I've probably trued a few dozen wheel sets for sporties and shovels - this set will not submit to my tricks - maybe one of the more experienced folks on here might have some more tricks - if you have not trued wheels - dont bother posting "what I would do" - truing wheels is something that is learned after many trials and tribulations - sometimes you get lucky - but sometimes you dont

I have tried different pin nuts, I've re-cleaned the tapers - I've tried clamping versus wedging - I've tried drawing the nuts way down then backing off and re-starting

I;ve gotten the wheels to ZERO runout at about 100 foot pounds - then when I go further I get the same high and low spots in the exact same place - out of phase - so it is like the final draw down pulls the pin into the same angle no matter what I do to re-angle the pin - I have polished pins before to adjust angles but I am thinking this is a problem either with the tapers in the wheel or the Japan made pin - I may send the set down to T&O but spending 200 on this set of wheels is not gonna happen

Any ideas - or is my conclusion that the tapers are worn or damaged most likely the end game here

 

ok the shop trick we use is brass hammer smack the end of the crankpin while your in the vise ( we use a big 6 inch vise to hold and square the wheels ) what is happening the tapers are bent a bit and you need to get deeper in the pin taper to get it to stay

try this you will see the difference - torque up the key side check it for true - then give it a rap the torque wrench will tighten the pin some more in the taper - I have even seen 3 times before it stops moving ==== but your lock is now out of time you will need to mod it to work - we buy the cheapest china ones I can get knowing the timing on those of off and some times they slide right in

all this stuff has been hammered by many over many years and its not like it was in the 80s its today and its different

 

You're on the right track and John called it the tapers are a bit wonky. Time, the proper set up a beefy fuggen bench and patience. I made up a 5lbs hard babbitt hammer just for " adjusting " reticent flywheels. Got a few jigs for the hyd. press that help too.

 

yeah - I did pull down the nuts to set the pin deeper - and I got the pinion side to .001 and the sprocket side to .002 - pulled it apart again and now I cant get anything near .003- pinion side seems to true up okay pretty quickly but the sprocket seems to stay at .003 - the pins are falling into a groove and the wheels get pulled out of phase - never had this kind of trouble before

 

your bridge port looks like a nice piece check it for center put the sprocket shaft in the head and the wheel on the table do a run out ( tapers ) - then use very fine valve grinding compound and lap it slowly both directions and see what the gauge sayes

been in that spot before

 

Going old school true mechanic on it , going to be a lost art soon.

 

well - I had it to 0.0000 pinion and .0015 sprocket but the side play of the rods in the gap was too large - I tried drawing the cranky nuts down and wammo - knocked me back to hi and low with no hope - so I'm back to lapping - I'm concerned about this Dixie crankpin - but I used these in the past and always closed the spec to less than .001 - problem now - the crankpin nuts and threads are getting boogered so this may end in a bridge-tossing whiskey night over at the St Croix river in Hudson WI

 

the flywheel washers come in over size thicker - we set it at spec before permanent on the install using a surface grinder to adjust the side to side

early motors had a .010 / .012 spec with the iron oil pump that was dribbling oil

later spec when the alloy pump went to the seal on the shaft under the drive gearing all the way to .025

I have used probably 1000 sets of those RPLS rods from japan never seen a set out of spec - never seen a set come apart, unlike most places we have some of the same customers for a life time, and still see the machines from time to time

but shovel wheels from the AMF era I have seen things that made me shake my head from heavy spots ( density spots ) making a balance job next to impossible and like you have - it comes down to can you stay on a customers stuff looking for perfection when it fact he cant afford it and its not going to happen - not someone who is not doing this

some times you have to split the difference between the outs and say good by - I know but its an AMF shovel motor and it wont care in the end

with the advent of air guns and the install of the sprocket shaft sprocket using one - you should see how much the flywheel true go away after they use an impact tool on the shaft -- we did that to see - then we started using red loc tite on the shafts and nuts

today we do it both ways with red and with out and that also becomes another thing - just because 50 60 80 years ago they wrote the book only do it this way, WHEN all the stuff was new, has nothing to do what we are trying to fix 25 / 50 how many times has it been apart -- overhauls later with wheels that were beat with chisels and hammers over the years - yes that is how they did it then

 

When I moved my shop about 10 years ago - I had a wheel set done by T&O - I never checked them when they came back but I decided to check them before I finished up the motor job - the side to side rod gap at the washer was 025 or somethin close to that - those wheels were gonna scrape the cases in that old ironhead - I had to redraw those wheels down - my concern was overall width and case clearance - I dont have a lot of experience with big twins - just ironheads where the clearance to the case is real tight - you are 100% correct though on tolerances and wheels - ever pinch the wheels lightly and see how far they move out on runout - you get like .002 just lightly pinching the wheels - think about the rotating mass under load - those wheels are flexin and bobbin and weavin like Sugar Ray fightin Ali in a rope a dope match

 

I drag raced iron sportys all my young life. lived on one that was 84 inches, we ruled the streets till the first 500 3 cylinder 2 stroke came along - would race 6 traffic light for money from a dead stop in the city - never beat one on a roll

on the side of the sporty gas tank above the big sportster decal was Japanese kill flags from a WW2 model for every one I beat back in the day has 1/2 dozen on the tank

will dig up some old pictures - in the late 70s to the very early 90s ran pro gas with the iron 96 inch motor 14 to 1 compression ported 2 inches super D carb with thunder jets will post up picture of that as well, tom sifton ground me a special set of cams as I was 286 pounds back then it never gave me a 9 second pass that SOB - but ran one time 10 with 3 zeros even the tower was talking about that one