edited  19/8/08

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My Harley Fatboy TC88 2000 overhaul & upgrades at 50,000 kms (30,000 mls)

The idea was to inspect the cam chain tensioners and replace with gear driven cams. While I had the engine open
I thought I might as well replace the OEM cast pistons with forged ones and increase displacement to 1550 cc.


I hadn't worked on Harleys before - first mpression: nice, good, solid engineering - straight forward to work on.



you need the Harley workshop manual - it's a great book!



amazing - the 'paint' is still on the pistons. I attribute this to Mobil 1 oil (10-50W). The other high wear area to watch is
where the rockers press on the valve stems. Mine had not measurable wear, you could just see a slightly more shiny area.
* The scratches on the piston walls are the consequence of a dealer repair early in the motor's life. The dealer has a good
reputation but cleanliness is not their forte! Never again - I'll do it all myself now.



the item of concern - at the rate of wear I could have left them alone for 300,000 kms. The inner shoe looked similar.
Due to Mobil 1 again?

However, I could see that the oil pump had dealt with contamination and I reckon some grit
must have come of the shoes.

Since then I had a chance to look at another oil pump which also had similar wear to mine at MUCH lower mileage.
I guess this might be a problem area. I don't like how contaminated oil goes through the pump twice before it's finally
filtered. I'm thinking about introducing an additonal filter to pevent at least the pressure side from having to deal
with dirty oil.

Motor Company - this is not a good design!



Trick number one - making my own bearing pullers.



the wedge between the bolts is made from any-old-alloy and gets tapped in slightly to press the bolts apart.



pulling is achieved by turning the nuts half a turn each in turns.



all bits of the puller.



trick number two - dealing with zero (or less, who knows...) backlash on the cam gears.
Valve grinding paste, finishing grade. Realise this: less than zero lash can be fatal. Too much lash just causes noise
but is totally harmless (within reason). So, make sure you are on the safe side!



trick number three - relocating the oil spray holes to match the cam drive gears.
(the punch mark to the right of the new hole was a mistake)



the two punch craters 'pinch' the old hole to close it. The punch mark in the middle was a mistake,
it's funnel effect would have dispersed the jet.



I didn't like how the the Mikuni adapter plate obscured the flow into the carb - so I changed it.




to be continued...

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