so in reading all the horror stories about nuts cracking decide to hold off on my re-assembly and investigate. fueled by the fact that my stock rods got bent after only 11k, wasn't to confident in the layout of the harley se adjustable push rod build. aside from worrying about cracking nuts...Im not convinced that the threaded shaft is strong enough to do it;s job. So I wen digging around my parts bin and found a few grade 8 nuts.....what most folks are replacing the stock nuts with....but I played around with that and wasn;t feeling it. So I found some steel aircraft turnbuckle nuts and like them a whole lot better. they are about 1" long and slightly bigger than the standard and grade 8 nuts so the transfer max surface area to the shaft. an inch of threads with locktite sounds a whole lot better than 1/4 of an inch with locktight. these babies should work fine. in the piucture, silver color is the steel aircraft turnbuckle nut, brass colored nut is the grade 9, and black is stock.

 

It's been reported that the problem with the SE rods has long since been fixed. However, when I did mine just a month or two ago I had the same worries you do and I decided to go with another brand of rods. Since you already own yours, then yeah I think your solution should work as long as the rods can still be collapsed short enough, with the wider nuts on, to fit into the rod covers.

When they were having so many problems with the SE rods there was a guy who took grade 8 nuts and shortened them for this purpose. Not sure if he's still around or not.

But again, if you can still collapse the rodes enough, this should work IMO.

Edit:
Also the extra girth of the wider nuts needs to fit in the covers obviously.

 

Her ya go.....
Minimum Length of Thread Engagement: As long as the threads meet all of the proper thread class specifications, the length of engagement required to make sure the bolt breaks rather than strip the threads depends upon the strength of the material that the bolt and the threaded hole are made of. If a new bolt is used with a new properly graded nut for that bolt, the length of thread engagement is usually less than one bolt diameter. If the bolt is screwed into a cut tapped hole with equal strength materials, a length of engagement of one bolt diameter is normally strong enough. However, it is common for the bolt to be the stronger of the two materials. In that case, it is advised that the length of engagement be greater than one bolt diameter.

 

Wow, so I guess in the year I wasnt here I missed a lot. SE push rod nuts cracking? Really? Seems like if there was actually a problem with the parts and not the install we would have had at least one issue out of the several hundred sets we installed.

 

Not sure what cam and springs you're running or how many rpm's you plan on, but have you considered how the extra weight might affect valve float?

 

yep...google it...se adjustable nuts cracking...harley found a cost saving process that resulted in nuts cracking big time.....everyone has bee replacing with grade 8 nuts.....problem is my rods at 11k were bent so I'm not feeling the thing threaded shank.....the longer turnbuckle style steel nut makes me feel better.

 

I wonder about all this...I have behive springs and will be putting in 257 cams. with stock cams my rods bent....so one of the weak links is the rods...not sure I am clear on the best course...the se rods are steel...but so were the stock ones.....maybe google around for solid rods vs all this hollow stuff.

just putting it out there...not saying I have all the answers.

 

The hollow pushrod tubes are the way the oil gets to the rockers.

 

If I google it is it going to lead me right back here? Land of the over exaggerated problems!

The problem here used to be that they came loose all the time now the nuts are cracking? Still sounds like installation errors to me.

Like I said we've installed hundreds and hundreds of sets with ZERO problems!

 

may as well keep your stock pushrods because with those turn buckles you are going to have to pull the rockers as they are not going to go in otherwise. I have never used locktight on pr as it makes it a pain to adjust down the road and never had one loosen up. Just use proper tightening technique and you should be good.