Which also makes my wife and probably my doctor happy. 
The Road King is currently inoperable as I replace the cam tensioner shoes, maybe lower the front end an inch, add air assist to the front suspension, and twiddle with the exhaust. Made for a fun afternoon.
Sounds like that could fill a week.
my mind immediately went to women, might be a bad sign.
Good call on the missus though, the doc is less likely to kill you him/herself
Well that was pleasantly fun. My bike is an 04 Harley Road King, with a TwinCam engine. Reading the Harley forums, you'll become convinced the engine will self destruct within 10k miles due to the cam tensioner. Mine has 50k on it. So I pulled the rocker boxes and the cam chest to inspect and replace those tensioner shoes.
I'm the first person inside there, ever. And everything is beautiful. The tensioners are worn a bit. The outer just a touch, the inner enough to replace.
There's not a speck of sludge or goo anywhere. No wear on any surfaces. Everything is nice and tight and smooth.
Fun engine to work on. Harley could loose 200-300 lbs by just making things less heavy. The rocker cover weighs more than many Honda cylinder heads do. God is everything thick and heavy and really nice to the touch.
I've ordered the replacement shoes. Not going with the hydraulic tensioner upgrade, or gears, because I can't afford either right now, and I really don't think I need them. I'll replace the inner cam bearings just because it is a good idea. Not that they show any sign of actually needing it.
I also installed the Harley extended reach turn signal levers. What a pain! You actually have to have the switches installed, a stout lever spring wired back (tricky!) and then force the new switch covers in and onto the splined shaft. I did it without breaking anything at least.
I am not familiar with the twinkies, but on the later Evo's, the MoCo went to a different type of inner cam bearing. It worked OK as long as everything was stock. If you put any type of high lift cam in (and sometimes with the stock one), it grenaded and generally caused Very Bad Things to happen. In Evo circles, it is SOP to replace the POS cam bearing with a Torrington brand cam bearing, like the early Evo's came with, and then you won't have another problem. I think the twinkies came with the later non-Torrington cam bearings. You might research it and see if you can upgrade it to the better Torrington type. The Torrington bearings have more rollers in them than the other kind.
We suffer the same bearing, with that fragile cage. I ordered the better timkin bearings.
Must be getting old too. I ordered a proper bearing puller and installer, instead of cobbling one up or trying to use sockets and a hammer.
Never heard the name Twinkie for these. I like it!
One step forward, one step back.
Forward
My cyclo or whoever's cam chain tensioner shoe kit worked just fine. The tool itself is crude, but perfectly effective. A few minutes later, and replacement shoes were installed. Part of the reason I went with these is the theoretical claim and hopeful thought that they will last longer and not chunk up the way the old ones do. Not that mine were bad. The front shoe was barely worn, and the rear was only halfway through.
Backwards
Took one last look at the camshafts, and did a double take on the one. I don't know how I'd missed it before, but right there on the bearing surface was either spalling or air bubble damage. Spaced out to match the oem bearing rollers. Grr! Hemmed and hawed for a bit over just letting it go, and I could possibly get away with it. But placing the roller bearing on it, I could feel it catch just a touch. So, looked around and found what is hopefully a perfectly good oem cam set for $15, including shipping. If they are fine, then I'll run an oem camshaft. If not, then I may install one of the torquer type cams. Don't really have the money for that right now though, and I really am perfectly happy with the stock camshaft performance.
Got the weird wire mesh exhaust seals installed, again. Cripes but that job is difficult to do right. Very easy to do wrong, damaging the seal.Tried a set off of ebay, think I like them slightly better than the oem . OEM has the wire mesh packed with graphite, the slightest mistake, and the thing bulges, making a seal impossible. These ebay seals had much less graphite, making them slightly more forgiving.
One step forward, one step back.
Forward
My cyclo or whoever's cam chain tensioner shoe kit worked just fine. The tool itself is crude, but perfectly effective. A few minutes later, and replacement shoes were installed. Part of the reason I went with these is the theoretical claim and hopeful thought that they will last longer and not chunk up the way the old ones do. Not that mine were bad. The front shoe was barely worn, and the rear was only halfway through.
Backwards
Took one last look at the camshafts, and did a double take on the one. I don't know how I'd missed it before, but right there on the bearing surface was either spalling or air bubble damage. Spaced out to match the oem bearing rollers. Grr! Hemmed and hawed for a bit over just letting it go, and I could possibly get away with it. But placing the roller bearing on it, I could feel it catch just a touch. So, looked around and found what is hopefully a perfectly good oem cam set for $15, including shipping. If they are fine, then I'll run an oem camshaft. If not, then I may install one of the torquer type cams. Don't really have the money for that right now though, and I really am perfectly happy with the stock camshaft performance.
Got the weird wire mesh exhaust seals installed, again. Cripes but that job is difficult to do right. Very easy to do wrong, damaging the seal.Tried a set off of ebay, think I like them slightly better than the oem . OEM has the wire mesh packed with graphite, the slightest mistake, and the thing bulges, making a seal impossible. These ebay seals had much less graphite, making them slightly more forgiving.
Is it the exhaust seal that is like a piece of brillo pad someone formed into a ring? I hate the one on the punky buellster, it just smears if done incorrectly.
Yep, that's the one. I didn't have it smear, I had it kink and bulge on installation. Which means the pipe cannot sit flat and seal. And it's hard as heck to get a square edged brillo pad into a square edged hole. Someone should have a taper!
With this ebay set, I got the one in just fine, finally. The second one went in, but not quite perfectly. It frayed a little, and just faintly bulged, but I was able to seemingly smear it back down. Something I could not do with the oem ones.
