bad lifter????
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From: san antonio
Also good advice.
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Joined: Mar 2011
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From: Indiana
I talked to Jamie @ FM and he said a lot of times you cannot tell the lifter is bad by looking at them so I am going to take the guessing out and buy the woods lifters and be done with it. I am not sure if I will stay with the FM push rods yet as they are locktited in and they are really kind of a pain to work with. I may just switch to the SE tapered as it seems like reading here a lot of people have had good luck with them. I think I read somewhere here that Bob Woods had recommended a different setting than the stock turns though???? Has anyone seen this????
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From: san antonio
Woods lifters come primed with a light oil and the ones I have done bled down quickly but I have some have posted that they had to wait a long time for the lifters to bleed down; don't know why.
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From: Indiana
[quote=djl;8631462]Good move. Woods recommends that pushrods be adjusted to .120"-.130" of lifter travel. The SE Tapered pushrod instrutions are 2.5 turns which would be about .100" of lifter travel. So, 3 to 3.5 turns should get you there; instructions are included.
So the SE's must be 24tpi, that would make 3 1/4 turns right in the mean (.125"), I ordered the Woods Lifters today and Keith said with the FM rods go 4 turns, they must be 32 tpi.......... if I remember correct I used 3 turns & 1 flat with the stock lifters?
He said it only takes an extra 1/2 hour to pull the tank & come in from the top to remove the pushrods, so you can remove them whole & undue the locktited nuts. I am still up in the air on this, for the cost of new SE's & the hassle of the locktite, I just may get the bolt cutters out!!!
So the SE's must be 24tpi, that would make 3 1/4 turns right in the mean (.125"), I ordered the Woods Lifters today and Keith said with the FM rods go 4 turns, they must be 32 tpi.......... if I remember correct I used 3 turns & 1 flat with the stock lifters?
He said it only takes an extra 1/2 hour to pull the tank & come in from the top to remove the pushrods, so you can remove them whole & undue the locktited nuts. I am still up in the air on this, for the cost of new SE's & the hassle of the locktite, I just may get the bolt cutters out!!!
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Joined: Jun 2006
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From: san antonio
He said it only takes an extra 1/2 hour to pull the tank & come in from the top to remove the pushrods, so you can remove them whole & undue the locktited nuts. I am still up in the air on this, for the cost of new SE's & the hassle of the locktite, I just may get the bolt cutters out!!!
I never did that before but after having an SE adjsutor come loose, I figured if Smith Brothers is recommending loctite, it might not be a bad idea.
Road Warrior
Joined: May 2010
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From: Central Illinois
He said it only takes an extra 1/2 hour to pull the tank & come in from the top to remove the pushrods, so you can remove them whole & undue the locktited nuts. I am still up in the air on this, for the cost of new SE's & the hassle of the locktite, I just may get the bolt cutters out!!!
I've got a set of these and when I replace the lifters this winter I'll likely just get a set of the longer (at the bottom) pushrod covers. Even with the little holder that comes with the FM rods there is very little room when using the stock covers. I had to grind down the width on one of my wrenches so that I could use it on the top nut while tightening the lock nut to it.
Last edited by uscanuck; Jul 29, 2011 at 03:26 PM.
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From: Oxford, Nc
Re-installed with a drop of blue loctite, ( what I had at the time,) and still carry 3 wrenches just in case. So far so good.
And I run my Black Ops lifters at about .140."
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Joined: Mar 2011
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From: Indiana
Well I ordered the woods lifters Friday morning from FM and they arrived Saturday morning, one of the local dealers was having a sale so I bought the SE prem. tapered pushrods and tore into it. Was just going to take the lifter covers off and come into the top until the little dowel that clocks the lifters fell into the cam case, so off came the exaust and cam cover. I figured while I was in there I would re-adjust the oil pump because there seemed to be more oil in the case than I thought there should be, so Saturday tear down and Sunday build back up and everything is back to normal! The old lifters looked fine, the FM push rods looked fine, but they were both replaced and no more noise..............
6th Gear
Joined: Mar 2013
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From: Stillwater, OK
SBC lifters
Hey ya'll new to this forum (new member) but been doing a "LOT" of reading on this H-D lifter threads. First off, I'm running a 95 ci 02 Road King with S&S gear driven cams (585G), did that after 6K on the new motor, rear cam shoe came undone, so riding Shovels and Pans and Sportsters over the years, gear whine no big deal. When we did the build back in late 02, we thought we did it right, even installed a S&S breather valve, to stop the oil blow by. Ran SE tapered adjustable pushrods, SE performance valve springs, SE rocker support plates, SE rolling rockers, and "SE performance lifters". Always using Amsoil 20W-50. That's the history until around 40K, then came the CLICKING NOISE FROM HELL. As we got into it we had found that the "SE performance lifters" had failed, got lucky and could account for all the needle bearings, but the lifters were shot and no real damage to the cams. John my machinist buddy (everyone should have one) told me that the SE stuff was junk and that I should install the H-D B's. Went to the shop, Harley changed them to C's, so C's it was. All seemed well until a little road trip to Daytona (little over 66K now). Front cylinder started doing the click click noise until it got warmed up then it was good again, but it seemed to be getting worse with each gas stop. So after doing A LOT OF READING on this lifter subject. There are a lot of guys out there on a lot of different forums that share some damn good information. I ended up going to the local Chevy dealer and buying two AC-Delco ACD# HL 124 SBC lifters or GM part#17122490, installed just the two and currently have 70,208 miles on the motor and no problems, no clicking. So I thought I would share and hopefully this will help. Down the road........FAST!