Got everything I need to change the cam and bearing, pushrods with S&S quickee pushrods, new lifters.

My question...should I drain the oil from the bike or will the cone just have a little bit behind it and just need something underneath to catch that little bit?

Nothing in the service manual about this. It's hard enough as is going all over the book for each little thing to be done for one project (like a cam swap), but I found nothing about draining oil first or not.

 

You will not lose very much.
MAKE sure you check your pinion nut !
What cam did you select ?

 

You don't need to drain oil, and you really don't need to remove the small amount that sits in the bottom of the cam chest either. Replace the nose cone cam seal while your in there. They are only a few bucks from the dealer. YD

 

Hey Snake, what cam you going with?

 

Got a 'kit' with all the seals and gaskets for the whole thing.

Got a EV13 cam. Not looking to be a speed demon, but was needing something better to get my big *** around slower traffic faster when passing them, and still hopefully keep as good or as close to as good gas mileage I have now.

Wish me luck. Before I got disabled and could still drive a p/u, I could build a 350 Chevy damn near blindfolded and only used the service manual for torque specs and such. Now that all I own is the bike and it's all I have, I depend on the service manual like food it seems...if I screw something up, I'm in deep ****, heh. I just wish the book didn't have each thing spread out all over the place making it hard to follow steps or even find them. I *know* this should be a simple thing, just like in the Chevy swapping a cam, but I always get nervous now because I just can't afford to mess up. It sucks, this anxiety, lol.

 

You got this! One step at a time, and if you get stuck, you know where to ask!

 

what Omaha said....

 

1, I have found it smarter to swap the gear from old cam to the new cam.
2, It is a lot more EZ to measure cam end play with both lifter blocks out
3 examine them carefully as they wear out too and all the new lifters in the world will not make up for sloppy lose lifter bores.
4 remove pinion nut clean threads and red Locktite the crap out of it !
Lifter magnets are a nice option to have top hold everything out of the way at times.

 

Simple job just take your time and FYI 99% of the time the gear on the new cam is fine don't overthink it. You'll lose a ounce or two of oil when you crack it open, old cookie sheet works well. Only things to really watch is changing the inner bearing and adjusting the lifters.Use a lite touch going out then back in with the cam bearing, be sure it starts in straight and lube it a bit. New lifters I soak in oil overnight so be sure to let them bleed off properly before you move on to the next pushrod, sometimes guys get impatient at this point, don't.

You'll do fine.