor? Where the lifters changed when the cams were installed? Lifters could be bleeding down and causing the noise.

 

Yes Dj....the tensioner shoe from the stock set up is what I found in the camchest...not the hydraulic replacements.....40,000 miles on her and they are the stock lifters....I am torn between the rockers and the lifters so I may jus replace them both.

 

I would start with the lifters and put a little more preload on the pushrods, maybe another 1/2 turn. Preload at .130"-.140" might make a difference.

 

40 k on lifters you did good. change them.

 

Ok guys here is an update...I just installed a set of Woods directional lifters w a .140 preload. I let it run for 15 minutes she sounded great very quiet and then SOB it started clacking again at the lifter and rockers. So far the only thing I have found not completely perfect was the camplate with the annodizing scraped off between the kidney shaped ports. The oil pressure is good it doesnt move....why is she losing upper end oiling when she warms up? any suggestions would be great. Thanx

 

I have over 55k on my '03 using the SE high volume oil pump and plate. I have cousins with over 100k on original heads and rockers. Sounds to me like the lifters and or pushrod adjustment. What pushrods do you have and do you know if they are 24 or 32TPI? Most suggest .145-.155 preload and that equates to 3 1/2 turns from zero lash if you have 24TPI pushrods. Did you have it at TDC for each cylinder before setting that cylinders pushrods?

So if you went say 2 1/2 turns per the Se 24 TPI pushrods you are setting roughly at .100" preload. going to 3 turns get you to .125" and 3 1/2 turns is .145".

 

I have 24 TPI push rods and yes they were set w zero lash at TDC. I just pulled the cam plate pop off valve and cleaned that also. I also cleaned out the oil passages to the lifters just make sure nothing was blocking it since I did find a couple small pieces of old tensioner in the cam chest....hopefully its all good after this attempt. Thanx for the help!!!

 

Ok guys...I put her back together today after going through the cam plate, oil pump o ring and cam plate o rings. I checked oil passages to the lifters. Cleaned out polished and tested the the valve. Which is blowing off at 55lbs with the upgraded spring. 3.5 turns out on 24 tpi r rods with woods lifters and after 10-15 minutes of warm up she starts clacking again at the lifter and rocker....nowhere near what it was with the stock lifters but still loud all 4 of them....I went through this entire oiling system and not sure what is next...coud the lifter bores be worn? seams that Im getting oil to the top end until it gets warm....HELP

 

One thing I would check is the rockers themselves. Check the bushings and end play.

Seems pretty common to see excessive endplay on the rocker in their support plates.