After being on the jack for 7.5 months I put the King back together. I tore it down late Nov. of last year, got the parts in and just had to walk away before I started putting bullets in it. So last weekend I put the new HD oil pump w/backplate, adjustable rockers, new rocker shafts, cam chain tensioner, FuelMoto pushrods and a new old set of SE lifters which one was bad out of the box. So a set of S&S lifters went in. Put 500 miles on it since last Sunday and all seems good. It's a bit rattley hot at idle and low rpm low load. But at higher rpms and hwy speeds the valve train is as quiet as a Singer sewing machine. All that rattle clatter bang bang is gone. Wife and I are going to ride it to Fort Smith in the morning get with some friends and roll around western Arkansas. have a charity ride Saturday. And if all goes well Sunday I will take it to the Talimena Drive and drag some boards in the Winding Staircase Country. Then later this month we are going to run up to Eureka Springs and spend a weekend relaxing, shopping and riding twistys. It's good to have it running again.

 

All the King's horses and all the King's men...put Humpty Harley Dumpty back together again, congrats nice job

 

Welcome back, glad it worked out! Every time I work on my King their is always a "pucker" on start up.

 

Got on the King yesterday morning and did a day trip to Fort Smith Ar. Had a great time riding a bit with old friends and eating a lot. The bike did the best it has ever done. Set the C.C. at 80 > 85 mph and set back and let it roll down I-40. Was amazing how fast traffic was moving. Not a peep from the valvetrain when at speed. No noise at all. Now hot and at idle and low load riding say around town it can get clattery. But nothing like it use to do.

 

What was causing your noise psy

 

I'm more curious what's causing the idle clatter..mine has always been whisper quiet, but of course not apples to apples since psy has modified his internals a fair amount...any abnormal clatter would bug me to the point of wanting to do something about it anyway

 

I only ask because mine got quite a bit of valve train noise or lifter noise or something when I first upgraded to stage 1......AC.

After my cam upgrade it was REALLY quiet, but after a couple thousand miles, I get more of that sewing machine sound.....and seems to be heard more when its really hot.

 

My problem has always been the oil pump. It's always made book pressure but flow would come and go. The low flow expressed itself in massive rattling and clanking in the valvetrain that would come and go at steady state and load. And not in the lifters. If you look at a oil flow picture of a M8 or any modern Harley you will see the lifters are the first thing to get the pressure and they don't require any flow so to speak. It took a long time to figure out. And being a pump guy,,, that's what I do for a living. I finally got one of my dopplers to at least produce a graph of the flow off the line that feeds the heat exchanger behind the oil pressure switch. It will not give me the flow calculation but it will display a graph. The doppler is meant to produce calc's and graph out 1.5" to 60" pipe sizes. So not enough resolution to give certified flow numbers on tiny pipe like we have on our bikes. And that graph clearly shows massive drops in flow that would coincide with the noise I was hearing. All the while pressure was great, bypass valve opening and closeing as it should. So I opened up the rocker cover's and took the rocker shafts and rockers out.

Found this:



Brass bushing transfer to the rocker shaft with bluing and slight gaulding of the shaft and rocker bushing. IE not enough oil. Measure the rocker shaft bushings and there out of spec. Result rattle rattle bang bang from the top end. Once the bushing had wore to much it was constant rattle bang bang. Then oil pressure started to drop ever so slightly. But remember the issue comes and goes. Rattle like hell then stop. Rattle and stop. People are also seeing sideloading of the rocker wearing into the rocker shaft mount or boss. It's not side loading it lack of oil. Also of note look at the elliptical machine work around the bolt hole. Who at Harley thought that was a good idea? Not anybody ever that has a engineering degree that did come out of a Fruit Loop box.

So this is what the idiots did to the mounting point with there elliptical hat trick:

 

So when they started producing the adjustable rockers they also started making the updated rocker shaft that does not have the stupid elliptical machine work that screws up the mounting and and allows the threads to be pulled out of the head because there is no mechanical backing to hold the tq.

Webby my bike does not have massive internal upgrades. It's all stock except for the 447se cam and updated bearing. It was rebuilt by the dealer when it was clear the motor was junk after 1500 miles and I lost the warranty over a FP3. Over bored cylinders from the factory and a bad oil pump. And when it went back in for a blown fork seal or was it the failed clutch switch? Don't remember the dealer put it's second oil pump in. It was better,, but the damage had already been done. And in the end the noise just got worse and worse. So now it has a current when I bought it oil pump and backplate with the vring. New cam tensioner,, why because I was there. One look at the cam chain and it looks like it was made in a back alley in China. Would like to find a better cam chain for it. Put FuelMoto adjustable push rods in it. The HD ones that came with the cam kit were junk out of the box. Threads were horrible. New rocker shafts and adjustable rockers with a set of S&S lifters. Tried a set of Screaming Turkey lifters in it that a buddy had new in the box and one of those collapsed and hung. Hence the S&S lifters.

The wife has even noticed the difference. Said it doesn't sound like a snare drum chorus anymore,,, thats nice!

 

Great job!