I had my lifters replaced when I had cam work done. They're stock Harley lifters, but the "C" variant versus the B's. On cold mornings, they clatter for a few seconds on cold-start. Then, they're only a little noisy until the oil warms up a little. Warm weather, 60*F+, they're lots quieter. I just accepted it as, once the bike warms up, they don't rattle any more, and, they've always done it (from the time they were installed). They haven't gotten better. But they haven't gotten worse in 6, 7 thousand miles.

I took it to the Indy who did the work. He checked my adjustable push-rods, and they were adjusted ok.

Alan

 

Wood also offers rocker shims which could be the problem with the lift and ramp on those cams you're running. They could be pushing the rockers side to side some.

 

The noise is only on cold start up, otherwise all is quiet and I have no concern when riding. I'm suspecting a lazy lifter, slow at pump up after full bleed down over night.

 

The TW-777 cams are not the problem, we have installed these and the TW-555's in many, many motors and the valvetrain is nice and quiet. While Bobby does make some more radical grinds the ramps on most of his cams are not as aggressive as some would lead you to believe. A cams aggressiveness is best defined as how quickly it accelerates from the base circle to max lift. A while back this came up and to explain it we took some pictures of the stock cams compared to the Woods TW-555 which are posted below While you can see the Wood's cam has more lift than the stock cam, it is spread out over much more duration slowing the ramp speed. A pattern chart is also a great representation rather than the advertised event timing however this is usually considered proprietary info to the manufacturer



We use the Wood's lifters with all of our engine kits, one of the most unique characteristics is the very slow bleed down rate. It is not uncommon for them to take and hour to bleed down when adjusting pushrods, and we have had a couple times we left them overnight. Fortunately they are shipped with mineral oil so during first assembly they are easy to work with. They do take a few seconds to bleed up, however I have not ran into any issues where they made noise for more than 5-10 seconds when the bike sat for an extended period.

 

I personally feel it is likely a lifter issue, if you have your stock lifters I would try swapping them to help troubleshoot the problem. If there was another issue with the valvetrain it most cases would not go away after a couple minutes

 

Hey Jamie,

Thank you for answering my emails today and responding here as well. I'm thinking it may be a lazy lifter or two not pumping up right away. Here are the results from measuring my two sets of lifters and my attempt at measuring the lifter bores.

Ok, here are the OD comparisons between my stock Harley Lifters and the Comp Camp 850-1.
They both seem to be very consistent at the size they are. We are talking about 0.0003 difference between the two.
I would say the Comp Cams are as good as the B lifters in OD, if anything a ever so slight egg shape of 0.0001, which shouldn't make any difference.
Standard bore to lifter tolerance listed in the Service manual 0.0008 to 0.002, and if more than 0.003, replace lifters. They should work better in a slightly worn lifter bore.

Harley B Lifters Comp Cams Lifters
Front Exhaust Flats Round Flats Round
Top Diameter 0.8422 0.8422 0.8424 0.8425
Bottom Diameter 0.8422 0.8422 0.8424 0.8425

Front Intake
Top Diameter 0.8422 0.8422 0.8425 0.8424
Bottom Diameter 0.8422 0.8422 0.8424 0.8424

Rear Exhaust
Top Diameter 0.8422 0.8422 0.8425 0.8424
Bottom Diameter 0.8422 0.8422 0.8425 0.8424

Rear Intake
Top Diameter 0.8421 0.8421 0.8424 0.8425
Bottom Diameter 0.8421 0.8421 0.8424 0.8425

Lifter Bores all are with in 0.8435 to .8440, I've never been too good at hole telescopic gauges, but I'm sure I'm with in a few tenths.

All four lifters were well loaded with oil on top and in the oil passage which I checked when pulling them out.

I have SE Tapered Adjustable lifters and wouldn't you know it I broke a nut tonight. Guess I will be getting some grade 2 or 8 5/16 nuts tomorrow morning on the way to work, and modify them to 3/8-24 for replacements, otherwise the Harley lifters would be in tonight.....

 

Let me know how it works out. I also have a used set of Wood's lifters you could test as well. If you want to try them just give me a call

 

Thank you Jamie, I may take you up on that offer! I'll see how tomorrow goes, if I can find a 3/8-24 tap at work.

 

Im not convinced about the cams, got a set of those I can have?

 

I actually do have a used set of TW-555's we pulled out of a motor we are adding some compression and Wood's 8-6 cams. if you would like to try them let me know