Just got a 92 Superglide with the evo motor. It was a brothers that is almost no longer with us anymore due to heart failure (avatar pic). When he still had it he was riding and it just shut off had to tow it. Got into it with Johnny law ended up with the bike in my garage in around 2014 ish, he took it to a Harley mechanic that I trust and was told a number he could not afford at the time, was told that most likely the woodruff key came off in the cam chest. So what I’m asking is how would a woodruff key stop it from running cam and crank run off each other my thought would be that he would have had an oil light and if he ignored engine would have seized due to no oil yet it still spins free. Just asking for someone with more knowledge to help this make sense to me.

 

Ooh dear....this is officially a basket case and may take some working out but If it seized up at the time, it could have freed off by now...they do that.

I would crank it over and see if it has a spark first as it may just have been the ignition system...if that all pans out OK then I would pull the cam chest and check each woodruffe key and see if it pumps oil...I would also make sure the oil light actually works.

 

What does "Just shut off" mean..?
Is the motor locked up ? I'm unsure about exactly happened. If you put it on a lift, pull the plugs, put it in 5th gear and manually turn the rear wheel, look into the plug holes and see if the pistons are moving normally. "Just shut off" could be an electrical issue which are often easy and cheap but it sounds like the shop determined more than that. I'd like to know more.
My bike "just shut off" around midnight going over the Mississippi river bridge between Moline and Davenport. Fortunately for me...it was simply a wire on the coil that had slipped out of it's ring terminal. I carry spare terminals, and a small flashlight... Put a new terminal on it, and got back on the road.

 

Best way to find out what, if anything, happened in the cam chest would be to just open it up.

 

 

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/dyna-...-cylinder.html
This thread pretty much covers the OP's problem.

 

I would start with the basics. Fuel, air, spark, compression, then go from there.

Do you know if the "shop" was just guessing or did they take things apart? "Thought it was a woodruff key" sounds like a guess? Info is kind of cloudy at this point.

Sorry to hear about your brother. It would be nice to get the bike back on the road out of respect to him..

 

You really have no information so, start with basics.
Pull the spark plugs, does it spin over? If so, check the compression. Good compression, check for spark, low or no compression, then you need to check out the “woodruff key” theory.

 

Starting in '90 and in later engines, there is a long T key (woodruff) on the pinion shaft that drives both the oil pump pinion gear and cam pinion gears. Before that there were 2 separate keys that did that job.

It's rare, but if that key gives out for whatever reason, the cam will not turn and or the oil pump stops.

Anybody giving odds whether the OP ever comes back?

 

I'm a bit leary of "sheared off a woodruff key",... come again, takes a helluva lot of torque to shear keys. Something doesn't smell right. more info is needed.