Thanks everybody for great replies.

I am fully aware it is totally impossible for anyone to diagnose this mysterious noise online, from my quite vague description..

I was more looking for ideas for things I have not checked yet. I myself have run out of ideas for things to check, I have basically replaced the whole top end of the engine with brand new parts.

I have not specifically measured the lifter bores, but when mounting the lifters, I put a bit of assembly lube, and they felt equally tight fitting in the bores. If released they would slowly fall down onto the cams, so I don't think there is excessive clearance in the bores.

 

Yes I have noticed the rattle from the Mikuni, especially at idle.

But the noise I'm curious about is a bit more metallic hollow sounding. And it was there already with the stock carb.

 

I'm with Schex. The big one not covered is gear lash.. Too loose and the motor will sound a little like an older diesel pickup at idle and be quiet when cold.. Have you checked crank runout?

 

That was addressed in post #6

This is a Google search for "S&S gear drive noise"
https://www.google.com/search?q=s%26...hrome&ie=UTF-8

 

If all else fails, think about this.
What did I change? What did I modify?
That’s where I would start.

If all you did was change to SS 509 cam
and gears, I would reverse engineer it.
Pull the gears back out and put the chains on and
Fire it up. Chances are the noise is going to be gone.
A 509 lift cam will not make a ticking sound unless the springs broke.
And even then it’ll sound like a tap not a tick. And the bike will be running like shyte.
Like someone said, Murphy’s Law, chances are your backlash on the gear drive or your crank run out is bad. Good luck.

 

With that 25 psi at idle, you are flooding the cylinders with oil from the oil injector cylinder coolers. TCs were not designed around that.

The normal TC idle oil pressure is about 12. The injectors release around 18.

Few idle a Harley long but what's your oil temperature when it's ticking?


The lifter bores run only .001 clearance. Anything over .002 and you will loose lifter and top end oil. Guessing all that pressure over a normal 35 should compensate for a little wear.

 

By chance, do you have the two piece valve springs? Coil inside of a coil? I had a 2000 eglide where one of the inside springs broke. I chased that ticking noise all over the place. Bike ran fine, but that tick would come and go, whenever it felt like it.

 

Not sure where you get 25 psi being a problem with piston oiler as long as the scavenge pump pulls it out.. I currently have 2 bikes that have never sumped at idle and run 25-30 psi hot idle.

Jims tool instructions say 12-15 psi for the oilers to open with air for their tester..

IIRC jims does make oversized lifters. Kevin Baxter seems to be hot on them.

 

Fueling has oversize, but in sets, not individual, at least I don't think you can get mixed sizes in a set of 4.
I have .0015" short travel in the TC, my experience with a few sets of Fueling lifters is that the machine edges are sharp or even burred, the 1.5's wouldn't drop in, used 1500 to smooth edges and they drop right in.

Then about a year later, I run across T-man's lifter prep segment on his 139" M8 build videos

 

Just quoteing on the early development of the TC.. First year or so they had an overheating problem in hot climates cooking the engine oil at idle at lights and such

They determined that the engine can take a little extra heat better short term then the oil. So they put the pressure release in the oil injectors a tad greater then idle oil pressure.

Once moving in the wind, of course pressure comes up at 1500rpm or so resuming the oil spray.

There use to be a source in Google for the early development of the first generation TC but I don't see it now. It was on Wikipedia but don't see it there either

Not sure what you are referring to about sumping. I never mentioned that in my post you quoted. I said flooding cylinders at idle, not crank base.

TC pumps are 15-20% bigger on return. Would not matter what injectors did or oil pressure would affect that. The stock relief is 35.

If you raise that, the same amount of oil is just going in a different direction then just dumping in the cam galley side, to rise up, go thru the crank bearing and into the crank case and out the bottom to the opening for the return side of the pump.