"cold start up clatter"
Great description. My bike has been doing that a lot lately.

 

I would look elsewhere, unless by the off chance you got two bad sets of lifters. What oil filters are you using?

 

I'm not making excuses, I'm just stating facts. I guess Harley knows a lot of people will accept these shortcomings because there are so many great things about these bikes. I have resigned myself to fixing the things that bother me, and those junk lifters are #! on my list.

 

Yep, I really like the M8 after making a couple of changes to suit me.

 

"They all do that" All I heard for 44k miles. It finally would do it all the time. I had my indy replace my lifters, oil pump, cam, cam plate, and lifters and bearings. No problem anymore.

 

Okay guys, I took PTO this afternoon and spent time with the Carolina Girl. We took Belinda the SGS special for a cruise, stopped by Smokin HD in Winston to get her inspected (hard to believe it's been a year) and to get a first hadn report on Olivia and see the damage.

Jeff, Eric and Andy were all friendly as usual. They gave me a scare. While inspecting the SGS they found a screw in the rear tire. I told them to go ahead and pull it out, they had tires in stock and were willing to install immediately. It was a wood screw about an inch long that went in at an angle. Good for us it did not penetrate the tire and no leaks. We left and rode about 80 miles up to Elkin and enjoyed a steak at Dodge City. Back home and all looks good with the tire.

Now to the Limited. They shared that the inspector for the ESP had been there today and they are just waiting for the approval. They see no issues, I see no issues, but we are talking a lot of money here and I am naturally concerned.

Yes, the lifter on the exhaust port of the front cylinder failed for what ever reason. It did turn and slid across the cam grinding itself flat, destroying the cam and sending metal all through the engine.Was it the plastic cuff that allowed it to happen? Maybe. All we know for sure is it happened fast without warning and it destroyed the engine.

Andy used to work for T-Man and we talked a lot about lifters and the S&S cuffs. I just need to wait and be patient a day or two until the hear back from the warranty company and all the final decisions will be made.

Beware folks it can and does happen.While the dealership says it is very rare it is not good if it does happen. I will be taking precautions.

A few pictures below:

 

How did you get Woods directionals and SnS cuffs to work together? Don't the directionals only have one flat and the cuffs need 2?

 

That roller ground flat, it had to have stopped spinning and the cam lobe ate it. Either the roller locked or lifter twisted in its bore (cuff break). My guess it rotated in the bore.

 

The cuff did not break, but yes the lifter did twist and slide on the cam instead of roll.

 

I don’t see a broken cuff in the picture.
One on the right looks to have been stressed but hard to tell.

Looking close at the lifter, looks like roller locked and was ground by lobe of cam in the direction held by cuff. I don’t see that the cuff broke allowing the lifter to spin. The jagged edges of the lifter are towards the roller and the piece broken off the lifter indicate the direction the cam was spinning across the surface. But hey, I’m looking at a tiny screen on my phone, should be easy to tell holding the parts in your hand.