Installing new cams, gaterman lifters, and FM pushrods. Got everything pretty much together, and decided to test by turning the back tire. Waited until I could turn the pushrods by hand on all 4 rods too. Anyway, the front goes through the cycle fine, but the rear makes a loud click sound when the front pushrod is moving. I believe it is making the sound at the top of the travel and on its way down. Any thoughts as to what could be making this sound? I'm certainly not going to start the bike until I figure this out. Help please.

 

If you mean when the push rod and lifter is all the way up when you say 'top of the travel', it's possible the valve is hitting the piston.

Start again and re-adjust the pushrods, making sure the lifters are at the bottom of their travel range (all the way down) when you adjust them.

Don't start the motor until you've either eliminated or verified the source of the noise.

 

i was wondering/thinking that may have been it. i haven't damaged anything by rotating the rear tire, have i?

 

Probably not. It's always good practice to rotate the engine manually to make sure there's no interference. It's easy to make a mistake adjusting pushrods.

 

Well, it's not the pushrod. I'm almost thinking it's the lifter. I'm going to swap out the lifter I think it is then see if it stops.

 

if they have compression release built into the cams you put in there which I believe they do your hearing it click when the lifter pases over it that ok if your cams have compression relief built in then its nornal

 

No, woods 222...no CRs. It only does it on the rear exhaust rod. It's driving me crazy, and I even pulled the rocker cover but it doesn't seem to be coming from there. I needed to take a break from the frusteration, but im gonna swap out the lifter and see if it still does it. I adjusted all the rods the same, and all can spin by my fingers....yet it's only the one making the noise.

 

Pushrods hitting its tube maybe?

 

If you haven't readusted the pushrods as nhrider1 suggested, you should not go any farther until you have done that. As he has pointed out, it is very easy to make a mistake when adjusting pushrods.

Did you have the piston at TDC on the compression stroke when you adjusted the pushrods? If not, you could have adjusted them while in the overlap position and a valve just off the seat a bit. Pull the cam chest cover so you can look inside when you readjust to be sure the lifter is sitting on the heel of the cam then readjust. Make sure you are adjusting for the correct TPI for your pushrods.

When running into these types of problems, it is alway best to follow logic and start over rather than looking for a quick fix.

 

I'm turning the rear wheel until I see both front pushrods moving, which would put me on base in the rear. I'm adjusting to 3 full turns plus 1 flat with FM pushrods and gaterman lifter, and gaterman suggests starting at 3 turns.