75 xlh


I was fixing a leaking rear cylinder valve cover/head gasket on my bike. I rotated the motor to compression stroke and adjusted the tappets all the way down. The intake pushrod came right out but the exhaust didn't have enough clearance to make it removable. These are non adjustable pushrods. I double checked that the tappet was as low as it would go and that it was on bottom but it just wouldn't go. I had to loosen the head to get enough extra clearance to remove it. Is this normal?

carl

 

When I remove my Shovelhead pushrods, sometimes I have to extend the PR a extra turn, wait for the tappet to bleed off, give it another turn, wait again. End game is make sure the tappet is bottomed out without going too quickly as to cause damage. When I know it's bottom out I release it and it comes right out.

 

It is not uncommon to see this on an IronHead, but I have not experienced it myself. It could perhaps be caused by valve seats being worn so the valve is low in the seat? Something to think about, or see what others say about this.

 

There are two possibilities here. 1 - valve and seat are worn and sitting higher in the head causing less free-play in the adjuster. 2 - lifter is not bottomed out. Try to turn the engine over slowly by hand, and feel the lifter drop. If the cam timing is off a tooth, that would also account for it not coming out. Had that same issue on my 77 restoration. New valve guides and valve seats cured it.

 

Bike runs great and the top end is fresh. Any chance that the valve job that was done could have been done wrong ( too deep)?

carl