What year is your manual? If yours had the shoulder up from the factory then it's different. At some point they switched to shoulders and changed the instructions to shoulder down
The one I was looking at covers '84 to '99 Softails.
I notice that in your instructions it tells you to drop a ball bearing down the stud holes and then tighten the stud on top of them.
Mine doesn't use the ball bearings.
Did they change to shoulder bolts for perfect jug alignment at some point? If so the gaskets must have changed also. And does that mean the bottom of the jugs would be opened to accept the shoulder, making all years NOT interchangeable?
'84 and early '85 used different cylinder stud bolts and the heads from those years won't fit over the newer cylinder studs.
The one I was looking at covers '84 to '99 Softails.<br />
I notice that in your instructions it tells you to drop a ball bearing down the stud holes and then tighten the stud on top of them.<br />
Mine doesn't use the ball bearings.
I read the instructions to place the ball bearing in the head bolt, then tighten the bolt on the stud, then run the stud down into the case. FWIW all my studs had the shoulders up so I flipped them, my 92 manual also has the length method, not torqued, seems hard to torque without bending them. The ball bearing is to keep the head bolt from locking on the stud and the rag is to keep the bearing out of the cases upon removal of head bolt.
is the purpose of the ball bearing to serve as sort of a crush washer, allowing a certain amount of "squish"?
it's to keep the bolt from locking onto the stud so you can remove it once you get the stud torqued. I used a chunk of Allen wrench since I couldn't find a ball. Worked perfectly.