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Decided to go ahead and break down the engine on the fxb and found that the pinion bearing race is loose it has up and down play but it stops and will not come out any further. It appears that the grooves that keep it from rotating are still intact. How much I'm able to pull it in and out with my fingers any idea of fixes. It appears the case is fine has the Locking grooves are still in place and not stripped. No the case does not have screws that locks in place I already checked that with a manual. The manual has no further information on this race.
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VERY unusual for that race to be loose on an H-D case. But, there are oversize races available to fix one that is spun. The sleeve in the case should be bored or honed so that it is round and straight, and sized for an oversize race. That is a job for a decent machinist.
Jim
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Closer look at your pics shows that the cast-in sleeve is loose. That is even more unusual; I don't think I have ever seen a pinion sleeve loose. Best, easiest fix for that is, get another case.
What year motor is this?
JimLast edited by JBinNC; 09-10-2021, 7:17 PM. -
It is a 1980 shovlehead. Here a a close up of it, the odd thing is it has teeth on it to keep it from rotating In the case and on the sleeve. It doesn't appear to ever have rotated the teeth on the sleeve and on the case are intact.
Also getting the new case as last resort I'm trying to keep the bike numbers matching 1980 fxb Sturgis. I'm in the middle of restoration when I discovered this
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That is a cast-in-place iron sleeve, and I would consider that not repairable. The sprocket side sleeves in '84 - '89 evos are known to come loose, but I have never seen a pinion side sleeve come loose.
JimComment
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Shit i was afraid to hear that lol. There goes that numbers matching restore.Last edited by Taker73044; 09-10-2021, 7:39 PM.Comment
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And an '80 Sturgis (?) at that.
JimComment
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Yes lol. After you said something about the cast sleeve I had to go take a closer look I thought it was just the race. I guess if I keep the other half of the case it's still kind of numbers matching LOL I'll have it to go with the bike at least.Last edited by Taker73044; 09-10-2021, 7:38 PM.Comment
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About the only path is to machine out the iron sleeve and make an aluminum sleeve to replace it, and weld it in. That will probably ruin the cam bearing bore since it is in close proximity. So it will probably have to be redone as well. If you could put it on a mill table equipped with DRO, and digitize the hole locations with reference to the two dowel pins in the cam cover, you might stand a chance to do the repair accurately enough to be useful. That would at least save the numbered case. Be a lot of time in the repair.
JimComment
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CMC 'aka' Indian M/C was building their 100" Powerpluse motors a few years back at the turn of the century ..
Those motors was notorious for the casted in pinion case race to come loose ..
Pulled the motors down to bare cases and sent them to "Advanced Cycle Machining"
They did a superb job on repairing em ..
Might give them a call 800-844-3200 and have a Pow-Wow with Dan or Wes ...Last edited by Dragstews; 09-10-2021, 8:38 PM.Take my 45 and outrun em all ..Comment
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I will look into that.Comment
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Just had an idea looking at my manual... I don't know if it would work but according to my manual old shovels had 2 retaining screws that. That helped to hold everything into place. Would adding these help along with a permanent expanding locktite? Item 17 in diagram.
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Nope ...
The race been working in the case for many a mile ..
The real fix would be to bore out the old race and machine a new one, sweat it into the case, add a few pins just to keep it from moving and then line bore for the new case bushing ...
In the above link shows doing the left side Timken bearing, pretty much the same deal for the pinion race ...
Last edited by Dragstews; 09-10-2021, 9:23 PM.Take my 45 and outrun em all ..Comment
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What do you guys think about this?
He's pinning the support back in place with some kind of special purpose fastener.
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That might work. Took it to a guy today that does machine work on Harleys. And he mentioned something similar. He said it look like that when the last person did some welding work on the case that he got it to hot and that caused it to come loose. But verified it did not spin in the case just has In and out play.Comment
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Here's how Harley was doing the casted in case race ...
Have no idea why they went to the weaker knurled race insert ...
Evo's used the same deal and were very problematic .. !!Take my 45 and outrun em all ..Comment
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