Aligning Drivetrain without inner primary

[300newbie]

Hi all,

Do a little something with a 78 shovelhead motor and tranny setup. Planning to run open belt with no inner primary. What are some tips or tricks to make this process easier.

thanks

mike

[Captain America]

Not much to it, just make sure that you use a bearing support. Baker makes a nice one that fits well and isn't too expensive, some guys don't use them but I like the extra support. Are you gonna run a stock style clutch or an aftermarket setup? If you use a stock setup you'll need dry clutches and a small amount of grease on your hub rollers, and I like the Jim's double seal for on the crankshaft.

[300newbie]

What about ensuring alignment without an inner primary?

[jsdiamond]

First: Make sure your engine is shimmed (if needed) and bolted in place.

Next: Go to a hardware store and buy a carpenter's level --get the yard length one with three glass levels in it. Then with the trans in (and not bolted) use the straight edge to make sure your pulleys are lined up. But here's the real tricky bit: Also place the level vertical against each pulley to make sure the rear pulley is equal to the front pulley. Then shim the trans as needed.

You'd be surprised at how trans plates + frame mounts can alter things a degree or two.

[RedWings]

pretty simple. you need an old style tranny plate with slotted holes and an aftermarket tranny adjuster plate so you can adjust the chain or belt. both are easy to come by. I assume you're gonna run a kicker?

[RB Donovan]

I think if it were me, I would look on ebay or craigslist and but an inexpensive inner primary plate. This way you can bolt the engine and trans to it for alignment purposes, and then you can tighten down the engine and trans. Once all is tightened down the inner plate can be removed and engine and trans should be aligned.

The plate can also be used in the future for double checking and re-aligning the engine and trans due to possible movement.

[Captain America]

Oops, I never did really answer your original question but I do it like RB said to, I use an old inner OEM Harley primary, that will take care of the alignment for most of the belt systems out there.

[fireforeffect]

Using an inner primary isn't going to necessarily align it. When I installed an open primary on my '92 Evo, the motor plate didn't line up on the engine at all when bolted to the tranny. I loosened both up and bolted the motor plate on (big, thick billet thing), then found the tranny had to be shimmed in back decently. W/ the stock inner primary the chain slop allowed for the misalignment that was going on since the factory. (Other possible explanation is that the open primary motor plate is misaligned...)

But like JSD says, not all that different aligning one w/out a motor plate than w/ one. If you dont' have a level, a straight length of 3'x1/8" steel bar stock works too. At the end of the day, it's the alignment of the pulleys that matters for the belt to track straight, but also have to consider that the trans needs to be in-line w/ the rear wheel to ensure teh chain/belt is lined up as much as possible too.

[RedWings]

thats all good advise but without an inner primary the torque will jerk the tranny out of alignment quick.
and you're liable to snap a tranny ear off. You need the adjuster plate under the tranny to hold the tranny straightt and even then you'll have to adjust it now and then. What you should do is look at an old tin primary 4 spd setup to understand what I'm trying to say. Running tins is the same as running no inner primary.