That reaper 543 cam is not a low end cam.. I don't know who's giving you the information they are but with the lobe separation angle of 108°. I Don't think you're going to like it too much in that heavy bike even with a quarter bump in compression, still ain't going to be enough to drive the cam..
You should have stuck with a 5005 much more suited for that heavy bike.. JMHO.. but ask other builders..

 

The cam change was done by the machinist without asking me much. I wanted a cam with some grunt and more highway/ freeway friendly. Said that the 5005 was currently unavailable.

But I thought the 98s were 8.5:1 compression. And I'm now going 10:1.

I am just frustrated at this point. One person said it's a great cam others saying otherwise. I just need one person to help me thru this with good information. I've built car motors and hot rods and some insane motors in the past but this is my first Harley motor I've modified. I figured using an highly rated Evo Machinist I'd of been set to jet and get my bike back together quickly. I'm finding otherwise.

Whether someone wants to take this privately thru email to help me or something. Everything I read online says toss a 50 on it and let it rip. It should fall into the tolerance. But with that on I have well over .060 end play and the gear hits the recessed part.

With the thrust and 50 I clear but still have excessive endplay.

I'm beginning to see probably what started the chain reaction failure due to the last incompetent builder thatvpitna the chrome covers on this thing. Cover is OE Harley.

 

More though process. Old cam vs new. If I put the .050 shim on the new cam it measures within .001 of the Original cam from the flange for the gear to the thrust surface. So in my head that means everything is right. And there should be no issues. So that tells me that the original cam had excessive end play and was walking around a bit.

I measure the face of the cover and thickness of the brass bushing, and then do the same from the face of the motor to the gear face. And I get pretty close to the same so in all reality I should have exactly around .010-.015 end play. So where is the excessive coming in.

Even of I were to swap out to the 5005. And spend another $100 swapping gears again plus another $400 on a cam. I'd still be in the same boat.

So that's where I am at currently. In a state of confusion where this excessive end play is coming from. Mathematically it's not adding up

 

When they changed to the longer cams, they also changed the end play specs to .050 max. That's where the expression "throw a .050 in it and go" comes from.

Sometimes you need to step away from things for a day or so. We all do.

 

So maybe I have a mis boxed cam. It's says EVO 85-99. And it's honestly 50 shorter. Adding the 50 on it makes it the same length as the N Cam that came out. Which makes sense if I put the 50 on it and use the thrust washer that came out. Should put it back in spec.

Thrust washer is about .063"

 

[in bold] Correct. But if the original play was less than .050, factory says OK. From what you explain, your end play is just fine.

If that is the factory "yellow" mark on the cam, you definitely need to use you factory cam gear though whoever charged you 100. should be ashamed off themself for being a thief.

All aftermarket cams are made on the short pattern so they can be used the early engines as well as the later ones. No issue with the cam length out of the box.

 

Yellow Mark is mine to see the timing mark better. I found no marks or dots indicating what the manual says about the gears. And early on everyone said to press my gear on the new cam to keep things quiet.

So I put the 50 back on with the factory thrust washer. And torqued the cover to spec.

And I have .024" end play.


But now you guys have me worrying about the cam specs.

As far as pressing the cam. 3/4 of an hour shop rate at my Indy. And that was after dropping $1500 on new exhaust the day before. I wasn't happy.

 

You might call Fueling support to see what they say since it is their cam.

Like t150vej said above, max cam end play for later EVO's is .050 and is what my 1994 HD factory says too. I'd want it less than that, but do not run it without the thrust washer in place.

Paul

 

This is such a very long thread, no one can easily look back to see what was said. Why not start another thread to discuss the cam choice and whatever else pops up.

If you're at .024, don't give that another thought, call it good.

 

Good idea on the thread. It is getting rather long. I'll start a redbuild thread. And thanks. .024 it is and will be.