I did my chain tensioner inspection, at 20K they were looking pretty worn, especially the inner. So I decided to swap out the cam chest for a Feuling OE+ kit, cam plate, oil pump, lifters with new 525 chain driven cams. I went chain because Of the possibility of crank run out being off….after seeing these horrible original chain tensioners who wouldn’t doubt Harley’s quality. I installed Feuling one piece push rods instead of using the adjustables that came with the kit, wanting to avoid being out of wack with the adjustments.

All in all not a horrible job to do. First start though was rough. It absolutely refused to start, I pulled the covers off to make sure I was timed right….and it was. It would only start if I rolled back the throttle slightly, then would back fire if I let it idle. I’ve got the idle set way up from where it was. It sounds flat on acceleration, but as soon as you get above 2000 rpm she pulls like a beast! I’m thinking the jets on the carb are way off now, I honestly didn’t think it would be that bad though as the cam’s specs are not super radical. Does anyone have a good starting point for jetting the carb? Or am I going in the wrong direction? When I bought this bike I thought having a carbed bike would be do cool. Wrong! I just don’t want to spend the rest of the season wrenching this thing…..

Feuling 525 cams
stock valves
stock pistons
stock Kehlin CV carb with 2 jets up from stock main when I did pipes but stock slow jet
S&S stealth Air Cleaner
S&S Grand Nationals slip ons

thanks in advance!

 

That cam, used as a plug/play in an OEM 88" WILL feel flat off the bottom.
It needs more compression to support the later intake closing number of the cam.
Compression, and/or more cubic inch.
Scott

 

Check compression; hard starting, no idle sounds like cams may be tooth off.

 

Thanks for the info. This project started out as a tensioner inspection. It’s kind of crazy what I’ve spent on this lol… but I hear you. It’s a nice bike but kind of small for me so I couldn’t see myself upgrading it to a 96 or so… The cam set I really wanted was S&S’s 509, from what I’ve read it’s got some great torque from the start. Oh well, next bike

 

I think you’re right. I took it apart again, and was looking at the timing marks. One side it’s punched center of the tooth while the other it’s punched slightly off center. I know it’s not the mark that counts but if you look at it a certain way it could easily be off a tooth but look proper. I wear no line bifocals that blur a bit on my peripheral vision, so I’m hoping that was it.

One

Two

 

I am referring to cam timing. You will have to pull the cam plate out and see if the timing marks on the inner cam sprockets are properly aligned.

 

If off 1 tooth, you'll see approx. 25 psi difference between the 2 cylinders.
Scott