Lifter noise due to pushrod adjustment?
Lifter noise due to pushrod adjustment?
Check my other thread for my last noise related question. It was a spectaculiar outcome...
Got the broken cam bolt out, reassembled, ditched the FM pushrods for some tapered Screaming Eagle ones. Bike has S&S standard lifters in it that are less than a year old.
My indy swears by the "you adjust SE pushrods to 2.5 turns." I have told him several times that per Jamie, Scott, Kirby, and the S&S lifter instructions you need to set them around .150 which would be 3 full turns and 3 flats, but he is thinking it's a collapsed lifter. I've never heard or seen of a collapsed S&S lifter and everybody swears by them. I did have a collapsed Wood lifter about 500 miles into my build 2 years ago. I have a whole set of Feuling HP+ 4000 lifters sitting in a dresser at home that he could swap in, but I've always heard mixed things about them.
Could this radical of a noise be a pushrod adjustment issue or is it definitely something else?
Got the broken cam bolt out, reassembled, ditched the FM pushrods for some tapered Screaming Eagle ones. Bike has S&S standard lifters in it that are less than a year old.
My indy swears by the "you adjust SE pushrods to 2.5 turns." I have told him several times that per Jamie, Scott, Kirby, and the S&S lifter instructions you need to set them around .150 which would be 3 full turns and 3 flats, but he is thinking it's a collapsed lifter. I've never heard or seen of a collapsed S&S lifter and everybody swears by them. I did have a collapsed Wood lifter about 500 miles into my build 2 years ago. I have a whole set of Feuling HP+ 4000 lifters sitting in a dresser at home that he could swap in, but I've always heard mixed things about them.
Could this radical of a noise be a pushrod adjustment issue or is it definitely something else?
Elite HDF Member
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 3,830
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From: Lorain Ohio
I haven't run the bike yet but I just installed S.E. adj tapered push rods an the instructions said 2.5 turns once at zero lash. I'm waiting on an exhaust header in the mail before I start it up. also the "flats" vary by the thread pitch so they're not all the same.
Last edited by langwilliams; Apr 3, 2019 at 07:37 PM.
Grand HDF Member
Joined: May 2014
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From: florida
pop the tubes and see what you can see, maybe you didn't get one correct and it's loose. maybe just an adjustment isssue. for the longest time the SE pushrod spec of 2.5 turns was pretty much the standard, it allowed the lifter/pushrodplunger to set at the .100 area. i have been seeing the trend over the last few years at people setting them deeper at the .150 range and do it myself, based on my local machinist's and kirby's advise. no negative issues.
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I haven't run the bike yet but I just installed S.E. adj tapered push rods an the instructions said 2.5 turns once at zero lash. I'm waiting on an exhaust header in the mail before I start it up. also the "flats" vary by the thread pitch so they're not all the same.
2.5 turns on SE pushrods gives you .104. That same setting on a 32tpi pushrod would be 3 turns and 2 flats.
S&S recommends .125 and most everybody says .140-.150 is desired to quieten the noise, which would be 3 turns 3 flats on SE pushrods and 4 turns 3 flats on 32tpi pushrods.
HDF Community Team
Joined: Jun 2006
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From: san antonio
Not clear to me if the OP set preload at .104", .125" or more but in either case, could be that the adjustment is off, i.e., piston not at TDC on compression stroke. Agree with marcodarq, pop the tubes, chekc for proper adjustment and readjust to set preload at .125"-.140". I do not use the S&S Standards, not made in the USA and there may be more that one offshore supplier, in which case; quality may vary. The S&S Premiums, IIRC, are made in the USA and, I suspect, under more rigid QC.
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Originally Posted by djl
Not clear to me if the OP set preload at .104", .125" or more but in either case, could be that the adjustment is off, i.e., piston not at TDC on compression stroke. Agree with marcodarq, pop the tubes, chekc for proper adjustment and readjust to set preload at .125"-.140". I do not use the S&S Standards, not made in the USA and there may be more that one offshore supplier, in which case; quality may vary. The S&S Premiums, IIRC, are made in the USA and, I suspect, under more rigid QC.
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Joe Kucinski
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2010
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From: Poolville
You need to determine what the TPI is. (threads per inch). A 24 TPI pushrod will require 3 full turns and 3 flats (3.5 turns) to set preload to .145" and a 32 TPI pushrod would require 4 full turns and and 3 flats (4.5 turns) to achieve .140" preload.
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Joined: Aug 2008
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how long has the engine run and did you bleed the lifters. when i set mine, it will take about 5 miles of riding for the lifters to become fully functional and it sounds like a china man in a bucket with a spoon. the s&s flow pretty good, a selling point over stock where it can take a couple of minutes to pump back up.