diesel_lv
07-23-2007, 10:00 PM
I was riding x-county and in Michigan I noticed my oil pressure guage fluctuating. If I accelerated, it would go down and if I let off the throttle the pressure would go up and at steady speed it would bounce from 0-normal. I rode for approx 250 miles and never heard any unusual noise. I had a full face helmet with ear plugs and was able to hear the engine well. I stopped at Toledo Harley. Asked them to check the guage, sending unit and then the pressure. I said that if they found bad oil pressure w/a mechanical guage that I had a Feuling oil pump and cam plate, Schubeck Roller-X lifters and that the Pushrods were adjustable but were not the type that were easy out. I said that there might be a possibility that when installing the Cam plate I may have over torqued a bolt. I told them that if they needed to go into the motor to let me know before they buttoned it up as the adjustments for the Roller-X lifters are extremely different. They said that it was Sun and that they would get to it 1st thing Mon morning. About 1 1/2 to 2 hours ofter they opened they called me at my motel and told me they had the rocker boxes off, the pushrods out and the cam cover off. I arrived at there shop and they showed me that the cam plate was secure and that the pushrods looked brand new. The mechanic checked the oil with the bike straight up and said it was over full and that maybe that had caused the fluctuation. They buttoned it up, changed the oil, billed me 645.00 and sent me on my way. When I left, the guage was still fluctuating but it was now noisier. I rode to New Jersey and my bother-in-law who is the service manager at the dealership replaced the sending unit. He said he notice that the wires had kinks in them but that when he tugged they did not stretch. The pressure returned to normal after that but it still had an odd noise. Brother-in-law said it sounded like a lifter. I rode to Virginia and by then the noise had gotten bad. I stopped at Hampton Roads HD in Yorktown. Checked the pushrods and found them bend when I turned them. They took in the bike and found that the cams had been ground down on 3 of 4 lobes, the fuel pump was ground inside, cam plate was worn, 2 lifters had pitting and flat spots and part of one lifter had broke off. I ended up having to replace the cams, camplate, lifters, pushrods, oil pump, flush the entire bottom end, pull the oil tank and clean it. Put back together and it was quiet as could be. Guage started fluctuating again and hooked up a mechanical guage and it was spot on at 40psi. no fluctuations. Found that the kinked wire was the culprit all along. This part cost me 1500.00. After this long drawn out explanation of what happend, my question is, is it possible that the pushrods were put in in the wrong location in Ohio causing the rest of the problems? And shouldn't they have caught the wire problem before they tore into the the motor? Thanks for any help, John