The first thing I want to stress, and have done so several times in the past, is that not every engine is going to fail. There are many PP100's out there doing just fine. Run it like you stole it and have fun. If it fails, fix it. I do highly recommend that all PP100 owners have the updated oil pump installed and spend the little money it takes to have the pinion shaft run-out checked on your engine. Both items are money well spent for the life of your engine.
Indian did switch to Jim's cranpins in 2002 to deal with the import crankpin
issue. But they initially used the Jim's drag racing fuel crankpin, which
was much more expensive to use than their standard pin. At that time both
Posie from P&M Powertrain and I were consultants to Indian and talked
them into using the standard Jim's crankpin, which was used until the factory
closed. The flywheels are an import and have the wrong crankpin taper cut
into the wheels. This was, by their own admission, a design call-out by the
engineers at Indian. The Jims crankpins are cut at a 6-degree taper, the
same as H-D and the other aftermarket suppliers.
Indian's flywheels were cut at 6-1/2 degrees. This call-out was on their actual drawings for the flywheels. So there was no on-line taper, which is critical to proper lock-up of the shaft and flywheel. The crankpins are not designed to be "drawn in" to the wheels and create their own taper. Secondly, the flywheels are softer than S&S, H-D and other major suppliers, by at least 10 points Rockwell, on all the sets we hardness tested during our testing for Indian. This does affect the outcome. If you pull a hardened crankpin into a soft flywheel to torque, it can literally be "pulled through".
Two things can result. First is that you will never be able to hold torque. Second is that you can pull the crankpin through until the crankpin shoulder is flush, or more, with the deck of the flywheel. Again it cannot hold torque. Both of these are scenarios we have seen during our testing for Indian and engines we have torn down since. In addition, during our testing we found that many flywheels had crankpin tapers that were not bore 100% perpendicular to the flywheels. This was another cause for improper flywheel to crankpin lock-up during assembly. The flywheels are shifting out of true. Between P&M Powertrain and Blackhawk Motor Works we have gone through several hundred PP100 engines and have the data to confirm this. On the average, 8-9 out of every 10 engines we rebuild have bad cases where the cast-in insert for the pinion bearing race in the right case has come loose in the casting. Many engines have experienced a broken pinion shaft. From our testing we came to the conclusion that this event is being caused by the flywheels shifting out of true, thus putting excessive loads on the pinion shaft and right case.
I cannot see that a loose compensating sprocket will cause this event. It will cause the flywheels to load the bearing race, but this should be an end load, not a radial load like you would see with out of true flywheels. We have seen many flywheel assemblies and very few have shown signs of end loading. On top of that, very few of the customers or dealers we have talked to have been able to re-tighten the comp nut and had an engine noise go away. Generally, the knock is still there. When we recommend a pinion run-out check it almost invariably results in run-out that exceeds tolerance.
Hopefully, this answers a few questions you may have.
Thanks.
Frank Aliana