Hey everyone. I am working on rebuilding my 1200cc Sportster engine off my bike. I noticed that both the base and head gaskets were leaking on the rear cylindar and upon removing the exhaust I noticed that the rear exhaust valve was corroded pretty bad (Possibly the reason for the blow gaskets?).

I figured with winter coming up it would be a fun project to pull the engine and throw on some new gaskets and valves. Figured it would be a good idea to do some research before diving in tho.

One hang up I did have was that when removing the engine I had to remove some wiring from under the cam gear case. When I opened this up three of the four cam gears came out with the cover. How should I go about repositioning these? I under stand that messing this up can potentially ruin the engine.

My plan was to remove the pushrods, valves, and springs. Then to crank the pistons to TDC via the crankshaft. Then Place the cam gears back in according to the indication markers on them. Lastly I could put the push rods and valves back in place. Is there anything wrong with this approach? Not sure if I am doing everything in the right order.

One other question is that the clutch cable doesnt seem to want to actuate now that the engine is off vehicle. I am wondering though if this is because I drained the oil (plates might be stucking?). I added a quart of oil but the clutch cable still doesnt have any play. I can shift into neutral and move the flywheel but no luck pulling the clutch cable with the bike in gear.
I do however understand that without the cam gears in I probably don't want to be turning the crank or I could crush the valves with the pistons. Any ideas on why the clutch cable is unable to free the crank though?

Last question, when doing this rebuild, is it usually necessary to replace the valve springs and push rods? I am definitly changing out the valves themselves and the gaskets, but do the springs and pushrods generally need to be replaced?

Sorry for the lengthy post and all of the questions. This is just my first rebuild so I want to make sure I take the time to do everything right so my engine doesnt blow up on me.

 

Please please please tell me you have the manual?

 

Yes sir, I bought the PDF version of it. Was just looking for some input from some people who might have done a similar rebuild. This is going to be a winter project for me so I have plenty of time, wanted to get as much information from as many sources as possible. Thought that this forum looked like a good source.

 

eBay has 88 cube kits for your sporty. Would make that bike insane

 

Haha that would be a cool upgrade. Little pricey though :/.

As of now I am stuck though. I can't start the rebuild until I can get the engine into top dead center, but the clutch seems to be stuck. I initially had it drained of oil (to make the removal cleaner) and could shift into gears 1-5 but could not get to clutch cable to move at all. I added a quart of oil and now it will only shift into 1-3. Any ideas of how I can get the clutch to free up to let me turn the crank?

Everything worked fine before I pulled the engine, and I havn't touched the tranny at all. Figured the plates were just stuck due ot lack of oil but now I am not sure as I added a quart a few hours ago and it almost made it worse.

 

To rebuild anything in the engine other than inside the case itself or on newer bikes inside the tranny you could have left the engine in the bike. T.D.C could have been found by rotating the rear wheel in gear then disassembling from the rocker covers down to the base gaskets. Unless your changing cams, no need to remove cam cover even. At least this is how it was on my 96 sporty when I did the 883-1200 conversion. When I did my 90" engine, well thats a different ball game.

 

Yeah part of it was this was a winter project for me and I store my bike up north. Was more of a convenience to actually pull the engine and be able to work on it in my basement without having to drive up north.

Any ideas on how to unstick it off vehicle tho? Or am I actually going to have to pull the tranny to achieve tdc?

 

If you have the cam cover off already and cams out all the stress will be off the valve train, finding TDC would not be important then til rebuild. The reason you find TDC before pulling the heads is to relieve pressure on the rockers/heads to remove the heads. Please follow your service manual as I'm just going from memory on my 96, yours could be different.

 

Very true. The reason I wanted to find TDC is for when I reassemble the engine. Need to find TDC in order to ensure the pinion gear in the gear case lines up correctly with the number 2 cam.

 

Very true. The reason I wanted to find TDC is for when I reassemble the engine. Need to find TDC in order to ensure the pinion gear in the gear case lines up correctly with the number 2 cam.

Will need to unfreeze the clutch cable in a week or so, was just wondering if there was any tricks without actually taking the transmission apart.