Hello everyone. I'm recently new to the forums, and I was looking for some advice. I've tried searching for this info before posting here but couldnt really find anything that gave me a clear answer for my situation. I know everyone really loves pictures so I'll post what I have here in hopes to help. Anyway I've been rebuilding my fathers 77 FLH Shovelhead. He passed several years ago so I don't have the luxury of asking him what all he had actually done to her. So during the engine tear down I noticed the piston had STD stamped on top, so I assumed that meant the cylinders had never been bored. Then I go to check some measurements and realized the piston was a larger size, it was a 1340 piston. Then I look at the jugs, and they were stamped 16568-78. So I realized he had to have changed the jugs to 80inch and thats why the pistons were std. So then I do more investigating and realized he had not changed the connecting rods. So it was not going the full stroke, therefore causing low compression. This was surprising because my dad had gone to AMI motorcycle college in the 90s and graduated 1st in the class! He also enjoyed Anheuser Busch products lol.....Anyway the cylinders didn't look to bad, crosshatch was in good shape and all. There was some evidence of piston slap along the skirts but not terrible. So being a newbie to rebuilding Classic Harley Davidsons, I consulted a machinist that specialized in old Harleys. With his help we decided to take the stock 80inch jugs and bore .20 over and get Wiseco 3.5170 pistons for a 1200 shovel. That way the piston pin would be back in the correct place and the compression would return. So during that I had the Heads redone, with new seats and guides installed. The valves themselves were okay. One of the guides had been knocked half way up at some point and I wasnt sure what had caused it, but it had ran for 1000 miles since I had obtained it so it wasnt making any clanking or anything like that that I could tell. Which brings me to the reason I'm here, I'm about to reinstall the pistons and jugs, and I just completed cleaning and servicing the gear case. The Camshaft that is in it looks okay to run, and I took it to a local shop to see if they could tell me exactly what brand it was, but he couldnt tell for sure. He said he thought that it was most likely an old S&S cam but couldn't be certain. With all of these new measurements and compression returning, I thought I'd ask the Collective Harley minds out there if you could Identify this cam and confirm if it would be safe to use with this configuration, or If I should opt to put a new one in. I am trying to keep as many original parts that he had on it as I can, but obviously I want it to be reliable. I will be making a post of all the progress and story of this bike very soon for everyone to enjoy. Thank you for any information in advance.
Last edited by Dmullins306; 06-29-2024 at 01:29 PM.
Reason: Adding to title
06-29-2024, 12:58 PM
Ruthie Rebuild (1977 FLH)...All help welcome!!
