You can run it that way if it quiets down the noise.. I've got 3 bikes setup that way, 1 evo (SnS 640) , 2 tcs (SnS640, Woods 9B). The 9B does have a light rattle when hot, all valves, but it's the nature of the beast. They are 0.640 and 0.630 lift cams..

 

So that would leave less than 0.01" of travel in the lifter, with 32 TPI pushrods?

I will try that, thanks a lot

 

The lifter body clearance has intrigued me recently. I've not paid much attention to it in the past.. I know that Zippers came up it the oversized indexing pins and it looks like Feuling picked it up.. I know Kevin Baxter likes to custom fit lifters to the bores but uses Jim's Machine lifters. Jim's makes test gauges that you can use to check lifter bores with and select replacement lifters based on the gauges.

Still I wonder if tackling that issue is all that important. If excessive, yes but I would guess that it mainly has a big effect on low RPM oil pressure. So it would have to be the lifter rocking back and forth in the hole that causes the issue? Seems like you would hear that more at the lifter than the cylinder head..

When the motor has lifter bleed down issues, you hear it in the heads. The valve drops onto the seat hard making the tick. Going to limited travel lifters or simply adjusting off bottomed keep the collapse to a minimum and the lifter can recover quicker. I've found that this works real well for bikes with aggressive ramped cams or even simply ones with higher lift. The main issue seems to be the setdown ramps when the valve contacts the seat. If the lifter collapses enough to miss that part of the ramp, noise is heard..

 

I chased a valve train noise for a while, that's what led me to looking at the lifter bores, with also checking rocker arms and shafts, indexing pins, piston jets, valve springs and guides, The noise was always more on the left side, mostly from the front exhaust.

I've used oversize indexing pins before, I made from hardened pin gauges, had to grind to shorten them, the lifters in my TC now needed the stock size pins.
My version of rocker lockers was to set screw the rocker shafts from the under side of the supports, used long set screws that can't fall out even if they backed off, also checked rocker arm bushings and end play.
The last time I had the engine down, I test the piston jet pop off pressures, stock jets opened at 13#, the S&S was around 8 if I remember correct, went with stock.
I also went with the S&S 585 spring set which reduced seat and over the nose pressures from what I had before, seat pressures around 135 now with over the nose at around 330, still turns up with no sign of float.

The lifer bore fit, piston jets and lighter valve springs was changed at the same time when I had the engine down for some crank work, between those three or a combo of, the tic is gone.

Baxters lifters prices are out of sight, $136 per lifter.

 

I too have spent time on a number of ticking issues. Some cams make more noise than others. I have used the 55G cams and found them to be pretty quiet. They were a lot quieter than the Crane H290s that they replaced when I got tired of changing the lifters. I did get new lifters From WFO Larry.. Generally I find SnS cams to be pretty quiet also.. SnS 625 was real quiet, maybe a little idle rattle with really hot.

My own criteria for a OK motor is that it will be quiet at idle cold but can tick a little at hot. Running down the road no tick.. Cam's like the Crane H290 would pass but as the lifters accumulated miles, i would eventually hear the tick, replace the lifters and continue on.. I would typically adjust the lifters 1 turn off of bottomed.

After talking to Larry, I've pretty much switched to using limiters and adjusting 1/4 turn off of bottomed. It definitely helps on the bigger cams, the 9B in particular.

I've tried the set screw idea in the rocker towers and did seem to quite the top end. Unfortunately in this case the I screwed up on rocker arm bushing fit / material and locked the rocker to the shafts.

Many claim that the pushrod hitting the upper tube causes some noise. I've taken apart motors for different reasons that were quiet and found the pushrods rubbing. Go figure.

In the OPs case, it took a pair of earbuds and turning up the volume real loud to hear the tick.. It sounds like one valve..

If the tick is always there, it may be a clearance issue with the different rocker covers. If it's more common warm, I'd suspect a weak lifters or a geometry problems that is causing one lifter to work harder. It may be that the lifter bore is loose and causing the issue. I don't really know.. Maybe damage to the rocker arm? I assume the rockers are stock. I've never seen a clearance issue with stock rockers. Rollers yes..

I do think that adjusting the lifters just off of bottomed is worth a try.. If it works, run it until it gets noisy then go with a new set of limited lifters..

 

I tried adjusting the lifters from the bottom but I don't think I did it right. I extended the push rod until it would not go deeper, and then backed off 1/4 turn. After 30 minutes the rod was still under pressure, I could not turn it with my finger. I tried backing out 1/4 turns more but no difference.

So I decided to adjust from the top but deeper, I went for 35 flats so almost 6 turns down. I think it became a bit more quiet but there is still a tapping noise when warm.

I had a conversation with a quite experienced engine builder here and he was pretty sure this is lash in the gear drive, with the noise amplified by my hard valve springs.

As far as I have found, there are no oversize gears available for the inner gears for 99-06 engines. Only the pinion gear is available in two steps of increasing size.

I do think that a bit loose gears is better than too tight, and as long as there is no damage from this noise maybe I will just try to live with a bit of tapping noise.

As for the valve springs being a bit too much for my cams (.650 vs .550) I will rather change to a higher lift cam than replacing the springs

 

The troll won’t go away with his “I am right, everyone else is wrong” nonsense. It’s one thing to post but to correct others is trolling at its finest.

 

According to Andrews O/S and U/S gears are availble for the rear inner cam gear; see attached.

You can change to a lighter springs regardless of lift and make it easier on the valve train. For normal use, heavy/stiff springs are not necessary. Drag racers use them to manage valve float which can be issue on the street under hard use but mostly they can be noisy slamming the valve back onto the seat. I have run .600 lift cams with OEM beehive springs with no issues and I don't baby the motor but I don't abuse it either. Do you know the rating of the valve springs you are running?

 

Maybe I missed something but haven't seen any trolling in this thread.

 

Typically for adjusting pushrods off of bottomed, I got about 6 turns and let sit.. If they turn, I go another 1-2 to 1 turn and continue until the pushrods stay tight after sitting. At that point I back off until I can feel the pushrod unload and then go another 1/4 turn and tighten. Check to make sure it turns after some sitting then do the other cylinder.

AS DLJ says you can still get oversized for early TCs. I still have some.. They used to be in the older Drag and bikers choice catalogs.. Bobby woods had double oversized but I seem to remember SnS started selling them also.

My introduction to loose inner gears and the noise was a set of heads and a wild things WT26 cam with 180 lb seat pressure springs. I seem to remember idle noise was more like a diesel.. Went W8s.. They were worse. I guess you could still get a single tick which is kind of what I heard...