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been through the same thing recently.Are you sure abaout the .002 crank run out.That's what my noise ended up being.It had.012 run out when I shut it down.I understand that's the new norm for the 96" motors not the 88's.Is that true Hillside?
I believe that .013" is when "they" cry foul, but the 96" engines appear to be pretty darn tough, from what we see.
Scott
When you checked the connecting rod bearings did you wash them out?The engine oil can buffer a lot of movement in the rods.With the top end removed bring the rods around in the crank and spray them out with brake clean.Once all the oils out of the bearings you will and hear any unwanted movement.
Yes, .012 is the runout limit for the HD cranks, and that is on each end.
I dont know of an engine that has ever gotten that far out without swallowing the oil pump and causing a whole lot of other damage.
My 02 fxd had .017 runout on the cam end of the crank @ 40,000 miles. No unusual vibrations, sumping, noise etc.. I found it when I was going to do a cam change and hydralic conversion. At 17,000 I had inspected and changed the inner tensioner. I also polished the backside of both timing chains. I didn't check the runout at this time.
The wear on the pump to cam plate serface, and camplate bushing looked the same at 17k and 40k. Very rough. I assume the crank had been wobbling for 40 thousand miles. The replacement inner tensioner looked almost new at 40k and the outer had minimal additional wear. I'd recommend polishing the timing chains. Guess the point I'm trying to make is some twin cam engines can have terrible runout before they take a ****. Most of them will last long enough to be out of warrenty before they kill the oil pump.
Did you measure the runout? Hard to believe you couldn't feel .017" runout. You should have had **** falling off the bike. Also very unusual for that much runout in an '02. Not that it can't happen but with forged crank and Timken; the '02 bottom end was a bulllet proof as they come. I have ridden a bike with .013" runout and it was unrideable. Fairing brackets would break, floor boards/handlebars vibrated so bad your hands and feet would go to sleep in 20 minutes; couldn't see anything in the mirrors. The whole bike shook; it was just to painful to ride. Was like that from the day the guy rode it home from the dealership and he immediately started questioning/complaining. Finally and after much angst, the MoCo agreed to replace the engine.
Maybe some will tolerate a lot of runout but this one would not. If the owner had continued to ride it, it would have grenaded in short order.
Did the comp. nut ever come loose? Mine did and later I found out the Rotor over the Stator had worn on the spines. Finally replaced it when the Stator went bad last week. The loose comp nut was about a year ago. Helped alot.
Tim
On the late modle 96 the primary chain can hit the primary cover first bolt boss as it comes around the front sproket. That boss is inside the cover at the place where the engine can throw some slack and WHAK, it'll hits if just tiny slack.
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