Should I replace my cam followers ?

There is a very very slight indent of wear on the polished face where the cam tracks when pushing the follower.
But there is a wear ridge where the followers have been going up and down in the barrel
I appreciate your comments
Dennis

DennisMo said:

There is a very very slight indent of wear on the polished face where the cam tracks when pushing the follower.
But there is a wear ridge where the followers have been going up and down in the barrel
I appreciate your comments
Dennis

Click to expand...

They normally last a very long time. If they are smooth in the bores and very little side-to-side, they are probably fine.

If you are changing the cam then they need to be new or lapped flat. If reusing the cam then they are probably OK as long as they go back where they were before.

I hand lap the surface flat. To do that, you need a surface plate and paper. I use:

Takes a long time (1-3 hours) but in the end you can see yourself in the surface and they are flat. You can start with more course paper to make it faster. You MUST keep them absolutely flat on the paper on the plate at all times. Plate glass is not flat enough. For instance, 600, then 1000, then 1500, then 2000, then the papers I linked.

The cam is not being changed. They do have scoring on their sides. I guess that worst case if I leave them is a little noise?

DennisMo said:

The cam is not being changed. They do have scoring on their sides. I guess that worst case if I leave them is a little noise?

Click to expand...

If the scoring is scratches (not higher than the surface) then they will hurt nothing. If they actually are higher than the surface, use very fine paper to make them not stick up. You don't want to take metal off the surface, only the ridges sticking up.

The front and rear are where the load is - not so much on the sides.

Here is a photo. Thanks for looking at it!

I am no expert, but that is very heavy scoring. I would not use them in my bike. Just my humble opinion.

DennisMo said:

Here is a photo. Thanks for looking at it!
View attachment 123628

Click to expand...

That looks worse than I expected. You need to inspect the tunnels carefully. New tappets are very expensive. So putting a new set in a bad set of cylinders would not be good.

This is a good seller: https://ebay.us/m/UXtg2Q If people don't bid it up to high this should solve your problem as long as the tunnels are OK.

Too bad the seller does not show a closeup of the four faces that rub on the cam. I would not buy them without that photo.

Stephen Hill said:

Too bad the seller does not show a closeup of the four faces that rub on the cam. I would not buy them without that photo.

Click to expand...

They are unused NOS (New Old Stock).

That scoring on the side of the follower is from debris coming down from the head, but they are not too bad. Check the head, every thread, oilways, internal corners of the casting in the head and when you think it is clean, then clean it again.

Madnorton said:

That scoring on the side of the follower is from debris coming down from the head, but they are not too bad. Check the head, every thread, oilways, internal corners of the casting in the head and when you think it is clean, then clean it again.

Click to expand...

Yup.

Folk scrape off old head gaskets debris and carbon etc and it falls down the tunnel, mixes with oil and turns into grinding paste !

The lifters in mine were shot due to this. On mine, the lifter bores were also shot.

Fortunately I was already looking at a JS cam kit (which doesn’t need nice lifter bores), so this just made that decision easier.

DennisMo: check your lifter bores…