Snowblind

[girlyglide]

I have a problem with a 2005 TC softail that someone may be able to help with. It's been driving me mad all week!!!

It came in for a set of Xotic pan style rocker covers to be fitted.. straightforward enough, off with the old on with the new.

Damned thing won't start, just backfires in the silencer.

I've done a compression test thinking that I might have bent a valve fitting the rocker gear but both cylinders come out at 150psi (on my gauge - which measures the same on a 2002 FXD). I've even removed the heads and taken the valves out to check but everything looks good!

Only thing I could find was that the new rocker cover base was 10thou thinner than the original H-D rocker base. OK, so I fitted a set of adjustable pushrods thinking that it might be the stock rods being just a little too long and cracking the valves open. Still no go and backfires in the silencer.

I've swapped the crank sensor out for a new one just for the hell of it but still no go.

The bike is a little oddball in that it was an injection model that the customer had changed to run a carb (the engine light never goes out etc - great!!!!).

Question is am I missing something obvious as I'm now snowblind and can't think the problem out.

[kiwidave]

it's the ghost of Panheads past

mortified at those fake tin tops!!!!

[Frog]

sounds like a timing thing to me but I am not that technical. Shouldn't think the 10 thou would have made much difference, wouldn't you hear it knocking if it was?

[girlyglide]

Originally Posted by kiwidave

it's the ghost of Panheads past

mortified at those fake tin tops!!!!

Nearly right........

You know one of those moments when you think something but it doesn't really mean a lot at the time?

Well, earlier today I was sitting looking at the inanimate lump and I thought "those plug leads look too long". Amongst the many things that were changed when the bike was rebuilt into a pan style TC was the position of the coil which now lives where the horn use to live. With me so far?

This evening, after posting this thread, I got a call from someone who helped build the bike in the first place. "We had exactly the same problem when we first tried to start it" he said. "If you look at the coil the plug leads need to be crossed - the front cylinder has the lead going to the rear pole of the coil" (the coil being mounted with both poles pointing down).

So much for modern ignition systems and "custom modifications". Wouldn't have mattered on a REAL PAN.

I had to remove the head steady to machine clearance for the new rocker covers and in doing so the coil had to be removed. You can guess the rest.

Guess that makes me human then