Chop Off 1

Clean Up Those Shovel Oil Lines. David “Englishman” Gregory OK, I know I said how much I liked the ‘contraption’ look of the shovel top end after I split the rocker boxes and completed the plumbing nightmare. And to be sure, there was a certain charm exhibited by the tubes and brass blocks hanging off the front of the engine, but I was having concerns about longevity. The tubes vibrated quite a bit and indeed sprang a few leaks which could be traced back to my lack or prowess with the tubing, bending, measuring and flaring etc. Once I had those sorted, I realized what a monumental pain in the ass it was to adjust the solid pushrods now.

I considered re-doing the oil lines, maybe changing them around to the way most people had them, namely feeding in through the end of the rocker shafts, but I didn’t want to attempt something that I may get over my head with (wouldn’t take much!). I was discussing the problems with the local Harley® guru over at Skip’s Cycle, when he mentioned that he would have been inclined to go with the JIMS kit that eliminated the outside oiling on the Shovel engine altogether! I was intrigued at the prospect and looked them up on the net when I got home. At www.jimsusa.com, they have their entire catalog available online, which is always nice, so I was able to look up the kit to which Skip had referred. I obtained the kit from JIMS® and it was right around this time I was running the Shovel up and down the road trying to get the mag timing dialed in, and figuring if my front brake contraption was going to work OK. The engine was feeling pretty weak and I pushed on the clutch pedal to shift and… Silence. That is one of those classic “oh shit” moments, even I can tell the difference between the engine stalling and the engine seizing. I coasted to a stop and rocked it into neutral, then tried moving the kicker arm a little. Nothing, wouldn’t budge…. This aint good. I was only three quarters of a mile away from the house and it was all downhill, so at least it was an easy push and glide to get back to the house. Once the engine had cooled, it seemed to turn over normally but there were obviously problems in there. I suspected the KB pistons had insufficient clearances, but I didn’t have the stuff to measure, this was one of those jobs I let the local ‘performance’ shop handle, and he told me that he had bored a little more than recommended out of the jugs. I need to ride this bike this year, so I determined to find someone that I can trust to work on a shovel and not screw it up, I believe I have found this ‘someone’, more on that in a future article.
Some side by side comparisons of the new JIMS components and the old stock Shovel stuff
Since I was going to have to ship the engine out for work anyway, I pulled the engine out of the frame, figuring it would make it easier to install this oiling kit if I didn’t have to pull the heads off, I could just remove the rocker boxes and leave the heads torqued. I pulled off the brake lines that were serving as oilers, unadjusted the pushrods and pulled them and the tubes off. I pulled the rocker boxes off and tapped out the shafts (seems like I had just done this recently), and unbagged the new roller rockers in preparation for installation. I had considered roller rockers in the past for this engine, but the people more knowledgeable that I on these subjects (and there are MANY), informed me that there was no real performance gain unless you were going to be living at the high RPM generated by a race bike or some such. Of course, I don’t think they could hurt either, but the cost outweighed the benefit to me. But since they are part of this kit, in they go!

Well, almost. The rocker arms were pretty tight when I did the shaft nuts up, so the spacers are going to have to be machined to get the correct endplay. Better tight than loose I guess, easier to take material off the spacers than it is to put it back on, but already I was in need of a lathe. Also, the instructions recommend you check the clearance of the rocker arm to rocker box. So if you don’t have X-Ray vision, you’ll have to use clay or machinists dye, especially with a high lift cam.
I’m using an Andrews A grind, which isn’t that radical, but I’ll have the engine guy check it when he rebuilds it. After I had the rocker boxes assembled, I realized that I hadn’t plugged up the oil fitting holes yet. I was considering using brass plugs but when it came down to it, I thought that would be pretty ugly. There’s only one commercial welding place it town, so I went down there and found the owner to be more than willing to work with bike parts. If you need some work done in the West Michigan area (or wherever) check them out at www.heavymetalcom.com or 1-877-723-9196.

They did a pretty good job of welding and smoothing and I was ready to get on with the rest of the installation. The tappet blocks came out with a little persuasion and I managed to not drop any of the old tappets into the timing case (phew). JIMS® tells you to use their 33443-84 tappet alignment tool, which for some reason I didn’t seem to have in the bottom of my Kmart tool box, and I suppose you should. I just bolted the blocks on originally and it ran fine that was for years, but maybe I got lucky. The pushrods had the adjustment built in, so that was a little odd for me after being used to the solid adjuster inserts I had been running, but I got the rods and tubes together. I didn’t have a tappet screen in this engine, so I picked one up (and a spring) and installed it, also I did use a brass plug for the oil feed from the case.

I do like the look without the lines, cleaner is always better, right? The components from JIMS® looked to be very well made, especially in comparison to the old OEM stuff I was using. Look for future notes on how this kits functions in the real world on the way to the Smoke Out in June, and stay tuned for the ins and outs of why the damn engine seized. The JIMS® kit is part number 1046 and you can get hold of them at (805) 482 6913 or www.jimsusa.com
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