Cam seal still leaking . . .

I sure hope you have luck getting Tattoo into your shop. I can't even get my indy to let me watch when he has my bike on the dyno....:gah::gah:

I have a torque wrench and a service manual.

I always watch Tattoo at his shop - he doesn't care - sometimes I help him.

he lets me watch, but just not the dyno part!!!!!!!!!:gah::gah:

Not a torque wrench, a digital. A digital torque wrench does both inch and ft lbs and is more accurate.

Tatto says the heads need rebuilding. One of the heads didn't even have a set of seals in them. Can you guys believe that? Tattoo knows a guy who can do them and do them right. He has a rep in racing circles but I forget his name.

The bottom end looks good, thank God. I just finished wire brushing the tops of the pistons clean. They are STD pistons. Just ordered a Cometic top end gasket kit & a set of Hastings rings from J&P. Not cheap but the way to go.

Josh some good gaskets for the older bikes was James Gaskets.
They will seal when other gaskets will not

James Gaskets Parts & Accessories

I was going to go with James ($32) but Tattoo recommended Cometic. They have a more complete set plus they are made of better materials. Cometic is about 3 times the price ($100), but I think they will be worth it. He also said to get Hastings piston rings, which I did. They were $38 a set. All shovelhead stuff, of course. Tattoo is going to hone the barrels for me.

The valves were very loose in their guides, except one that was sticking (bent valve stem). We thought it very likely the motor hadn't been touched since it came out in '77.

I hope that I may end up actually spending less for all the stuff that needs to be done, instead of taking everything up to PEP in Mechanicsville. I trust Tattoo. Today he showed me how to compress the valve springs and get the retainers out. I did all the labor so far.

My torque wrench does both ft. & in. lbs. up to 75 ft. lbs. It's a Sears click torque wrench and is accurate. I'm not spending any more money on another torque wrench when this one is fine.

Used to watch my old man at a friends machine shop use the valve tool to compress the valve springs and take the clips out so you can remove the valves. And take the valve guides out and put new valve guides in.
That was back in the 50's
I was a friggin kid

to torque the crank pin on a shovel a 3/8 torque wrench aint gonna do !lol look up the torque on that nut ! think you will need a half inch and a pipe to go with it for help. lmfao . and a coulple of solid rods stuck in a big vice to lock the wheels in place some one to hold the work bech from moving while you torque that nut.

hey josh here is a good tech tip when reinstalling the breather gear and make sure that you replace it with an s&S breather gear. breather gear 1 tooth retarded (17 degrees) for an opening spec of 17 degrees after tdc, & closing of 82 degrees after bdc, the level of vacuum in the cam chest and crankcase was increased significantly. This results in better oil scavenging, and less oil carryover. In addition, the hole in the breather gear that sucks oil out of the cam case settling pocket was elongated into a slot rather than a hole to provide more suction time to the settling pocket (and less chance for oil carryover (puking) )

I'm not doing anything to the crank pin. the torque wrench is for head bolts, cylinder base nuts, rocker box nuts & top motor mount bolt.

Crank & rods & pistons & wrist pins are fine - no need for any bottom end work.

Great news then on the lower end.

That is good news about your bottom end....
BP will that tip will work on a high compression Evo as well?? to retard the breather,would it be 1 tooth counter clockwise??
Good idea about the S&S steel breather and shim kit...Joshbob you will be in the nose cone,so I'd do that upgrade...my breather gear in the Evo was plastic with a plastic shim,they will distort and wear over time...if your stock breather is plastic,I'd definitely change to steel(I did on the Evo)

It ain't real if it ain't steel LOL. Mine is metal. I think putting plastic gears inside a motor was unheard of back in '77.

Talk about good news bottom ends LOL.

Tattoo honed my jugs and says he will help me get them back on at no charge to me. One jug has verticle scratches in it that he couldn't get completely out, but I am going to run it, anyway - should be alright. One of the jugs is a V-Twin item, the other an authentic Harley jug. The rocker boxes are both from 1982 but are not a matching set. The heads have had the serial numbers ground off so their origin is uncertain. Appears the only authentic '77 part is the block. And here I thought I was getting a complete, authentic, rebuilt 1977 Harley FLH motor!

Oh well, I'm sure I'll get a good top end job done this time. Tattoo says that Dennis Thurlow is one of the best around here for doing rebuilds on Harleys. The heads are going out in tomorrow's mail and we will go pick them up when they are done. Guy only lives 2 hours from here, but Tattoo says that with my reputation of getting lost or going the "wrong way", I'd never find this guy's shop. Apparently, it's out in the sticks somewhere.

"Tattoo honed my jugs" Sounds dirty but it ain't.
Maybe the jug's vertical scratches were what was causing the smoke or does he think it was the worn/not sealed valves?

It was definitely the missing seals that was causing the leak. Just unbelievable somebody would put that rear head together without the seals! The back cyclinder only smoked a second or so when first starting it up, so we are pretty sure it wasn't the scratches in the cylinder wall.

Tony thinks that the scratches might have been caused by the ends of the ring (or rings). They may have been cut and then not ground correctly. Or it could have been a broken ring. The barrel that is scratched is the Harley original one. The V-Twin barrel is perfect.

There has been so much wrong with this motor - I hope we finally get it all sorted out . . .