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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.
I'm a night person so I usually don't work on my bike until later in the afternoon. Those that don't know I've been upgrading a few things on my 2018 M8 114 Fatboy. From the S&S Manifold to the oil pump to an S&S 475C cam, S&S Lifters and S&S Quickee Pushrods. Anyway, yesterday my plan was to put the new S&S Lifters in and the pushrods. So I dropped in the new lifters, an S&S stabilizer and put the covers back on. I was getting ready to do the pushrods but had a question and came inside to post the question. Well lazy me decide to stay inside and not go back out to the garage.
Today I went out and set TDC using the straw method, because of the arthritis and carpal tunnel in my hands. Following the S&S instructions, I started on the rear cylinder. After running the pushrod down with my fingers, I marked one of the flats, then did four complete turns with my wrench. I waited 20 minutes and the pushrods were still tight. Another half an hour and they're still tight. So I back them off and removed them.
Question: Did the lifters bleed down over night even though there wasn't any pressure on them? And if they did, what would be my next step?
Question: If they didn't bleed down on their own, what should my next step be?
The piston may have been at TDC, but was it on the compression stroke or exhaust stroke? Do not rotate the engine with the pushrod in place as it is now or you may bend a valve.
So if you are uncertain, you might remove the pushrod and turn the engine one turn and find TDC and try again. It needs to be on the compression stroke to adjust the pushrods. When on the compression stroke, both lifters will be at the bottom of their travel.
No, the lifters won't bleed down with no pressure on them. They come with light oil in them, so they probably bled out as quickly as you could adjust the pushrods out. I'm guessing that when you thought you were starting to compress the lifters was when they actually bottomed out.
I did remove the pushrod before coming in for the evening.
I put my finger over the spark plug hole and felt the compression. Dropped the straw in, rotated unil the piston was up. Marked the straw, rotated the tire back and forth to make sure.
That's why I was wondering if the lifters could bleed down on their own.
You are heading in the right direction. Remove the pushrods and try again. Next time pay close attention to when the pushrod you are adjusting reaches the point where there is no up and down slop. This is when you start counting turns/flats. Pumping up the lifters with 20w-50 will probably make it easier for you to tell when zero lash happens.
d_slat is right on.. Don't need to remove pushrods. just slack em up.. You can peer in at the lifter and make sure, the lifter cup is all the way up against the clip.. Go to no up and down , then do the turns..
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Did I mess up again.
