Newly purchased 1990 FLT . ex police with 70000 miles.
Apparently the po for the last recorded 10 years did a clutch change only.?
Havent ridden it yet as no time from work and no garage for winter work.
Did manage to repair a lot of wiring fatigue problems before the snow hit.
Bike is now stored in a shed for the winter.
Newby to Harleys but many years wrenching experience with other big sleds.
Questions...
I would like to rebuild the top end of this motor , including the following...
C/V carb. rebuild to stage appropriate.
Bump up the comp. ratio slightly by milling the heads instead of purchasing expensive high comp. pistons.
Do the usual valve , cylinder and rings work etc.
Replace the roller/lifters and update the cam and cam bearings .
Am surprised to see that this old motor has no leaks at top or bottom but she does smoke slightley and evenly at startup and due to the miles , im thinking she is ready for some TLC.

OK. so ., is there anyone or any file out there that fully describes the step by step procedures for dummies rebuilding an EVO motor ?

AND ... how do you know when to replace a worn Harley crankpin ... would it be an expensive noise ., loss of oil pres.?

Any advise is appreciated .

 

crunch crunch crunch. I caught mine before it did any real damage. You are aware you have to split the cases, right? It's not a top end thing. If you go there, you can do the whole bottom end!

 

70,000 miles......that crankpin is only half way home....it'll let you know when it's had enough by rattling like a machine gun.

 

Much as I hate to say it.....if you need advice on how to do the rebuild then you need to buy a manual....factory haynes or clymer will do for now with the factory one being the better of the three.

 

I have the factory manual and the Clymer.

I tried to look something up in the Clymer once. Couldn't find what I was looking for. It has been in the bottom of my manual drawer ever since.

If you are gonna get a manual get the factory one.

 

My TC Clymer manual is very good.

 

I had my 1990 bike, owned from new, rebuilt with a stroker crank. The builder used the same crankpin assembly, but honed everything and rebuilt it with over-sized rollers. He explained that they tend to go a little out of round and the bearing rings in mine were out about .0005 to .001, as best I recall. He was rebuilding another engine which was around .0035.

So if you plan giving the top end a serious overhaul, I suggest the bottom end deserves the same. With that mileage I personally would also rebore the cylinders and fit pistons with the CR you want, as my stroker builder did, +.010. My motor had lower miles than yours at the time of the rebuild, but was sublime.

 

the TC manual and the EVO manual are very different.

A friend of mine went to MMI and I have manuals from shovel head to '09.
The TC manuals are much better than the older ones.

 

The V-Rod one I just got is also good but I'm gonna avoid taking on anymore V-Rods....I work on Harleys because they are rugged and simple.....V-Rods are strong but they are horrible to work on

 

Plenty of videos out there...for a lot of people they are better than any book.
Most of them are on youtube.