I've recently acquired my fathers old 1980 shovelhead and the engine is ticking. It doesnt do it all of the time, but mostly when its warmed up but it does happen when cold sometimes. I'm not the brightest when it comes to this, but it sounds like maybe the oil pump isnt working like it should be since it isnt a constant problem. Any thoughts?

 

take a long screw driver and place it to your ear the screw end to each of the push rods base - your looking for what lifter is the one doing it - adjustment is needed usually its a hyd lifter - when you find it adjust the noisy one 3 more flats down or a 1/2 turn as its a 6 flat nut

it could also be a roller on one of the lifters - the cam gear lash is too loose even a piston can make sounds

 

One other thing it might be is if someone installed those big fat aluminum push rods in the bike. They can hit the push rod tubes. If you have those, you can see the witness marks on the push rods where they hit the inside of the tubes.
Another thing is it could be too much axial travel (clearance) on the rocker arm shafts.

 

Bingo, those cheap kits were the bane of shovel heads valve trains. Many an owner got big eyes when they saw that pushrod tube flexing sitting at an idle after installation.

 

not sure if you can see anything special from the picture, but here she is because i dont know what the big fat ones would look like

 

originally they were 3/8 inch diameter they also had 7 /16 < fat ones but they are very odd even to find today - but we have some in the pile

 

So where im at now... They are indeed hydro lifters. When i hold a screw driver like you said at the base of the lifter, i hear no difference between any of them. I just took the lifters out and inspected everything and there was no damage or issues. Installed all of them with adjustment and it all sounds the same. I checked the oil pressure and im getting 32psi at idle. Also, not sure if this goes along with it, but it has fouled the rear spark plug and i put new ones in. It just fouled it out again and there is a black puff of smoke every other cycle or so coming out of the rear cylinder exaust.

 

Got some rocker arm end play going on then, not harmful just noise makers.

 

it might have scuffed that piston and they do clatter when scuffed

 

Is there a way to pull the rockers off with the engine still mounted to install shims?