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[Haggis]

Forgot a photo.

[stinkwheel]

Is this not the case with high lift cams.
They were re ground to reduce the base circle which gives a similar effect as a high lift cam.
This makes the cam smaller, just like yours.
The fix was to machine a bit of the case to allow the follower to move further down.

This would be good. I'd almost come to the conclusion I was going to do this anyway because it's all very marginal at best. I may even need to file a slight flat on the spindle "rim" at the 12 o' clock position. Whatever else is going on, this won't do any harm and is most easily done with the spindle off the bike.

I'm going to replace the spindle anyway because it wasn't like this when I built the engine and also the spindle has rotated on its seat, which shouldn't have happened.

I don't know if our hosts can confirm this, but I gather tappets with slightly smaller diameter feet are "a thing", might be worth investigating.

Also pretty sure our hosts have screw-out extractors for cam and idle pinion spindles, slide-hammers seem a bit extreme.

They list the extractors but they are out of stock. I may have found one elsewhere.

I'll look into smaller head tappets next time I have the top end off. I'm hoping I can deal with this issue without pulling the motor apart.

[Adrian]

Our hosts are out of stock of pulling tools

Sorry, missed that!

Now I wouldn't normally do this as I do not want to undermine out hosts' sales, but since they're out of stock you (and they!) could try here.

https://www.pricepartmotorcycles.co.uk/ ... 25115.html

A.

[stinkwheel]

Any thoughts on the advisability or otherwise of using bearing fitting compound when re-fitting the spindles?

[Meteorstorm]

You shouldn't need that as they need a tight interference fit,make sure they're exactly square on or they'll wreck the Cams,quick smart,mine did as the support on the ends is not accurate enough in the outer cover, and a somewhat loose fit,poor idea compared to BSA with a support plate,my opinion anyway.The adjustable spindles were flawed in that they gave zero support to the outer end of the spindle !from memory? Lots of downward pressure on the Cam spindle with all that valve spring force to overcome.It is quite a professional job really needing high accuracy fitment.

[Adrian]

The former US importer for RE used to list a timing-side spindle alignment plate as a fitting tool to make sure everything was pointing in EXACTLY the right direction. I'm guessing this bit of kit has sunk without trace.

A.

[stinkwheel]

I was just looking at the timing cover and wondering if there's enough meat on it to have it milled out and a set of bronze bushes fitted...

I'll keep a good eye on things and if I'm not happy, I'll get my engineering mate to have a look at it.

[Adrian]

You MIGHT be able to get the camshaft spindle housings bored out for bronze bushes, make the I/D slightly undersize and use an expanding reamer to get a snug fit if it will go in far enough.

A.

[stinkwheel]

I've actually bought a 15.9mm straight shank hand reamer with the intent of using it to fit the oversize spindle, a guy was seling it cheap on ebay and it looks like it still has the packing grease on it.

[Adrian]

I bought an actual ⅝" solid reamer off ebay for opening out AVL /Electra-X timing covers to accept Bullet solid cam spindles. I think it was posted from Australia!

A.