I should never have pulled the first set to begin with.
Hard to beat $15 for some cams. Yeah, best to just leave those exhaust gaskets alone. The good thing is that they do basically work.
The $15 Ebay cams came the other day. They look to be the same, both are A types, which is injected. But, two sharp whacks on the lobes on one. Almost cold chisel sharp. Hem and haw over it. The one mark is nowhere near the roller rocker track, the other is close. Decide to gently file the marks down smooth and cross my fingers. I think I'm ok. Almost invisible timing marks on these cams. The ones I took off look like they were stamped by Thor.
So then I promptly snap the blasted plastic chain guide. Not the tensioners, the passive plastic guide that sits on the back.. Just like the 22RE has Dr. Hess. So once again, I wait for a replacement part.
And why the heck doesn't Harley mark the sprockets for their all important "base circle"? I did it just to make reinstalling the pushrods and such easier. Can't believe the manual actually tells you to rotate the engine by grabbing the rear tire and spinning it in 5th gear, with your fingers in the pushrod holes to feel the tappets rise and fall. Might be suitable for two people or one orangutan, but not for a smurf sized human.
Fwiw, the ebay cam bearing tool set works just fine. 1/2 price knock-off of the Harley factory type. Yea, I know, I could have done it without the right tools. But as I'm getting older, I find myself less inclined to wing it, and more inclined to actually spend a bit of cash for the right tool. Besides, this is a darn nice bike, too nice to be bodging it on.
My 22R, the one I drove to work today, has a METAL timing chain guide.
You seem to be doing better upstairs. Things getting less fuzzy? I think that "sports" that encourage concussions should not be played. I'm not going to say "should be banned," but I think one should certainly not let their children play them.
I was surprised that I could not find a metal replacement for the Harley. Probably a non-issue as I've not read of one breaking in service, just when trying to remove one.
Yes, things are doing better. But considering I just brilliantly decided to try cleaning the stubborn bugs off the wife's windshield with a scouring pad, definitely not all better (what was I thinking?! And I dismissed using a razor blade because I might scratch it!). Still kinda migrainy, certain lights and loud sounds. Still not allowed to drive or work.
Finished the engine just a little bit ago. Went slow because I don't want to make a mistake, and it's very easy for me to still. But, everything seems ok. I didn't start it, just cranked it over for oil pressure, and to listen for evil sounds. Everything seems good. Oil pressure came up in just a few seconds. No bad noises. Kinda cute, even with the spark plugs out, they still make a "potato" sound.
Using the cyco kit, which while it has the orings, doesn't have anything marked. That made it tedious fun to figure out which o-rings go where.
Worse part of the job, imo, was wrestling the cute little locks onto the pushrod tubes. I've managed to avoid ever doing that before, on any engine. What a pain in the butt! Though once I figured out to the lubricate the heck out of the spring, that helped. Still required blood sacrifice. That was the only thing that did.
Ran some spare wires in the harness under the tank since I was there. Coiled it up in the headlight nascelle and the frame. Now I can do a direct battery tap when I wish it with substantial wire. I really don't need it right now, but it'll be nice to have it there in case I do.
Going to play with the floorboards since I took them off (have to take the one side off). They are adjustable, and I'm going to play and see if it fits a smurf like me better when I raise them.
Found a few interesting loose bits that could be making some buzzing noises and some vibrations. You might one to note one Dr. Hess. The rubber bushes that the mufflers mount in, Apparently they get hard or shrink, allowing the pipe to rattle in the rubber mount, creating some vibration. I haven't verified it myself, but I've read about this recently on one of the forums. Cheap fix and apparently it works quite well. Mine is definitely not tight.
Dr. Hess wrote: My 22R, the one I drove to work today, has a METAL timing chain guide. You seem to be doing better upstairs. Things getting less fuzzy? I think that "sports" that encourage concussions should not be played. I'm not going to say "should be banned," but I think one should certainly not let their children play them.
(To take this thread on a tangent)
Problem with that is that every sport has a decent risk for it. My older brother played Football, Hockey, Lacross, and Baseball. He as many concussions in baseball (1) as he did in the others combined (1 from football).
I played fairly competitive hockey for a long time. My first ever concussion? Earlier this year, in a no-contact rat hockey morning skate. There was no one near me; I simply lost an edge (think of a tire blowing out) and went down, and whacked my head. This is with a good helmet too.
Heck, I knew a guy in high school who got a concussion running track after the guy in the lane next to him missed his hurdle and knocked the guy over.
All that being said, I do agree with you for football at least. I don't think I'd really want my kids in that sport. My brother played through college, but the idea of the entire point being to hit people seems... stupid.
What about boxing? The idea is to hit your opponent until he has a concussion, then you win.
Dr. Hess wrote: What about boxing? The idea is to hit your opponent until he has a concussion, then you win.
No, I would not let my kids (when they come, this is years down the road without any accidents) box.
Well...hell.
I may not ever become fully safe with tools again. I put the valve cover gaskets on backwards. This is not a subtle mistake on these engines, it's glaringly obvious.
I was very studious on all the rest, triple checking and going slowly with the factory manual as I installed the cams and put the engine back together. But when I came to the valve covers, I remember doing it. I mentally stepped away from the manual because it's just the valve cover gaskets. You know, silly simple, you can't screw this up. I remember wondering about the shape , and just shrugging it off. The bolt holes aligned, so it's ok.
It's not that I have to pull the tank, which is its own minor pain. It's that I truly did not see that the gasket was hanging completely off on one side, and not reaching on the other. That, and I managed to forget that I already knew they were not symmetrical.
Damn, damn, damn. I get to thinking I'm recovering/recovered, and do something like this.
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