Has anyone here on the forum when replacing rocker arm support plates found the new stock rocker arm support plates machined poorly? I gave my new support plates a thorough inspection. When I placed each rocker support on a piece of glass, I came to find out that the bottom side of the support plates were very poorly machined. The bottom of the support plates were not Flat/ evenly machined. Before I installed them, I went by a local friend that has a cylinder and head exchange service, and had him mill the support plates flat! I’m really glad I checked that, because I did notice when I removed the old worn out support plates, that one of them seem to be warped, but in actuality, machined poorly from the factory when the motorcycle was built. I love my Harley dearly, but she sure has kicked my butt these last couple of years. Anyhow, with the new S&S rocker arms and pivot shafts, clearanced pushrod tubes at the heads, I Personally have never heard a Harley Davidson Twin cam this quiet. Finally, I got rid of the tap tap tap, and I did use rocker lockers.

 

How much had to be removed to true up the bottom surfaces of the support plates? Not a big deal but whatever that dimension was shortened the valve train stack up and should be taken into consideration when adjusting push rods if using adjustables.

 

It boggles my mind how you can have a machined part not be flat. If it was required to be that way (not flat), HD would have probably made it flat on accident.
Also, what's involved in clearancing the pushrod tubes. I've heard it mentioned but not sure how to do it.
After my 88 to 107 conversion, I have a lot more noise from the rocker cover end. Nothing scary, but just more than before.
I know the bigger cams can do this but wondering if it could be the tubes as well. Currently using stock tubes with SS adjustables.
(Already have Rocker Lockers)
Happy 4th everyone.

 

I think the front one had about . 0035 thousands that had to be taken off. The back one was almost .004

 

Close enough to zero to forget about.

 

How did you determine that the original support plates were worn out and needed replacing? Only asking because when I rebuilt Reaper's top-end last summer, her originals were just fine with over 175,000 miles or on them, and running pretty aggressive cams and valve springs.

Cheers!

 

Started chasing that awful top end clatter. Replaced with S&S 570’s, S&S quickies pushrods and lifters with 24 flats, fueling cam chain tensioners, and when I got in there the rocker supports had in excess of .27 play. Replaced rockers with Harley rocker support plates, standard S&S forged rockers arms and shafts. You could physically see how the old rockers had worn right into and scored the thrust side of the original rocker supports, and the rocker bushings had way to much play between shaft and rocker bushings.

Well,yesterday after we left on our trip from Milwaukee to OHIO for a VETETRANS rally, we arrived here only to hear that dam dreadful clatter again…….🤬🤬🤬. At this point, I think the only thing left to do is pull the heads and check valve springs and guides. Pushrod tubes were checked and clearenced and rocker lockers were installed. All work was performed by myself by the book and research from experience here on the forum. I am at my witts end with this. All that money spent, time. and scrapped knucles, good thing is, I know what has been replaced. Weird thing is, you can hear it at idle, and then again between 2400 and 2900 rpm/ almost like it is a harmonic of the valve train. Moving forward, if I cannot the find reason for this elusive noise, I am going to sell it. Not only does it have those new parts, but also bored to 103 cylinders, 10:1 pistons. .30 head gasket, new compensator, new chain and auto adjuster, and brand new clutch assembly. New front and rear wheel bearing with new rear Cush drive rubbers and new chromed pulley with bearing. New main trans and input seal, new crank seal, and new drive belt. New front and rear glide pro motor mount system, and rebuilt swing arm. New triple tree with bearings and races…aquatic stereo with diamond 600w amp and 4 cd 6.5 speakers and 2 tweeters installed in dash. And 2 new American elite tires…..new cobra 6450 2-1 pipe and tts master tune. I have sure learned a lot rebuilding this entire bike. I just should have bought a brand new one. I would have been money ahead buying a new one instead of rebuilding this one. Oh yeah one other thing, new super shoxs In the rear, and progressive spring and cartridges ln the front forks………..

The lifter clatter seams to be coming from cylinder no. 1….. If anyone has any other ideas, I am all ears. Thanks for listening to all my rants and raves things. When I get back home, I may go ahead and try and adjust the pushrods up a couple more turns and see if that helps. Otherwise, this damn thing is going and I’m going to buy a new one. Call me OCD, but when I have my beautiful wife on the back of that bike, I will do everything in my power to make damn sure it doesn’t break downWith her on it with me. We are just too old to have a breakdown in the middle of nowhere. Thanks guys!

 

Harley1005, have you ever posted a video of the noise? It would be a shame to take a beating selling the bike only to buy another TC that makes the same noise or an M8 that transfers oil from the tranny to the primary. All of the things you have done to eliminate valve train noise should have eliminated or reduced the noise and simple logic tells me that the valve train is not the source of the noise.

I had an '02 FLHT that I bought as a project bike. Built an all bore 107" motor on an Axtel "Mountain Motor" kit that would not hold a true bore. I won't recount the iterations I went through to come out on the other end with a strong, dependable motor but suffice it to say that it was rebuilt five times before I solved the problem; took me nearly a year. I can't tell you how many times I thought about pouring 5 gallons of gas on that bike and lighting her up. However, I stuck with it and ended up with a quiet, dependable all bore 107" motor that made 124TQ/110HP that was my favorite of the three bikes I had in the garage at the time. Stick with the search for the source of the noise; there is a solution.

 

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when I pulled his rocker support plates, the end clearance between the support plate in the rocker it was over .027, plus, The rocker shaft and rockers themselves had a lot of click click clearance. The bushings on the rockers themselves were worn Way beyond spec.