When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So, looks like the tool I bought is for OEM-style pistons with the notch, but simply expanding the coil appears to make it easy to install them. I ended up using the method he shows for removal, but stumbled onto it myself by trial-and-error.
Anyway, should be easy to install now that I know you just expand the coil. BTW, the special tool requires you to expand the coil in order to insert it into the tool’s head, so very little benefit to the expensive tool, frankly…
I opened the timing chest to drain and siphon out the nasty oil, and there were no large pieces, just very fine silvery grains. The cam, lifters, cam spindle and big bushes in the timing cover looked fine (amazingly). So, just shined up the cover and reinstalled it.
After installing timing cover, I added a gauge to the pump, which required bending up and flaring a new line to avoid the dial. This is mainly to reassure myself of oil pressure during initial startup, but may as well put something there as the idiot light senders are useless...
I cleaned up the combustion chambers, and my DIY valve job looks fine (this photo is before I prepped the mating surfaces).
Tool to R&R the wrist pin bushes is arriving late, so wont have her running for at least another week.
Cylinders are ready to go, laid down a nice cross-hatch. Ive decided to go with cast pistons this time around, as that seemed to be the best advice for a street (non race) bike.
Question: the V-Twin cast pistons do not have an indicator as to the front, only STD and a little circular recess on the crowns. Is the circular recess an orientation indicator of some sort?
The only thing Ive read is that the side with the shorter dimension should have its skirt toward the exhaust side. Is that right? My measurements from the edge of the wrist pin holes to the outside of the skirt come up virtually identical maybe a few thousandths different.
Last edited by NM Pan-shovel; Apr 16, 2025 at 09:44 AM.
7 Surprising Harley-Davidson Products that Are Not Motorcycles
Slideshow: The bar-and-shield logo shows up on far more than motorcycles, some of the company's most unexpected products have nothing to do with riding.
Slideshow: From the troubled AMF years to modern misfires, these bikes earned reputations for reliability issues, questionable engineering, or disappointing performance.
Crazy Bunderbike Build Looks Amazing, But Is It Impossible to Ride?
Slideshow: The Swiss custom shop has taken a Harley Softail and stretched it into something so long and low that it looks closer to a rolling sculpture than a conventional motorcycle.
Engraved Rebellion: Inside Bundnerbike's Glam Rock II
Slideshow: A standard cruiser becomes an intricate metal canvas in the hands of a Swiss custom house known for pushing Harley-Davidson platforms far beyond their factory brief.
