Cam Install Disaster
Cam Install Disaster
So I decided to throw in some SE255 cams into my 96" Dyna. Read lots of articles, studied the manual had some experience digging into my sportster motor to convert to a 1200 before with no problems so I thought this project was doable. Boy was I wrong.
Now let me just say that this was not difficult. I just screwed up and wanted to share this so no one else goes through what I did.
Anyways so what happened was I disassembled everything I needed and I was at the halfway point. I went to pull the old bearings with the bearing puller tool. This is where I should have stopped. It was late at night, I was tired from taking everything apart and I should of put everything away for the night but I was too damn excited so I kept on. But for some reason I could not pull the old bearings out. I kept turning the puller with the wrench not knowing I was tearing apart the old cam bearing!
The next morning when I came out to continue where I left off I found fragments of the old bearing in pieces. I was able to collect all but three bearing rollers which fell into the crank case. Now my bikes in the shop for open heart surgery (getting the cases split to retrieve the pieces).
Moral of the story I don't regret trying to do it myself but a simple mistake cost me a lot more than I had planned on for this project. Anyhow I hope when its all back together the cams will make me forget!
Now let me just say that this was not difficult. I just screwed up and wanted to share this so no one else goes through what I did.
Anyways so what happened was I disassembled everything I needed and I was at the halfway point. I went to pull the old bearings with the bearing puller tool. This is where I should have stopped. It was late at night, I was tired from taking everything apart and I should of put everything away for the night but I was too damn excited so I kept on. But for some reason I could not pull the old bearings out. I kept turning the puller with the wrench not knowing I was tearing apart the old cam bearing!
The next morning when I came out to continue where I left off I found fragments of the old bearing in pieces. I was able to collect all but three bearing rollers which fell into the crank case. Now my bikes in the shop for open heart surgery (getting the cases split to retrieve the pieces).
Moral of the story I don't regret trying to do it myself but a simple mistake cost me a lot more than I had planned on for this project. Anyhow I hope when its all back together the cams will make me forget!
Last edited by rideamap; Oct 1, 2014 at 12:08 AM.
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 43
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From: Olive Branch MS
I don't work on these things every day but i have found that the cheaper cam being puller seems to damage before it pulls on those bearings. After my first one i started packing the old bearing and outside surface of my puller with heavy grease so if this does happen the needles will stick rather than fall into the crankcase.
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Scott
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 335
Likes: 58
From: Camarillo, Ca
I've often found thoughout my life that being in a hurry gets you nothing but trouble in a hurry. Thank you for sharing your troubles to help others advoid the same mistake. Goodluck with your repairs
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Well what I did wrong was I was turning the puller the wrong way. I didn't notice because I had the 4 thumb screws screwed down so the support plate wasn't moving but it would have been moving outward if the screws weren't screwed down and I would have noticed then. There is another type of puller with a cylinder and two nuts that you tighten together. The one I had was a puller/installer combo off ebay. The quality of the tool was not the problem, it was me. After I had realized that I totally messed up I used the tool the right way and it worked fine. I pulled out the old bearings no problem. I ended up putting the whole thing back together so I didn't have to bring the bike to the shop in pieces. I'm no mechanic (obviously). I'll admit that but I've saved lots of money in my life doing things myself. More than enough to pay the shop for this screw up. By the way if anyone is curious how much it cost to split the cases its $90/hr @ 10-11 hours. Ouch is right.