Harley Road King engine rebuild

Last spring the RK started to make some odd noises.  Sounded like compensating sprocket down low on the left hand side.  Tore it apart and the sprocket was loose, which was odd since it gets pretty heavily torqued (170 ft-lb) and locktighted (lots of red).  Re-tightened but noticed that the splines on the crankshaft were a little worn.

Over the summer, the noise started again.  Pulled the cover off and it was tight but there was fresh wear on the inside of the cover, suggesting that the crankshaft was either out of true or shifted.  Decided it was time for a rebuild.

1) Tear down: no pictures because I didn't think of it and because it is really straightforward.  If you see a bolt, remove the bolt.  (I'm sort of kidding, don't do this unless  you actually know what you are doing).  Boils down to: remove tank, primary cover, clutch, inner primary, exhaust, wiring, carburetor and intake, front motor mount, lift engine out of frame.

2) Tear down engine: remove rocker boxes, heads, cylinders, cam and all associated bits, cylinder head studs, case bolts, and then gently tap cases apart.  Since the 2003 RK has roller bearings the cases will come right off the flywheels.

Rebuild:

I got sort of lucky. In 2003, while at the HD dealer, I built a stroker for a friend and he gave me the stock flywheels.  8 miles since the bike hadn't left the dealer yet when I built it.  I kept meaning to get rid of them but never did.  Saves me $1200 for new flywheels.

Machine work will be done by Automotive Machine & Supply in Fort Worth, TX.  He does a bang-up job and I have sent him numerous sets of heads and cylinders for performance work.

What will be done:

1) Install Timken bearing on LHS crankshaft.  HD used to do this but it was cheaper to put in a roller bearing so they stopped in 2003.

2) Fit new bearings and reassemble flywheel in cases.

3) Bore cylinders and fit for new Keith Black forged pistons.

4) Work heads for my setup (95 inch, S&S 510 chain drive cams, 44mm Keihin Constant Velocity carb) including ceramic coating the exhaust ports.

Not sure what the total cost will be but I'm anticipating a couple thousand to do the whole thing including shipping (expensive) and parts.  The good news is that labor is essentially free (I know, opportunity cost, etc, but I'm not paying some mechanic who I don't know or trust over $100 an hour to put this together).

I'll include pictures of the rebuild in a future post.