When removing the inner cam bearings from my TC88 engine on my 05 Softail Deluxe the races were destroyed and the needles may have come out, does anyone know how to clean out the crank case without splitting the cases or removing the engine?

 

 

My 2006 SG ate'em at 31K and engine was junk. Always did 2k oil and filter changes - just plain junk bearing / design.

 

 

do yourself a favor, if you think you dropped something inside, remove the engine and split the case. it may be more work, but it will most likely cost less in the long run. no one that i know that has had a similar issue ever had a happy ending. better safe than sorry for you as the rider and other drivers on the road. catastrophic engine failure at speed can get people killed, be safe.
m

 

did you break the bearing getting it out or was it broke wen you first opened it?if you broke it,theres no way any debris got in the pan.its got to be in the cam chest & lower end.use a magnet and get out the rollers & (like said earlier) count them

 

Man, this story brings back some memories! Not Harley related, but accounting for all the pieces.

1975. I was in the US Air Force stationed at George AFB near Victorville CA. I was a flight line machinist. Upon my arrival, I was shown films regarding the dangers of "FOD" or, foreign object damage". Everything from malfunctioning ejection seats to exploding engines, along with stats showing how many deaths and serious injuries were attributed to FOD.

One night, I got called over to the engine shop to drill safety wire holes on some bolts in an already assembled engine for a F4 fighter. I had to use a No. 55 drill bit in a hand drill. (.052" diameter). This operation was supervised by the Master Sargent in charge of the engine shop

Yep, I broke a bit on the third or fourth hole. "Airman, you WILL account for every last piece of that drill. I want to see it reassembled with NO missing pieces before you leave here."

Several hours later, using mirrors, magnets, probes, plus taking a few cover panels off, I was able to lay the pieces out on a white piece of paper, accounting for the entire drill bit.

I was much more cautious drilling holes after that.

 

just to be clear on my previous post,,,,if you think that something could have dropped into the inner case, where the flywheels spin, split it.
if the bearing tore up on removal and things came in the direction of the cam chest, clean up and accounting for all the pieces involved is good.
i'm just paranoid when things get into where the wheels spin, i dropped a piston circlip once, down a spigot hole, doooh! lucky i could find it with a magnet, but tiny metal pieces in the flywheel cavity are not good.
m

 

Accounted for all of the rollers, the roller separators had been totally destroyed (stock old TC88B bearings) got some B-148s in there now. Found compensator nut loose yesterday, maybe that was where the odd noise that I was hearing actaactu came from. But in the up side I've got new Cyco cam tensioner shoes and better bearings for the inner cams. That was fun yesterday hearing what sounded like the forward balancer going turned out to be the compensator nut. Thanks to all of y'all who commented, I do appreciate it.