My 96 vulcan classic with meanstreak engine swap

[Sparkee09]

So it begins! I traded my good ol ct90 for this vulcan at the start of the summer, already all taken apart, you know so that i know exactly where everything goes 👍

So i got the bike, engine blew a rod so i planned on tebuilding it this winter. Then i found a meanstreak 1500 engine for 300 bucks!! So grabbed that and began swapping them. Few things to address. One is it was fuel injected and i have a carb. Also the 2 ignitions between the engines are different

[Sparkee09]

So first gotta strip the new engine down to start working on it. starting with the carb the bottom holes on the boot line up but the top ones are off as you can see so hose gotta be drilled and tapped

[Sparkee09]

Oops. One of the holes definatly got to close to the side. But the hole does go a half inch deeper with full threads. Everything bolts up tight though and fits nicely which is what counts!

[Sparkee09]

Ok so a few hang ups. If you look back at my first pics the new engine came with the driveshaft still hooked up. Since my other driveshaft had been sitting exposed for a year i decided to use the one from the meanstreak. Well turns out the 2 driveshafts are different and dont interchange! Wasted a night trying to heave that thing into the frame. The other thing that needed to be done was the ignition between the 2 are different. I read you can grind down part of the meanstreak flywheel to make it work. The option i took instead, the entire flywheel, stator, ignition system and stator cover, even though are different they interchange, so i just bolted the whole charging system off my classic onto the meanstreak engine. Also the shift linkage are different between the 2, but also swap nicely so you can still use the classic shifter. (they swap nicely when the engines are out. Not possible with the engine in the frame, i had to install this engine a few times lol) Last thing is theres a sensor on the bevel gears that isnt on my classic engine. So since its not being used i just cut the top of it off and then my classic chrome engine cover just slid on. The meanstreak engine didnt come with that chrom cover

[Sparkee09]

And all installed finally! After a day of tracing wires to find i also had a bad starter relay it finally started and pretty easily! Engine sounds healthy which is good. But this brings me to my current hold up where i could use some help. I still need to dial in jetting but i was curious about vibration issues. This thing shakes worse then a harley, just driving through my neighborhood my mirrors are useless cuz they vibrate so hard. I thought these were smooth bikes? Or did i mess up the balance by changing flywheels? I thought flywheels were balanced?

[DragonLady58]

Is this a engine Vib problem or is it a Drivetrain vib? If the engine is hitting healthy on 2 cylinders, but one seems out of sorts, its either a timing problem that could be in the ignition. Listen to the engine with a mechanics stethescope, hard knocking?
If not, could be in your drivetrain. Could be your motormounts loose, not correctly installed. Are you sure the engine wasn't damaged?
And Yes, you could have a flywheel problem.depends on the years involved and the makes.
The meanstreak 1500s well, MAS will inform you....
If its a engine vib problem, and she's shaking really bad, don't run her, you might damage the engine bearings.
Was you counterbalancing shafts OK?

[mick56]

How did you manage to fit the chrome outer casing.That gearshift is in a totally different place to my 1999.Fair play to though mate,you certainly got stuck into it.

[Navigator]

I always enjoy an MC innovator who is willing to try something new. Good luck with that project and I'll be very interested to see how it turns out.

[Sparkee09]

The chrome outer casing fits fine with some help. The mean streak engine has a sensor on the out put shaft (speed sensor?) since my classic doesnt use that i just cut the top of the sensor off amd left it to fill the hole. Thats the last picture in post #4. The gear linkage is a little different. The meanstreak engine stator cover comes off in 2 pieces and the lower portion has a recess in it for the shift linkage to sit in. Now the classic engine, the stator cover is one piece and the shift linkage goes THROUGH the stator cover and sit in a recess in the actual engine case. Well once i had the stator cover off on the meanstreak, the middle engine cases are the same and the recess was still there so it all bolted together without having to modify anything. That sensor i cit was the only thing i had to modify to get the the chrome cover over

[Sparkee09]

So im thinking the vibration are actually being caused by bad tuning, the vibration are 100% from the engine and not drivetrain, i can rattle my teeth out sitting in my driveway if i rev it.

So right now its actually running pretty terrible, to start it it either needs choke or you have to rev it, upping the idle doesnt seem to help. With choke on it idles very high but does idle, take the choke off and the rpms drop but the engine wont idle smooth, its hard to explain but it just seems super choppy, almost inconsistent. Then it stalls. It also pops/hisses out the intake during idle and also while cruising and riding slow is a chore because the bike is very jumpy. As in im riding slowly, it pops out the carb yhen acts like i turned they off, then power comes back on and repeat. Right now i have a 45 pilot and 165 main. Coyote intake and straight pipes at like 4500ft and the mixture screw was at 1.75 turns out. Now its at 3 turns but its too late for a test ride. I never thought jetting could affect engine balance this bad so i wasnt worried about getting the jetting perfect until i fixed the vibration. Well took it out today and finally opened it up. I dont know what rpm i was at but like idk maybe 3500 or so all of a sudden things pretty quickly smooth out and it rides like i imagined it should. Then i upshift, rpm drops and the vibration is back. Just barely put new plugs in so tomorrow ill see how they look. I suspect a lean pilot circuit

[mick56]

The way you attached the intake manifold looks a bit shonky mate,maybe thats sucking air ? Have you tried squirting something flammable at it with the engine running.If the revs pick up,you got a leak.

[vulcanscott]

double check the motor mounts. did you take the weight off the engine while you torque them down and use the torque specs ? sounds like you have it bolted solid at one or more mount . V Scott

[alwhite00]

Is it running on both cylinders?

[VulcanE]

The 1500 Meanstreak's had much larger lifts on the cams than the other 1500s or even the 1600s. They always sounded like they were "hitting a lick" while idling, but, they always smoothed out as RPMs went up. Your sure the timing is dead nuts?

[DragonLady58]

You should ALWAYS stick with the ign. that came with the engine. You can change out the nose cover, and change your pickup plates, which, trying to run a hybrid like what you got, MAS or one of our other wrenches here informed us of something we know but often forget, thats the timing pickups are moved to a different position, which throws the timing waaaay off.
Do a search and you'll see about 6 Months ago, we covered this. The 1500 Meanie was the factory HotRod motor, as per MAS....which I run the aftermarket cam equiv.s in my Thunder 1600 ad 1700's.
AND, when you install the intake on a FI engine, its very easy to get a intake leak, or have your intake charge disrupted and have fuel fall outta suspension at the shape edge if installing the intake wrong....which MAS and others have also covered in the 6 mos to 1 year ago, in other posts.
The Search button here is your friend....theres very little thats been done to the Vulcans that hasn't been talked about here and at Gadgets website....