[Panhead Jim]

Have you checked the oil pressure? Put a gauge on 'er.

 

[Panhead Jim]

Man, I saw a treatise on Harley engine noises recently, had it all broken down into when the noise occurs and what kind of noise. I've been looking through all my stuff for an hour now, and can't find it. But I will...
Did you ever figure out your problem??? I went through it in my mind, piston slap, wrist pins, lifters, I gotta believe it's cam related, and here's why: Even though you replaced a world of shit during and after (gulp) the rebuild, the only thing you really CHANGED was the cam...Has to be cam related.
So what is it?

 

[Panhead Jim]

Had the cylinders bored and used cast pistons and rings. The wrist pin holes used spiral rings. I like them a lot better than c-clips. I had the noise before and after this latest attempt and finding the noise. It sounded just like rocker rattle and happens under the same conditions. (all good under a load. Bad at cruise and decelaration). Rockers were shimmed origonaly and when I did the cylinders, I installed a Ram Jet rocker kit. It Didn't change anything. If the cam had too much lift and the rockers were hitting somewhere it would happen all the time. Iv'e got a buddy with a lot of earlier stuff and I'm going to grab an old stock cam and see what happens. Iv'e been riding it some and it just may show me where it's not happy at, but I hope I find it first!

From my machine shop days, I'm thinkin GEAR LASH. You only get it when the machine is not under load. It goes back to the guy earlier that asked after cam gear. You did not have this noise before installing this cam, right?

 

[Panhead Jim]

This may be on up the cam chest, too. Could be all the way to the gen, gen driver, idler, dist driver, and still sound like valves or rockers just because that's where you hear it. I wish I could listen, but I'm thinking gear lash.