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Shovelhead pushrod adjustment need help please.

10/4 I understand now. Thanks for clearing that up. These HD engines are new to me and so I am always trying to pick up a little here and there..:p
 
Hoop; I agree, all other true solids differ. between int. and exh. Harleys "solid" lifters (that I have worked with) are roller, but also consist of inner, spring (very weak), and outer. So that along with other answer given may account for the 0 lash both cyl.
 
Looking into specs on shovelhead sportsters, I would use 0.004-006 for the intake, 0.010-0.012 feeler guage clearance at the rockers, light drag cold, to start while still able to "spin the push rod' (if you have access to rotate them by feel), with preference looser than tighter. Better to have a bit more "clatter" and not extract the full lift power of the performance cam than deal with burnt valves or worse if valve clearances "tighten up" to zero lash when hot, JMO based on solid lifter valve train designs.
 
The way I have always done it is as follows:
- Dead cold motor.
- Remove spark plugs
- Remove pr tube clip and lift lower tube. Hold tube up with an old wooden clothes pin. Make sure to clean around lifterblock/tube area first.
- Spin motor with kick start (or jack up rear of bike, put in 4th gear and rotate with tire) until lifter is at its absolute lowest point.
- Loosen lock nut and adjust for a good bit of slack.
- Adjust slack out until you can JUST spin with OILY fingers.
- When you retighten lock nut (this takes three wrenches to do correctly), it will loosen your adjustment a little. That's why I start off pretty snug.
- It takes a few times to get it down right. Mine only clatter a small amount when it's fully hot. Pretty quiet until then.

As I get more posts- I can post a few pics showing how to do all this.
 
NEWHD74FAN said:
Looking into specs on shovelhead sportsters, I would use 0.004-006 for the intake, 0.010-0.012 feeler guage clearance at the rockers, light drag cold, to start while still able to "spin the push rod' (if you have access to rotate them by feel), with preference looser than tighter. .
Click to expand...

Thanks NewHD, that is what I was looking for and expecting to see. Those are real numbers. And the exhaust is twice the intake gap which is so important, at least in cage engines. I still don't understand HD's solid lifters having a pre-load spring inside them but when you start approaching .006" or more with a "normal" solid lifter, that is a gap you can feel. It is no longer just snug, you can see light through a .006" gap.
It must be the inside spring that Harley uses in their solid lifters. That would indeed make it feel like there is no lash when there really was.

I go nuts with unanswered questions and these numbers do clear it up for me. Sorry for beating a dead horse.
 
I am still puzzled by the 'spring loaded' cam followers. You sure they are not hydraulics? If the hydraulic part was removed then the springs are not doing you any good at all. If you have solid lifters then remove the springs. With the exhaust valve fully open or both valves closed adjust the cold engine until the push rods spin freely between your fore finger and thumb. I had a 1975 Super Glide and when it was turned into a stroker I went to solid lifters by removing the hydraulic insert. Be sure of what kind of lifters you have. Fossil
 
Fossil said:
I am still puzzled by the 'spring loaded' cam followers. You sure they are not hydraulics? If the hydraulic part was removed then the springs are not doing you any good at all. If you have solid lifters then remove the springs. With the exhaust valve fully open or both valves closed adjust the cold engine until the push rods spin freely between your fore finger and thumb. I had a 1975 Super Glide and when it was turned into a stroker I went to solid lifters by removing the hydraulic insert. Be sure of what kind of lifters you have. Fossil
Click to expand...

Fossil; You're correct, they were hydraulics. The local shovelhead guru suggested I remove the hydraulic inserts, but keep the springs when I had it apart. That was a decade ago, I don't remember the logic, if any.
 
Now that explains to me why the pushrod feels "snug" when there really is rocker arm clearance of maybe .005".
 
And to make things worse, LOL S S made lifters that worked like Hydaulics at low rpm and acted like solids on the high end to lessen valve float, what a nightmare to adjust the first time. Some cheap after market solids were just that, tou removed the hydraulic unit and installed the solid tappet with spring and adjusted for zero lash another nightmare very noisey but all Shovels were noisey right, Jack
 
NEWHD74FAN said:
Looking into specs on shovelhead sportsters, I would use 0.004-006 for the intake, 0.010-0.012 feeler guage clearance at the rockers, light drag cold, to start while still able to "spin the push rod' (if you have access to rotate them by feel), with preference looser than tighter. Better to have a bit more "clatter" and not extract the full lift power of the performance cam than deal with burnt valves or worse if valve clearances "tighten up" to zero lash when hot, JMO based on solid lifter valve train designs.
Click to expand...
This is not a sportster being discussed, it is a big twin.
A shovelhead is a big twin, a sportster of that era is called an Ironhead.
 
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