Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Royalroadie]

Well while the had my jugs off for an ESP claim I ordered new S&S lifters and had them dropped in and asked for the old ones back.  The guy who worked on the engine said the lifter he took out were OK.  I took them home and looked at them closer two did look great but these two in my opinion are suspect.

One I can feel with my thumb nail the other I cannot it just has a visible wear line.  Are these bad enough that I should worry about the surface on the cams?

[Royalroadie]

Another picture

[prodrag1320]

from pic 1,ide inspect the cam lobe too

[Para Bellum]

from pic 1,ide inspect the cam lobe too

Be glad to inspect her cam lobes.

[grc]

Definitely appears to be signs of material transfer in that first photo.  It's a shame the person who actually changed those lifters didn't catch it.  Is the engine completely back together now, or is it still in a condition where they could pull the lifters and inspect the cams?  If nothing else I'd want a visual with a good bore scope before assuming the cams are OK.

JMHO - Jerry

[sadunbar]

What do the needle bearing rollers feel like?  The failure mode is generally the needle bearings fail, allowing shrapnel from the bearings to score the roller and cam surfaces (starting with scratches such as yours in the photos).

There were some lifters (-c lifters) that had surface hardness deficiencies that failed without bearing failure occurring first.  But generally the lifter failure mode starts with the needle bearings/axles.

[Royalroadie]

The bearings feel very smooth.  Just the one wear mark that you cannot feel dragging a fingernail across, the other very slight scouring  that you can feel with a fingernail for part of the way around. At first they looked fine until I removed all the oil and shined a light across the surfaces,only then could I see the marks.

[Royalroadie]

Definitely appears to be signs of material transfer in that first photo.  It's a shame the person who actually changed those lifters didn't catch it.  Is the engine completely back together now, or is it still in a condition where they could pull the lifters and inspect the cams?  If nothing else I'd want a visual with a good bore scope before assuming the cams are OK.

JMHO - Jerry

Jerry,  the motor is all back together and running.  I made sure to ask for the old lifters back so I could inspect them myself.  I could not see any wear until I degreased them of the oil. All feel fine in the bearing category but these two showed some wear.

[brassspike]

Your post got me to look back over my lifter change out. I did it as a preventative measure also. My roller bearings were good and I only had some signs of abnormal wear on one roller face. The cams showed some wear but nothing that alarmed me at the time.
I pulled the new lifters just last week to take a look at how they were doing before a trip that I have planned at the end of next month. I only had some trace of witness mark on the two lifters from the rear cam and this is not the same area as the previous lifter roller was wearing. I decided to let them run as is. After reading your post, I went back and took another look at the roller face on the old lifters and I could feel one with my nail. Now I'm wondering if I should pull the thing back down and replace the cams and the two rear lifters or run it like it is
With that said, "the plan" is to see what Harley is going to do to the line up for '17 and if there is nothing that excites me, take this one to 117.
Anybody got a set of good used 255 cams for sale out there?