2000 Road King

Also today I was able to get the exhaust off. I will have to say that this was not the most fun job to do other than that my daughter Chevelle decided she wanted to come out and help. How can I refuse? Anyway, the exhaust is off and now ready to take the cam chest apart.

Yes I can see them do they run up & down with the piston

They're not worth pulling the top end apart for,maybe when he wants to do a 95" or 98" kit and switch to carb or delphi... .

Looks like motor oil was used in all 3 holes, put a good quality gear oil in the tranny, and ...if he just bought the bike and didn't put those apes on,check/change brake fluid ,front and rear...

Didn't say anything about wanting to change it or fix it. Just said I didn't like it. Someone said to me recently that,"this is a tractor engine, they are all like that." I disagree, the jugs I pulled off of my 88 looked way way better than what these do and I had nearly 60k on those.

Yes, a bigger engine is wanted in this bike. I have had many conversations with KillerRoadking about what his options are and we are making progress towards "his" decision.

Ok, back to the thread. Sorry about not updating more frequently, but I am at somwhat of a stand still so now I can catch up.

Smaller things have been done to this bike. The chrome switches, new mirrors, levers, shift linkage and spark plug wires have all been installed. Here are some picks in random order.

The cosmetic stuff was done after the most important stuff in my opinion. The cam cover was removed and I inspected the tensioner shoes. I did see some wear on the outer tensioner but nothing that caused major concern. Sorry, didn't think of taking a picture of those. Taking the cam sprockets was nothing. Although I just like the whole gear drive system more. Here is a pick with the cam sprockets removed. Note: Yes I took the lifters out.

I didn't notice any maring or any other signs of wear on the front side of the plate. So I continued. After removing the plate, off comes the oil pump. After inspecting the oil pump, my heart sank but was relieved all at the same time. What I saw was mutilation, especially for a pump that has only 18k on it. Check it out!

I was relieved because this validated suspicions I had about this bike. KillerRoadking asked me to change oil for him. I said ok. I asked for permission to take his to work so I could get it warmed up for easy oil drainage. He agreed. While going to go out fuel in, I heard a squeaking noise that I didn't like too much. I spoke to BaggerPaul about it. KillerRoadking and I came up with a plan. Well, after taking the cam chest apart, I think we were spot on. You just seen the pic of the oil pump, I took the inner cam bearings out and found that that there was one needle bearing that was toast. Sorry, no picture. But here's a picture of the bike with inner bearings out.

Now with that Cam service kit that we bought from Harley, of course they just give you the stock replacement inner bearings. I said hmmmm, I have a set of S&S Torrington inners in my box. Geuess what. I'm those went instead.

Yep saw an oil pump like that,it was chunks of tensioner shoe did it to mine. Stock oil pump here cost almost the same as the SE Hybrid kit shipped from a US dealer(when they could sell HD parts across the border).
I take it you/he already bought the SE Hybrid kit.

Yes. The bearings and cams are being pressed in as we speak. I hope. Pick it up tomorrow.

Cool. A thought I had,since it's a 2000 with a Timken bottom end was to measure crank run out and if within .003"or less, give him the option of gear drive to think about,then no more tensioner maintenance. The motor would be almost as good as an Evo then lol ...
'99-'02 are the only Twinkies I'd consider gear drive as an option.

Yes. We have started to have these kinds of conversations but the end decision as you know is his. There are many things that need to be discussed first. A good example is his budget.

I agree, the early Twin Cams are the better bottom ends.

JB maybe just go with a H-D upgade to hydaulic cam tensioners and high output oil pump.

That is what I am doing.

Yep, back in the garage getting the Road King back together. Have the oil pump lubed, all push rod tube I o rings installed and cam chest o rings installed. Time for the oil pump and cam plate to go on.

Ok. Here are some pics of getting the guts ready to be installed.

The above two pictures is of getting the oil pump, cams and plate all full of assembly lube ready for install.

This picture is of the oil pump preset on the crank waiting for plate install.


This picture is of the cam plate installed and ready to tighten.

Now as I was going around the plate drawing the cam plate right slowly, I come to left side just starting to tighten one of the bolts, I felt it come loose. Not good! Here is a picture of what I found as I got the bolt out.

Piss me OFF!

BaggerPaul suggested to put a stud in it then use like a nylock on it. If I put the bolt in without the cam plate on, it threads in and holds. Just not with the cam plate on.

It's the bolt hole with the alignment dowel that's stripped eh? Not a lot of threads in those holes and you have a couple of coils of the threads sitting on your lift now. I think I'd time sert or helicoil it,red locktite and a stud and never have to deal with it again...I'd stud the other dowel hole too.