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Cam follower re-grinding

Submitted by tony_wood on Thursday, 5 March, 2020 - 19:26
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Heavy Twins

Hi,

Does anyone have experience of having cam followers re-ground? The cost of a brand new set of followers is over £350 whilst a re-grind is less than £80 for the set. My current followers are a real good fit in the tunnels but the faces are ridged where the cam peak exerts maximum pressure. My only unknown is whether a well re-ground set will be as good as a brand new set, especially as I’ve got a brand new camshaft. Anyone got an opinion on that one? I’m already into a rebuild cost of £5k on this bike so I’d like to make a few savings if they are sensible.

Thanks

Regards

Tony

Submitted by john_holmes on Thursday, 5 March, 2020 - 19:49

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As long as the stellite pad has a good grip on the cast iron then reground will be as good as the originals when new. I get mine reground when fitting a new camshaft.

New one piece cam followers are available from AN but very expensive at £540 a full set and as yet unproven.
AN and RGM appear to be out of stock of the old ones so worth refurbing if possible.

Submitted by anthony_curzon on Thursday, 5 March, 2020 - 19:50

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Try Newman Cams as they can regrind the cam followers for you, as I have had many of mine done by them

Submitted by tony_wood on Thursday, 5 March, 2020 - 20:44

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Anthony,

Thanks for the contact to Newman. I’ll drop them an email. What are they like to deal with? Did they do a good job of the cam follower regrind? How much did they charge to do the work?

Regards

Tony

Submitted by tony_wood on Friday, 6 March, 2020 - 09:05

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Thanks Neil. I’m not an engineer so I don’t know what goes into making those followers but the price of new ones seems pretty extortionate, hence my search for someone to re-grind my original ones.

Regards

Tony

Cam followers are extortionate in price, but are they? If you were to talk to the people who know you might find that the old ones were being sold at a loss.    I imagine they are difficult to make not least because of the tip.

Whether the tip is Carbide or Cobalt I don't know, I would have to bow to Ashley on that one,  but whatever the tip is it is likely it would require a different grinding wheel to the rest of the follower which was cast iron. The iron needing a " normal" grindstone and the tip possibly needing a softer green wheel.  So apart from being a complicated component to produce there must have been further issues with grinding, this should have reflected in the final cost and I always thought that for what you were getting the two part followers were a bargain.                                                           The price of the new one piece followers comes as a bit of a shock but it's probably due to small batch production, cost of materials and the fact that most companies approached weren't interested,  which doesn't  leave a great deal of room for negotiation with regards to the final cost. 

 

 

 

Submitted by john_holmes on Friday, 6 March, 2020 - 09:43

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I used to get mine done at work in the toolroom but now retired so I no longer have access, got them to do the worst one first and then take that same amount off the remaining 3 and tell me how much they took off. Then if required I could adjust the push rod length.

If I needed a set done today I would use Peter Shand.

Submitted by anthony_curzon on Friday, 6 March, 2020 - 11:40

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Newman Cams are a very good company, and I arranged a tour of their facilities, for the Surrey section a few years ago. I did an article for Roadholder about our visit. Ken Newman, now runs the company, as his father Dave is semi retired.Their phone number is 01689 857109, their web site is www.newman-cams.com

Submitted by ashley_cutler on Friday, 6 March, 2020 - 12:03

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The pad is not Stellite, its is an iron based, not cobalt, hard facing material. A grinder will need to know this to do a good job. 

If anyone thinks tappets are over priced, then feel free to ask a Grinder here in the UK or anywhere else on the planet and see what they would charge to grind all over. I asked 9 grinders in the UK, 8 refused to quote and the one that did would have resulted in retail prices for an engine set being close to £1000.00 - that is based on just one operation.

The new tappets are not iron based, the material they use is traded globally by the lb. It is a special alloy. 

Submitted by tony_wood on Friday, 6 March, 2020 - 19:35

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I didn’t realise that the new followers were one piece, so I guess that means the whole unit is made from ‘hard’ material rather than just the tip. I guess you’re right about small batches mean high cost, but when you consider that each one ends up well over £100 after VAT, it’s still a heck of a cost - someone somewhere is making a very healthy profit.

Submitted by peter_shand on Sunday, 15 March, 2020 - 19:19

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I can regrind your followers if they are flat faced, haven't made the tooling yet to tackle the radius followers.

Regards

Peter 

Thanks Peter. My cam followers are the radiused type so I’m going to have to go to an ‘external’ engineering service. I’m going to send them to Newman Cams and then keep my fingers crossed that they do a good job.

Thanks again for your offer.

Regards

Tony

 

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