[HD Dragon Slayer]

It has been some time since I have posted on this site so hello to all!!
I have a 2002 Wide glide with a twin cam engine. I take good care of my bikes.
I had a inner cam bearing, oil pump, and cams go....Bummer!
My thought was the inner cam bearing went and the shrapnal took out the oil pump. The beaing being gone took out the end of the cam. I was all set to replace the inner bearings and the oikl pump and then install gear drive cams when a friend introduced me to a individual who does work for a couple of Harley Dealers.
This person claims the Crankshafts of most Harley engines are not true (straight) And he does some welding on them and straightens them out to within 1 degree.
He states the Crankshaft is what takes all of the affore mentioned parts out when it is out of round. I am told the Crankshaft should be taken out and trued up, I guess they get damaged or bent during the assembly process.
This will require a lot more work to say the least. I'll have to remove the engine and break the cases apart just to start.
Has anybody heard of this problem before??
Any input??
Thanks loads.

[ringo912]

Someone on the forum posted that HD's spec for pinion shaft runnout on the newer bikes is .010-.012". Not usre if that is true, seems a little excessive to me. I changed my 02' Heritage over to gear driven cams. What I can tell you is this, you cannot install gear driven cams if your pinion shaft has more than 0.003" runnout. So if you have excessive runnout your choices are to either have the fly wheels trued, stay with the slilent chain setup, or change over to the newer roller chain and hydraulic tensioner shoes. Hope this helps, and good luck with the rebuild.

[duke76]

Yes, the newer 96 engines are very prone to that, the moco hs raised its spec to .012 runout. Your 02 I would doubt very much if you have a problem as it still has the timken crank bearings, yes the innner bearings are junk and that is probably what took out your oil pump and cams hopefully when they changed them they went with torrington bearings b 148s and then you shouldnt have any more problems. What you can do is check your crank runout with a dial indicator and that will tell you a lot. My 05 has .005 runout which is quite a bit but I am not going to take it a part just to have it trued up and welded, I guess I will see how it holds up. Like I said your bike is an 02 and they still used timken bearings and forgrd flywheels instead of cast so I doubt very much if you have a problem, what you mechanic friend was talking about mainly applies to the newer bikes, Hope this helps Todd

[duke76]

Here is a link to a video of checking crank runout on a bike but they have the camplate off, I would recommend checking it with the cam plate on as that is how it is going to run anyway, also remeber to keep your dial indicator 90 degrees from the crank otherwise you reading will be less than actual. Todd

YouTube - 2007 Harley Davidson 96" Twin-Cam Pinion Shaft Runout

[ringo912]

Originally Posted by duke76

Here is a link to a video of checking crank runout on a bike but they have the camplate off, I would recommend checking it with the cam plate on as that is how it is going to run anyway, also remeber to keep your dial indicator 90 degrees from the crank otherwise you reading will be less than actual. Todd

YouTube - 2007 Harley Davidson 96" Twin-Cam Pinion Shaft Runout

You are correct Duke...crank runout must be checked with the cam plate installed.