Case HalvesThe most important part of the Pan was the engine's case halves as they're the only pieces I can 100% claim as original from '48 - unless someone (the dude) did some # stamping voodoo - but for my mental reasoning - I'll assume he didn't. The #'s on the case halves match - both inside & out. They've been beat up, dropped (as an engine assembly), broken & repaired. Most of the screw threads are
boogered or hogged out & tapped to larger diameters - but they're the bikes history & identity and I'm damn sensitive to their well being.
With all that's wrong - initially - they required relatively little work to prep for assembly. I took all of the jug & oil pump studs out, cleaned some threads & hand filed the
gasket surfaces. I r&
r'd the cam bushing & pinned that in place. The idler gear's shaft, just like the original pinion shaft, decided to wear the hardened steel instead of the gear's brass bushing. I'm not sure what type of oil was used or temperature extremes this brass was exposed to for the past 60 years - but it's somehow hardened the brass so the steel wears instead of the original intent of brass wearing, steel = good, and I'm not going to figure out why. With a bit of knowledge from the Boar House (neither the Harley factory manual nor goddamn
Clymers tell you how to do this) - I was able to pop this shaft out (I didn't intend for that to sound sexual) & tap in a new one. I've also replaced the both the idler & circuit breaker gears' brass bushings.
I cleaned the threads of the original jug studs & began the install. I applied a bit of blue
Loctite & threaded the studs in until they bottomed out in the cases. When I came to thread the center studs in - I couldn't get their installed heights to match. Two of the studs installed at the height of the other four (I refer to this as the "proper height"), but two remained about .4" too tall & I had no idea why - maybe the threads were still crap or something was keeping the studs from going all the way in. I tried & tried again but no change. I then tried to pull the two center studs that were at the "proper height" until I found their extraction extremely tough. A bit of an investigation with a flashlight & I found the two studs bottom @ the same point in the case half so when you have one stud all the way in, the other bottoms on the installed stud's threads - so my try & try again method only further damaged the threads of the installed studs at the "proper height" - making removal without case thread damage impossible. I left the damaged studs installed & drove the other studs until they bottomed on the installed studs & proceeded to assemble. When I put on the cylinders, I only had about 4 threads of the "proper height" studs were available to grab with the cylinder nuts - meanwhile the tall studs afforded approx 10 more threads which was more ideal. With only 4 threads grabbing what I assume are grade 2 nuts - considering the cylinder pressures I'm expecting during running - I am way too exposed to failure here. So I revert to the fact that I'll be doing a complete
dissassembly before running to obtain a few more threads to hold the cylinders in place. Because the damaged studs won't be removed without significant case thread damage - a new solution is required. I plan to remove the studs - even though there will be thread damage - and then drill,
counter bore, tap & install some 7/16" Time-
sert steel thread bosses. Then - as the jugs basically self align themselves during install with the exposed cylinder sleeve - I'll just use some grade 5
allen bolts & aluminum spacers (thermal expansion compensation). Then...these cases should be mint.
Camshaft & Lifters & Push rods & Oil Pump The camshaft already received some mention in another post - basically - I ended up with an Andrews B grind. I'm psyched - this will be a good cam.
I believe my dad replaced the lifters, lifter blocks &
push rods not too long ago. The blocks were in great shape - the lifters had some bad wall scuffing - well beyond buffing so I scrapped em in exchange for some new
Sifton solids. These seem to fit well in the lifter block bores.
The wear on the original
push rods is a bit concerning - appears as if a shortage of wall lube or excessive side loading was present. The new cam should help the side loading - the lift ramp is significantly less than the original. I still don't know why the wall lube wasn't there - hopefully the new
Sifton oil pump will resolve (replaced the old because the gears were sloppy & running pressures were below 10 psi). The lifters will be
something I keep a close eye on during maintenance - if I get this thing running.
It's a low-res image - apologies - it's taken from by brother's phone camera bad at my dad's shop in Canby - but it's a pic @ least. I say it's a pic of the nearly current state because once I returned to I added the push rods & push rod tubes (which I'll also be rebuilding as the new gaskets from Adams were way too tight on the tubes & I couldn't get a good-n-tight fit) + the valve covers.
It's kinda light gray / green & I think it'll look good.
