I really thought I was in the clear with this one. The holes tapped nicely; however, they are not perfectly straight and I must have been slightly off center. One tappets cuff is too tight and I can't get the required .002 clearance and the other one won't allow the tappet through. It needs to come forward a bit. My thought was to over drill the mounting hole on the S&S cuff. This would allow the side to side play to get my feeler gauge between tappet and cuff, then tighten bolts.

 

 

No, it won't be exactly square. Pretty close; but, not exact. This is not a moving part and it will have minimal to no load on it. It will NEVER be touched again! However, this condition of not being exactly square does bother me. I would like to hope that with plenty of red locktite an proper torque, nothing will move; however, I sure do agree with you that my options are limited. I'm just wondering if they are limited down to just the one choice of replacing the case. I'm kind of thinking so.

 

Yes, there is plenty of meat around that area. I'm not sure a helicoil would work here as it would leave me in the same location. One of the holes needs to move slightly.

 

 

Search here and Google. I remember seeing a few threads on this and from what I remember the only recourse was to get new cases

 

I agree with taking your bike to a machinist or you may be able to do it yourself if you have the equipment. Basically what will need to done is to build a jig, secured to the tappet cover bolts, that will guide the bit straight as the holes for the helicoils are drilled. The helicoil uses an oversize bit so it should be able to do quite a bit of clean up for you. I myself would opt for the machinist doing it as I don't have a drill press or the time. You may have both. It will be less money and easier than replacing the cases, but it may be a little more than having a machinist extract the bolts in the first place would have been. If this doesn't work I guess it's new cases and 124" here we come!

 

This sounds very doable. It is exactly the solution I was trying to get at. Thank you for your experience and input.

 

If cutting an angle on the tappet cuffs with milling machine doesn't work, I am going with new cases. And yes, 124" HERE WE COME. If I am torn down to that level, it makes complete sense to reinstall the piston and jugs with 124". I'm not sure about doing anything with the heads, since they are such a good design to begin with. May be just a little clean-up porting with HPI 61 mm throttle body and feuling's 6.2 injectors. Now This stops being the build I set out to put together and I would have to think about a cam other than the M462 or keep stock springs and stick with it.