I have riviera taperlite pushrods in a 95 Ultra Evo engine. I am getting what I consider excessive valve train noise. Motor has about 22k miles. The noise gets louder as your bear down on the throttle and lessens as you ease off. I'm also getting an uneven sound from the rear cylinder. I just had an Andrews EV23 cam, new jims big axle tappets and new intake/carb seals, new exhaust pipe gaskets, new fuel lines and a new SE ignition module put in.

I'm thinking maybe pushrod adjustment. How do I do it and what clearance is needed? Or at least how do I check the clearance? Thanks for your help. My current(now maybe former) wrench says the noise is normal and that the vibration and skip I feel are normal for the cam. It's not that radical a cam so It shouldn't make the bike feel like it's missing. It has V&H true dual head pipes and SE mufflers.


Thanks

Bubba

 

EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK! Just my 2 cents,...but if you have to ask,...you probably better let a wrench do it. If they are not exact,....and I mean EXACT,..you might not run at all.Or worse,..could damage something.

 

If you haven't already, do yourself a big favor and buy a FACTORY service manual before you start screwing with things. If you don't, you will eventually screw something up.

Although the adjustable pushrods aren't mentioned in the manual, you should still have one. The instructions for adjusting them can be supplied by Rivera. Have you checked with them first? The adjustment will depend on the number of threads per inch of the pushrod adjustment rod. In a nutshell, Harley lifters (and their clones) have a total travel of .200 inch. What you want to do is adjust the pushrods so they compress the piston inside the lifter by half that amount (.100 inch). Once you know the TPI of your pushrods, then you can figure out how many turns equals .100 inch.

1. Once you know the correct number of turns, you install the pushrods one at a time. Don't forget to put the covers on at the same time!!
2. Then you jack up your rear wheel, put the tranny in 5th gear, and remove the spark plugs.
3. Next, make sure the valve you are adjusting is fully closed (lifter in the full down position).
4. Then slowly lengthen the pushrod until it just barely touches the piston (cup) in the lifter. You don't want to compress the spring under the piston yet.
5. Once you have taken up the slack so that there is no up and down movement of the pushrod, but you can still rotate it with your fingers, lengthen it the proper amount of turns to equal .100 inch.
6. At the point, you won't be able to easily rotate the pushrod at all.
7. Tighten the locknut without changing the adjustment (use two wrenches).
8. Now sit back and drink a beer and wait until you can rotate the pushrod easily with your fingers again. This can take up to 10 or more minutes, but sometimes less than 5 minutes. DO NOT RUSH THIS JOB or you can end up damaging your engine!
9. Once you can rotate it, move to the next pushrod and repeat steps 1 through 8 for each pushrod.

Once you have them all adjusted and can rotate all the pushrods, using the rear wheel, turn the engine over several times to ensure there is no binding.
Then doublecheck the locknuts and put everything else back together. You're done! You shouldn't have to touch the adjustment again unless the locknuts loosen up or the lifter bearings fail. Harley lifters are usually good for about 50k miles before needing replacement, although I've seen them go longer.

Another thing about the lifters.... a lot of the Andrews cams, including the EV23 and EV27 cause a lot of valvetrain noise. This is due to the fast ramps that are used. A windshield will amplify the noise quite a bit. If you remove it, I doubt you'll hear the valvetrain at all. There's not much you can do about it since it IS normal. Your mechanic is correct about that. My 1995 EVO has the EV27 and on some days it sounds like an industrial sewing machine on steroids. Other days it's not as bad. It's nothing to worry about, though. I routinely rev mine to 6500 rpm when racing and it's still running great! Harleys are noisy engines... period. That's just something you have to accept. If it bothers you, go back to the stock cam, get a louder exhaust, wear earplugs, or buy a Honda.

That said, there are a couple ways to reduce the noise, but IMHO, it's not worth the time and money. You can use the stock cam gear with the EV23 cam (pressed on), or you can change the pinion gear to a size that meshes better with the cam gear to get the best lash setting. I've also noticed that synthetic oils tend to make the engine noisier. I have tried several brands and always end up going back to the good ol' Valvoline Racing Oil 20W-50 (fossil oil). It's worked great in all my bikes, street and racing, and it's all I ever ran in my '76 XLCH that has just over 300k miles on it (only 3 rebuilds in 14 years). That is why I can't see wasting money on synth oils. My extensive testing has shown no significant advantage since it

 

Actually, they don't have to be exact. Solid lifters do, but hydros can have a slight variation and still work fine. There's .200 inch to play with, and as long as your somewhere in the middle of that range, you'll be fine. A quarter turn one way or the other won't matter a bit. Anyone who can change a spark plug can adjust the lifters IF they follow the proper instructions and do not rush the job.

 

If your wrench did the work and say's it's normal and your not sure[sm=confused06.gif] maybe you should ask another wrench to listen to it, and see what he thinks before trying to wrench on it your self. I don't agree with the last post, about asking how to do something. If you think you can do it, I'd go for it. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the replies . I asked about the Rivera pushrods because I understood that diferent manufacturers used different thread pitches so that 4 turns on one might be one inch hbut 4 turns on another mnight be one and a half inches. I've routinely rebuilt old ford engines (Y blocks) so the ability to actually adjust them isn't beyond my scope of ability.

Just like asking for a second doctors opinion, I went to another local wrench and just asked him to listen to it, ride it and tell me what he heard.n After a five minute ride he took it into his shop and got out his stethascope. I told him nothing about the previous work. I wanted an honest, unbiased opinion. Here are his findings:

1. The miss or skip and accompanying vibration is due to either a weak lifter or misadjusted pushrod. SInce the lifters were new, I'll take it that the pushrods probably need an adjustment. ANd he even indicated it was the exhaust on the rear cylinder that was the problem.
2. The noise I keep hearing and everybody says is normal is actually a wrist pin problem. He let me listen to the valve train with the steth and front and rear sound the same. When he moved the steth mid cylinder on the front all I heard was the piston going up and down. When he moved it to the back cylinder, there was the noise I had been hearing, plain as day and loud.


So, Why did my first wrench not be able to hear what the second so plainly heard? I knew something wasn't right because I could hear it. I knew there was a skip because my mileage was down and vibration was up. Now I know Harleys vibrate but when I pull up to my buddies 97 road king with an evo and his is running smooth and mine is jumping like a mexican jumping bean on a hot skillet, I ain't no rocket scientist, but i know something isn't quite right. I ride the bike every day and can tell if something doesn't sound or feel like it did yesterday. I kept saying something was wrong with the rear cylinder and was told, It's a Harley, it vibrates, It's a Harley, it's noisy. It's normal. No it's not !

So it's off to the shop and hopefully back soon but I'm wondering why for $1300 why didn't the first wrench catch it?


Bubba

 

That '76 XLCH is made of almost completely different metal..Dino Valvoline was great for it...the New Engines thrive on Synthetics.

 

Because some people aren't willing to admit they might have made a mistake, when it would be the easiest thing to do and just make it right. Check out my leaking rocker box saga....