It sucks getting old, but no matter how you look at it, we're all getting older with every day that passes. The same goes for our bikes, with every mile we add to the odometer the older that motor may start to feel. Unlike us, an old motor, however, can get a new look on life with a rebuild.
In the case of this bike, an '02 H-D Road King with about 22,000 miles, it was too late to be saved. The sad thing was the owner (Uncle Vic) knew he needed to check on the cam chain tensioners before a trip he had planned, but he ran out of time and headed out anyway thinking, "I can get a few more miles out of her, she's been running so good." About 1,100 miles into the trip, the bike started running hot and was getting real noisy so Vic pulled over and checked everything he could on the side of the road.
Vic got a tow into the next town to a H-D shop and asked to borrow a few tools. He found that the noise was coming from the cam area and the oil pump was not pushing good oil pressure. After further inspection Vic found a list of problems due to weak oil flow. He had to cut the trip short and get the bike back to Los Angeles.
Vic took the bike over to Bennett's Performance in Signal Hill, California, to get some help from Bob and Eric Bennett, the guys who know and work on all things Harley, from the everyday rider to the fastest bikes on the salt. With the bike on the operating table the Bennetts tore into it and found small pieces of cam chain tensioner pad in the oil bag as well as the top end and filter. Then they pulled the heads and found piston and valve damage. It was at that time Vic started to ask himself what his options were. It just made sense to rebuild what he had and increase the displacement and bring new technology to the bike. What Vic found for the money was the S&S 106ci Hot Set Up kit.
The S&S 106ci Hot Set Up kit is available for 88ci and 96ci motors and allows you to build a 106ci TC motor. The 106ci Stroker Kit is a great upgrade because you save money by using your stock cylinders and you don't have to pay for any crankcase modifications. The heart of the kit is the 4 1/2 inch stroke flywheels together with 3 7/8 inch bore, forged 9.8:1 pistons (purchased separately). The kit includes high flowing S&S Super Stock heads, 585 T cams, rocker covers, S&S electronic compression releases, chrome molly pushrods, and all the gaskets and seals.
The 106ci Hot Set Up Kit is offered in natural or black finish, Vic ordered the black kit ($4,080), as well as a set of .010 over pistons and rings ($299.95). S&S offers pistons in standard and multiple oversize options to fit your build.
After getting off the phone with the tech team at S&S, Vic decided to go with S&S' Single Bore EFI Induction kit with Teardrop air cleaner ($954.95) and the Variable Fuel Injection (VFI) module ($599.95) to get the most out of the hop up and bring the tuning of the bike more up to date with a closed loop system. We plan to cover this build over the next few issues so we can go into detail and explain how the VFI system works. Let's get started on installing the S&S 106ci Hot Set Up kit.
 1. Here are most of the parts...  1. Here are most of the parts awaiting installation: S&S true stroker flywheel, heads, gear drive cams set with 585 T cams, pushrods and tubes, lifters, pistons, rocker boxes, throttle body, VFI kit, and all the gaskets and seals. |  2. By the time we got to...  2. By the time we got to the shop, Bob and Eric had already pulled the motor, tore it down and split the cases. Since the bike didn't run we were unable to get a base- line dyno run, however the last time we had work done (exhaust tuning), the bike was pushing 72 hp and 82 lb-ft of torque. |  3. Eric had the cases split...  3. Eric had the cases split and the stock flywheel removed and set aside. After cleaning and inspection Eric checked the S&S stroker flywheel assembly for balance. All S&S flywheel assemblies are dynamically balanced before leaving the factory and trued to a tolerance of .0005 inch. However Eric checks every shipped part before installing them. The good thing is the flywheels were within S&S specs. |
 4. Next, Eric installed the...  4. Next, Eric installed the Timken bearing onto the left side sprocket shaft using the S&S bearing and seal installation tool. |  5. After Bob thoroughly cleaned...  5. After Bob thoroughly cleaned the engine cases, he passed them off to Eric where he took the left-hand side case and slipped it over the sprocket shaft and installed the bearing and seal. |  6. Before moving on with...  6. Before moving on with the build, Eric placed one of the pistons onto the flywheel rods to check for piston skirt clearance. By rotating the flywheels, he could see that the piston had plenty of room and would not hit anything. |