Picking up where I left off from my last post, jugs and pistons, I assembled the rocker boxes to the newly reconditioned heads. The head job included new valves, guides and springs. After the torque down of the new head bolts to 65 ft. lbs, it is time to install the pushrods and covers. Following the manual for the pushrod assembly, it says nothing about bleeding down the hydraulic lifters.
This is a tip I picked up from an Arizonian friend that just happened to be in my garage this day.Following his instructions, I took a small drill bit and mounted in a vise blunt end up, then slid the lifter over the end of the bit to release the check ball to bleed out the oil by pumping the lifter piston. This is also a good time to double check the lifters as covered in the manual. These parts (lifters and pushrods) have to be kept separate, and get assembled in the same positions as they came out. After bleeding down the lifters, the pushrods with the covers can easily be installed, as per the instructions in the factory manual.
Now for the time consuming part of the job, reverse order of stripping the motorcycle for repair. (Put everything back together the way you took it off)
Stay tuned……….
Cost on this post:
Head work and valve job, $515.00 (shop labor 4hrs @ $80.00)
Top end gasket kit, $44.00
My time: priceless
Ride Safe.
Picking up where I left off with my last post, I painted jugs (cylinders) with some rattle can black heat paint, I picked up at my local auto-parts store. I baked on the paint job by letting the cylinders cook in the Colorado sun. While my jugs were drying, I ran the rocker boxes over to a friend of mine, for a light polish job. So-far I think everything has turned out nice.
Checking the piston pin fit in the connecting rod, I found they are within factory spec’s. Then checking ring-gap clearance of the new piston rings, in the cylinder, I am ok. I then put a pot of water on the stove, it was time to drop the pistons in the pot, and boil up some pistons. Heating up the pistons in the boiling water so the pins will hand press in the pistons, is covered in the manual. 
After installing the pistons to the connecting rods, I then could install the new rings and check the ring side gap clearance, everything checks out. In my factory manual it does not show the position of the compression rings, you will find this in some later manuals looking like the illustration pictured here.
After lubing up the cylinder walls and pistons, positioning the ring gaps equidistant to the low side of travel, we can slide the cylinders over the pistons using a ring compression tool. Installing new base nuts and washers, I can take a break and wait for the shop to call when the valve job is complete.
Cost: $30.00 polish job, everything else is on a charge tab.
Time: I have lost track.
I made the comment on a post awhile back; my 68FLH is starting to smoke a little at idle. So this post may get a little boring. The old 68 is hitting about 30,000 miles since I did a complete overhaul at 53,000 miles. So up on the lift it goes and the start of some wrenching.
This is where a factory service manual is a must have, and even then there are some things you have to do, that are not covered in the manual. This is when the common sense part of the mechanical brain kicks in. Following the steps in the manual for stripping the motorcycle for repair, when getting to the part about removing the cylinders, I found the need to remove the starter solenoid and clutch cable to get a good wrench grip on the rear left cylinder nut on the back jug. I also found it easy to get to the front right cylinder nut on the front jug, by pulling the generator. Upon inspection of the pistons I think I found the source of the smoke, the rear piston oil ring was just starting to seize, good thing I tore in to now.
After the top end removal it was time to check the rods for up and down, and side to side play, to make sure the works stops at the top. Good news the bottom end is within the factory specs on the connecting rods.
Since I don’t have the tools for the head work I took them in to my local independent motorcycle shop for the valve job, knowing that at 30,000 miles the heads need a complete rebuild. While at the local shop I took advantage of the main wrench working there, he sand blasted my carboned-up pistons and blasted the jugs, plus checked for cylinder wear, all for no charge. The cylinders checked out, a little past the point of no return, but knowing I was on a budget, and this is an old strong Shovel, he told me I should be good to go, by just getting a new set of piston rings. The head work at the shop will take about a week. As this top end job on budget progresses I will be posting up-dates. Until then ride safe, I’ll be on the 49 pan, it sure is nice to have a back-up bike.
Time and cost so far; 4 hrs, and a pack of smokes.
This is a tip I picked up from an Arizonian friend that just happened to be in my garage this day.Following his instructions, I took a small drill bit and mounted in a vise blunt end up, then slid the lifter over the end of the bit to release the check ball to bleed out the oil by pumping the lifter piston. This is also a good time to double check the lifters as covered in the manual. These parts (lifters and pushrods) have to be kept separate, and get assembled in the same positions as they came out. After bleeding down the lifters, the pushrods with the covers can easily be installed, as per the instructions in the factory manual.
