Pushrod Adjustment

Sven

Well-Known Member
Doogan,

I've read Waddell Wilson's book and he had his way of adjusting the clearances. Remember the letters: EOIC. Sound familiar now?
V-twin is a V8 sliced off, right? One time I spun the pushrod locknut on the opposite side. Nephew called me and he kept riding it home or over to me, don't remember. Either way, the rod survived, readjusted and no problem.

On the inline4, they tell you to adjust 8 valves with the #1 cyl at TDC-C. You then turn the engine one full turn and adjust #4 and the other 2 valves at their EOIC position if you will. So you can go 2 ways setting the pushrod. Find TDC-C as John stated, or Waddell's way with the letter memory.

Pushrod wise, you expand the rod so you are at the point of it acting like a ball bearing spinning in its tight cage. Spins like a motherfucker, but zip is there any movement up and down. Clean a flat on the rod. Use a magic marker or the old lady's nail polish and paint one flat. The S&S count is 24 flats? Mem is saying that's 4 full turns. Use the count off the manual. So presetting would be to run each rod to their presetting or bearing setting so you can watch who, or the bearing height shows you are ready to install the other rod to its flat height, then go back to the bearing setting rod and set that one. You're starting point, right?

Got enough balls behind the zipper to run say, 2 flats less? That's a more quiet lifter, less lift at the valve. Or, or?, you leave the intake alone, 2 flats less at the exhaust. Why? Cam comes around to open the ex, whereas the ex sits longer to cool off, cylinder has more closing time to keep the power [torque] stroke going, yeah, but I'd trade quiet and torque over top end speed. It's the quicker picker upper setting.

For the position part of the cam, the trick is to catch the 'as soon as.' By that I mean is when the letters EO comes around, it means, "as soon as the Exhaust Opens = STOP!" We now adjust the intake pushrod to its bearing setting call it, then the flat count the book calls for.

You are still looking at the same cylinder and now begin to watch the IC Intake Close. As soon as you see IC = STOP! Set the bearing set then the flat counts on the exhaust. You're done with that cylinder. Proceed to the next cylinder and repeat after me. I.....
 

Mikeinjersey

Well-Known Member
Not very experienced on the S&S 117. Are these engines noisy? Is it normal to have a lot of valve train tapped noise? Going to perform the valve adjustment per S&S, but not sure what to expect.
There is a part called a Tappet Screen accessed on top of the crankcase. Check and clean it or replace https://wildsteedworx.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_173_77_332_291&products_id=2044
I found Big Dogs service manual instructions on push rod adjustment very helpful starting at page 5-14
 

Doogan

Member
I appreciate all of the feed back and, yes it makes perfect sense. My biggest concern is not tearing anything up. Want to make sure clearances are good so no unnecessary wear and tear. Funny as this may sound running a BDM, I just want something fun and reliable to ride.
so I settled for fun.
:oldlaugh::oldlaugh::oldlaugh:
 

Doogan

Member
Finally had the chance to adjust the pushrods. 3 full turns and she runs quiet. Have not had it on a long run, just around neighborhood. Been too dammmm busy. Is it my imagination, or does the exhaust have a little more chop to it when the valves are adjusted well. Could just be wishful thinking. Appreciate all of the direction and info. Great group to be part of.
 

Mikeinjersey

Well-Known Member
I have a carbed 117 k9 and it runs somewhat different on different days depending on temp and humidity. Always a monster though. :chopper: Glad you got the noise adjusted out of your bike.
 

Sven

Well-Known Member
Don't know what you mean by chop, but it's a full turn closed or a short opening of the valves. What is a full turn? .002" for argument sake is the clearance. Full turn for argument sake is say .022" See how .020" is a huge gap not at full lift?

Report-John-Report

So if you build a lot of engines, one flat turn is ??? and one full turn is ??? When I meant loose is a quieter engine, I was saying to add so much and it would be like .004" loose. Double the gap or less. That sound of the chop(?), but sure, equally chopped.

A little less tq, no biggie. Still will pull a tree stump out.
 

Doogan

Member
Runs well, bit cooler now, and I hadn’t fired her up for two weeks, so it was probably me thinking it had more pop in the exhaust like it had a bigger cam. I understand clearance changes valve lift, I think it mostly an old man enjoying the rumble of a big v-twin :chopper:
 

mleach72

Well-Known Member
The plunger travel on most lifters is .2", so ideally you want to be as close to .1" as possible to get plunger in the center of the travel. Just take .1 times the pushrod tpi. If the tpi is 32, 3.2 turns = .1" That's actually about 3 turns plus a flat, although many just go with 3 turns, which is fine. The SE quick install pushrods are 24 tpi. That works out to 2.4 turns, so most people just go to 2.5 turns. I don't know why S&S recommends 4 turns. I've heard many guys say they get a tick at 4 turns. The sticker on my downtube actually says 4.5 turns, which is just ridiculous.
 
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