I need a little advise and expertise here I guess. I just finished replacing my cam tensioners. I kept my original push rods, lifters, cams, cam plate. I replaced the oil pump with a sifton high output pump. I reassembled everything and since the tensioners actually failed while riding I flushed out the oil pan and replaced the oil and filter.


Upon reassembly the lifters were pretty hard to bleed down I had to rotate the rear wheel a few times between each tightening sequence of the rocker supports but they finally got there. but when I start the bike it seems to run fine but is really loud in the crank case and top end it sounds like its not getting oil. Sounds a lot like a car with a bad rod. I don't know what to do with it.


1999 Road King 40K miles

 

What lifters and how were they adjusted? Are you sure you haven't put intake pushrods on the exhaust valves and visa versa? How long did you let the motor run after start up?

 

they are the original hydraulic lifter. no adjustment. exhaust rods are furthest away from the motor intake rods closest to the motor. I let the motor run until it was warm but didn't want to run it to long to cause damage. I have seen a few threads where guys have ran the bike easy for 30-40 miles to get the lifters to pump up but was afraid to do that. admittedly I did not keep the pushrods separated so they went back in the same exact holes that they came out of. and also the lifters I mixed up. I set the lifters in a container of oil I moved the container around a few times getting tools and well they got all mixed up. so I know the wear on the lifter to rods is an issue and the reason why you keep them matched up but **** happened.

 

I have been reading other threads and read about aligning the oil pump properly are rotating the motor for the pump to "find " itself. I installed the oil pump on the cam plate first and then installed to whole unit into the bike as a whole.. was this wrong?

 

Yeah, that was wrong and could mean that the pump is not properly aligned. Proper procedure would have been to mount the plate and pump as you did but then loosen all four pump fasteners to finger tight and back of 1/4 turn. The rotate the rear wheel, plugs out in 5th gear while you snug up two of the bolts at opposite corners. Once the pump is secure, torque all pump bolts to spec.

I know that the exhaust rods are farther from the motor than the intakes but I also know that the exhaust pushrods are black and the intake pushrods are silver and the exhaust, being farther from the motor are also longer. Are you sure the pushrods are where they are supposed to be

After re reading your post about lifters being slow to bleed down and rotating the rear wheel while you tightened down the rocker support plate, I am now wondering if a valve may have come in contact with a piston and possible bent a valve?? Pull a compression test and post the results.