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Lifters

kemo

kemo

R.I.P
How come lifters are considered a consumible. Why do they get blamed for noises. Lifters in a car very rarely go bad, biggest cause is not changing the oil often. You read that lifters should be considered to be be replaced after 20000 miles. I don't buy it.
kemo
 
Other thing is many change HD Lifters to roller type (Jim's and others) because they push spring/valve limits in the quest for more horsepower/torque as a given. While the stock lifters rely on a certain amount of "spinning" to manage wear on larger area for the rubbing cam surfaces, roller types are fixed and more stress on the roller's & axles may cause longevity problems...with performance, nothing comes for free.
 
I don't buy it either, I have not seen it in HD's MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE, I have seen bikes well over 50,000 miles with the stock lifters never being changed, but as a thumb of rule, I replace them if a bike has over 5,000 miles if I'm in the cam compartment, sometimes one might not want to pump back up if it's got some air in it, cheap insurance and if cams are replaced the rollers has grove patterns on them from the old cams. I don't like doing anything twice, you can ask my wife:)
 
Other than having one lifter in a Shovelhead go bad years ago I never had one since, but like Chopper says, if you are there and changing cam why not put lifters in, they are cheap and you are tore down, I would, but then again I don't really worry about what things cost if I am in that area doing work it gets replaced regardless, if it needs it or not who knows, but why find out you gotta go back in later. Smitty, I understand what you say about how many miles on your bikes, but we all know not everyone has the same experience, guy in our HOG chapter has a SE Ultra, 2007 that has engine problems, bike is always serviced at the dealer when it should be, and they are covering it under warranty, point is that even though you do maintenance when you should things still can happen. His bike only has about 20K miles on it also.
 
My 93 sportster got a bit noisy on the front cylinder sounded like tappets to me so i changed out all the lifters all was quietish after that so they can be a problem after a while

Brian
 
Ok; I have an 02 wide glide, stock engine and 95k miles on it. I had to replace the lifters at about 80k when they started to lose the ability to stay pumped up. I was advised to switch to the -B lifters, which I did, and no more rattle in that dept. I think that problem may have been solved by the upgraded oil pump on later models, so on later bikes that may no longer be an issue----jack
 
Ran the tires off my evos over 50k and never had lifter problems, agree with Chopper if your changing cams change the lifters, kind of like wheel bearings and races, I change them in sets because of wear issues
 
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