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Engine Mechanical TopicsDiscussion for motor builds, cams, head work, stripped bolts and other engine related issues. The good and the bad. If it goes round and around or up and down, post it here.
bought lots of stuff from Surdyke and it's always been a good deal
That has been my experience as well
To the OP, the Harley world moves at it's own pace. I come from excavating, paving and trucking world, everything moves very fast, and I'm used to being able to get parts next day, I was very frustrated when I started dealing with HD vendors, some are much worse than others, my local dealer being one of the worst. This has changed my whole approach on projects for my bikes. I do hours of research and locating parts before I begin working on my bike, I try to have everything in hand and a line on the maybe's before the first bolt is turned
Try Newcastle; used to be Zanotti's. Very easy to deal with; chat feature great to run down PNs that don't show up; staff is very helpful; good return policy; parts not in stock orders never take more than 10 days. Always a good experience. Of course, for one off nit noid parts I usually try a local dealer first. There are three in my area and one usually has the parts but if not, I can usually get it from Newcastle just as quick as waiting for the dealer to order.
Try Newcastle; used to be Zanotti's. Very easy to deal with; chat feature great to run down PNs that don't show up; staff is very helpful; good return policy; parts not in stock orders never take more than 10 days. Always a good experience. Of course, for one off nit noid parts I usually try a local dealer first. There are three in my area and one usually has the parts but if not, I can usually get it from Newcastle just as quick as waiting for the dealer to order.
^^^^^THIS^^^^^
New Castle has been the best in my experience and they usually get it to me faster than my local dealer
for what it's worth, i think that all HD dealers are suffering with parts orders and shipments from the MoCo. my local dealer has been having all kinds of issues both with orders getting canceled, not being able to track orders and all kinds of other crap. more an issue with HD than at the dealer level. i'e bought lots of stuff from Surdyke and it's always been a good deal i think that they are suffering from the same crap with HD as my local dealer. the story is that HD has changed/updated their systems, but the kinks aren't worked out yet.
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Surdyke checked and the part was released by Harley yesterday, but isn't set to ship until tomorrow... Seems like every time I run into strange delays for something it ends up being catastrophically defective in some way or another.
I think I'm going to take them up on the full refund and run the stock cam and leave the inner bearings for now. At least I got to the shoes before they completely failed and put fresh o-rings in, so it wasn't a total waste of time.
A bit disappointed, but it will give me more time to mull over the cam options. Maybe I will end up going with a different set. Still looking to get a good "mid-range" non-emissions type.
for what it's worth, i think that all HD dealers are suffering with parts orders and shipments from the MoCo. my local dealer has been having all kinds of issues both with orders getting canceled, not being able to track orders and all kinds of other crap. more an issue with HD than at the dealer level. i'e bought lots of stuff from Surdyke and it's always been a good deal i think that they are suffering from the same crap with HD as my local dealer. the story is that HD has changed/updated their systems, but the kinks aren't worked out yet.
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I decided to give it one more week. It's supposed to get down in the single digits the next couple of days so I'm not exactly itching to put it back together and ride.
Part of my problem was getting the first set off fleabay from the joker trying to pass of stock cams in an SE box. They showed up in a couple of days, I figured the others would as well, so that was me being dumb.
Since their coming from the factory, are for an engine they haven't made in 15 years, and aren't the standard knee-jerk dealer recommended part I'm guessing they didn't have them on hand. Or if they did they'd have been stored in some obscure location...
I see a lot of threads about changing cams, but I don't see much talk about it's affect on timing... Should I expect to have to change my ignition map?
Picked up an A-frame 6 ton hydraulic press from Harbor Freight. Assembled it, squared everything up, leveled it, tightened it all down, then took the bottom bar out to give me more room.
Cam chest and rear jug are done (except for the covers). I did end up swapping the inner bearings out after all. I was a little thrown by the kit not having any way to compress the removal tool, but the service manual mentions using a hose clamp which I did. Still had to grind flats onto the threaded end to put a wrench on to keep it from spinning, but other than that it worked well. Good cheap(er) tool.
I ordered the replacement outer roller bearing from J&P instead of a discount place, arrived in less than a week. Not to say discount place couldn't have done the same, but for $10 difference I figured it wasn't worth it after what I went through before.
Expecting "warm" weather this weekend (40s F) should be able to fire it up and take it for a spin tomorrow and see how angry the fueling/jetting is. I've already looked at #46 pilot jets, and know about shimming the needle.
Got it done last night. Started it up and took it for a spin this morning. Very impressed. Haven't done anything with the A/F yet, but MAN that woke that motor up! Smoother and has more grunt off idle. I didn't want to hammer on it too hard since it's a new cam and all, but I figured with the roller lifters it should be ok to let it out a little. Cruising at 50mph I bumped it down a couple gears to hammer it up 70 to see how it felt. Definitely was a difference in the Seat-O-Thepantsometer, it never used to push me back in the saddle like that before. I was doing 80 before I realized it and it was still pulling.
Only thing I'll say is that even though the power delivery is almost silky smooth I can feel more vibration through the bottoms of my feet. Not a deal breaker though, I can stretch my legs out and rest them on the pegs. I am VERY pleased with these results so far.
After mussing with the a/f mix for a bit I realized it wasn't going to. I was around 3.5 turns out and it would still cough and stall if I cracked the throttle at idle. So, a quick trip up to speak with the good man at J&R Engineering in Grand Rapids saw me leaving with a 50 pilot jet on his recommendation and two new plugs.
Don't know how this wasn't leaking.
A few hours more than I care to admit later I had the a/f screw at a "default" 2 turns and was out running it in 36°F at 10 o' clock at night. Usually it'd take maybe 5-10 miles to be able to shut the choke all the way off without it coughing on acceleration and stalling at idle, this time I was less than a half mile out with the choke off. Promising start.
Chugged along smoothly enough at 30mph for 4 or 5 miles, then banged it up a highway on ramp...
My thoughts were as follows:
"HOLY ****!!! THIS MUTHERFUKER GETS IT!!!!! NOW!"
Also:
"HAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!!!! WOOOOOOOO!!!"
I want to thank everyone that steered me away from the Andrews 21, I probably would have been very underwhelmed by it.
It was the comment, even though they were pushing the S&S, of 'you think you know better than the Harley engineers' that played a big role in my looking at the SE line more closely.
Once the weather stays above 50s-60s I'll dial the a/f the best I can then take it up to the dyno, get some power pulls and check the sniffer for final adjustments. I'll post the pulls to complete this thread, if I was a gamblin' man I'd say mid 80s, but not to look stupid if it doesn't I'll say I'd be shocked if it's less than mid 70s.
It is pulling hard when it hits what I can only assume is the rev limiter at 40mph in first, it doesn't feel like it's on the downward slope of it's powerband but I could be wrong. It had wheelspin pulling away from a stoplight all the way through the intersection, part of that's from the cold and old tires though
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Cam finally arrived
