Is it necessary to unbolt the oil pump from the cam support plate to remove the plate for a cam install. Bike only has 15k on it and great oil pressure. Wouldn't that lessen the problems with pump alignment?

 

if you do not unbolt it from camplate it will come out with the cams, thus you'll have to realign on shaft anyway. either way it was real easy on my 88. no special tools needed just make sure it seats in o ring.

 

Thanks, that's what I thought just wasn't sure.

 

The pump had to come off. You can't install cams with the pump attached to the cam plate. Additionally, the oil pump should be installed before installing the cam plate. Trying to seat the pump pickup into the scavenge port and lining up the gerotor flats with the pinion flat is a PITA and you run the risk of screwing up the o-ring fitment at the scavenge port. Remove the cam plate and then the pump. Do you have a service manual? If not, get one; quick!

 

I have pulled mine apart and put it back together 3 times i left the oil pump bolted to the cam plate no problem

 

Did you install cams with the pump attached to the cam plate as well? The OP is changing cams; read the post. The pump should come off, might as well separate it from the jump. But maybe you have a trick that you want to share on how to change cams with the oil pump attached to the cam plate?

 

Put cams in my '07 Ultra last week, the pump stays on the cam plate. No need to remove it. You just gotta make sure the flats on the oil pump gear & the crank line up when you reinstall. It might be different for other years. Anyway, one less thing for me to screw up.

 

Maybe before the 07 you might have to pull oil pump mine is a 2011 changed cams with pump attatched

 

I guess I am to used to working on the older bikes; mine are '02 and '05; my brother's is an '05 and the few guys that I will occassionally ride with all assist with motor work all ride older bikes. Outer cam journals ride in roller bearings and are pressed into the cam plate. I have worked on a few later models but follow my normal practice of removing the plate from the pump just because that is the way I am used to doing it. I can see how the cams could be installed in the later cam plates since the outer journals ride in the parent material of the cam plate and do not require pressing. I would pull the pump anyway, just to look at the gerotors and the wearing surface where the gerotors make contact with the cam plate. I also have an aversion to lining up the pinion flats and the pump gerotor flats while fitting the pump scavenge pickup into the scavenge port/o-ring. Good way to end up with a sumping issue. But that's just me; I am **** and I have an incurable case of advanced tinkeritus; fortuantely it is not fatal.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I ended up taken the pump loose for inspection. All looked ok as far as I could tell. I used the "turning rear tire" method to let it find it's center for alignment. Hope that's good enough as I couldn't put my hands on my alignment pins. Always seem to find that kind of stuff after the fact.