A brief tutorial on swapping cams for the Victory Cross Roads and Cross Country on the Victory Freedom 106 inch V-Twin Engine with 6 speed over drive transmission Disclaimer: Swapping cams on a Victory XR/XC is meant for those with some engine mechanical assembly/disassembly experience. Do not attempt this if you are unsure of your ability or lack the necessary tools or skill to complete the job. The steps outlined in this tutorial are not meant to be the definitive resource for performing a cam swap on a Victory 106 engine. Over the course of time, steps may be refined or deleted by those who have done these procedures. If you are unsure of any of the steps involved, consult the attached service manual pages, someone who has done the work, or a qualified Victory mechanic. The author takes no responsibility for any component failures, part malfunctions, engine malfunctions, or damage done to the engine or any of its components. You are doing this of your own free will and will hold harmless the author or any of its editors. You are being held responsible for your own work and have no one else to blame but yourself if things go wrong. I hope this guide helps you as much as Boomer Bob helped me. We re just sharing what we know to help out other folks. Best of luck! Phil C. Forward: Swapping cams on a Victory Freedom engine is the easiest and cheapest way to increase engine performance on the Victory XR/XC. This brief tutorial will outline the steps needed to do the job yourself with simple easy to follow instructions. Attached to this document are excerpts from the 2012-2013 Victory XR/XC Service Manual that you will need to complete the job. Please read through this guide in its entirety and be sure you understand all the steps involved before attempting to swap cams.
Items Needed: The following tools and supplies will be needed to complete the cam swap: General Instructions: Your owner s manual Motorcycle jack Automotive Pry-bar Long, sturdy screwdriver or extra long 3/8th drive ratchet extension BFH (Big F n Hammer) and rubber mallet 3/8 inch drive ratchet ½ inch drive ratchet Torque wrench Assorted metric sockets for 3/8ths and ½ inch drive ratchets (8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 13mm, 15mm, 19mm) Assorted metric wrenches in the above stated sizes. Assorted Metric Allen Keys/ Hex Wrenches 1 1/16th inch wrench 1 1/16th socket Small tube of Engine Assembly Grease or Lube Small tube of Anti-seize Enough oil for an oil change and fresh filter Strong small magnet Several shop rags Place the motorcycle jack completely under the motorcycle engine and safely lift the motorcycle off the ground. You will need the front tire slightly off the ground so the frame can move without the bike s weight on it. Secure the motorcycle so it doesn t tip and fall while you are working on it. Disconnect the battery before you do any work! Disassembly Procedures Using your owner s manual, carefully follow the instructions that guide you to remove the side covers, seat, and fuel tank. When removing the fuel line from the tank, be sure to pinch the tabs which secure it to the tank. Do not forcefully pull it off! Remove the spark plug wires and spark plugs. Remove the oil dip stick and plug the hole with a shop rag. Ensure that the rear brake master cylinder cover is tight then remove the right side driver s floor board by removing the two 8mm Hex bolts that hold it on the sub frame. Remove the floor board and rear brake controls as an assembly. Do not disconnect the rear brake master cylinder or brake lines from the engine. Lean the floor board/brake assembly on the engine guard.
Note: Those of you with the flat cast engine guards will probably have to remove them to gain sufficient access to the engine. Those with the round tubular bars can leave them attached to the frame if you wish. THE KINDA SCARY PART: The front backbone of the Victory XR/XC can be split from the rear backbone to gain access to the engine without removing it. In this step we will split the back bone where it meets in the middle to gain access to the valve covers and give us enough room to remove the cams. At the rear of the engine you will notice that the engine is attached to the front backbone and rear backbone with what looks like 2 triangular pieces of steel. These are attached to both backbones with 4 bolts. 2 bolts are in the front backbone, 2 bolts are in the rear backbone. This is the rear engine mount.
Loosen the rear engine mount bolt that attaches directly to the rear of the engine. Do not remove it. There is a lot of friction holding the front backbone to rear backbone so you really don t need to worry about the backbone dropping down. Just in case, hold and secure your pry bar under the front backbone to prevent it from slipping in the next step. This is easily accomplished on the left side of the bike using the rear center of the engine mount as a pry point. Now remove the 2 bolts from the engine mount that are attached to the front backbone. These are near the rear engine opening. Do not loosen or remove the 2 bolts that hold the engine mount to the rear backbone. These are farthest from the rear engine opening. These will hold our engine in place while we perform our swap. With your pry-bar, lift up the backbone using the engine mount as a pry point. Lift it up enough to clear at least 1 bolt hole. While holding the front backbone up, insert your sturdy screwdriver or extra long 3/8ths ratchet extension into the lowest bolt hole to support the front backbone under the lower lip of the backbone. Lower the backbone onto the screwdriver/extension and remove your pry-bar. Not too scary now that you ve done it. Left Side View Right Side View Before you do anything else wipe off the tops of the valve covers with a shop rag to remove any dirt or debris that has accumulated on them. Then continue wiping down the right side of the engine to remove any debris. This is done so no foreign objects have the chance to get into the engine. Remove the 10 bolts from the top of each valve cover. Carefully lift and remove the valve cover and valve cover gasket from the right side of the engine. You do not have to remove the fuel injector plugs or harness. From this point on, I will be referring to Service Manual pages for disassembly and assembly. Not all steps will need to be followed in the service manual! I will indicate this in the instructions. All required Service Manual pages should be included in this write up. Follow the disassembly instructions in the service manual for the camshaft drive cover and cam chain tensioner (pg 7.8).
Follow the disassembly instructions in the service manual for the camshaft chain and sprocket removal (pg 7.10) Note: You will need the 1 1/16ths socket to turn the crank. Turn it carefully so you don t mar the alignment key. You do not have to bring the engine to TDC to remove the sprocket. Just turn the crank and remove the sprocket bolts as they come clear. You also do not need to remove any cam tensioner blade bolts. Removing the cam tensioner will give you enough slack to remove the cam sprocket. When you remove the sprocket, hold the chain to prevent it from falling into the head. I used a loose zip tie to hold the chain out of my way. I loosely secured the zip tie to a frame point. Do the same for the other cam sprocket removal.
Once the sprocket is removed you need to remove the black button cap bolt that is on top of the cam carrier. Once removed, take a hex wrench and attach a magnet to it. Insert this into the hole where the black button cap resided. Slowly and carefully remove the pin that is in there. Remove the cam carrier by loosening the 4 head nuts a half turn each until finger loose. Loosen them in a criss-cross pattern to relieve the valve spring tension equally! (pg 7.11) (do not disassemble the cam carrier any farther! We need to leave the rocker arms and rocker arm shafts in place!)
Turn the cam shaft so the alignment mark points up. Carefully lift and tilt the cam carrier so the cam can be removed without removing the carrier. Push the spring side portion of the rocker arms down so the cam may be removed. Remove the cam. Now do the other cam carrier.
Assembly Procedures Remove the new cams from the packaging and liberally spray them with brake cleaner. This will remove any oil or metal shavings that are on them. Let the cams air dry after they are clean. Note that each cam is marked whether it is for the Front or Rear with either an F or an R. Once dry, liberally coat the cam lobes and cam bearing surfaces with assembly grease. If it s machined smooth, it ll need Engine Assembly grease. Pages 7.21 through 7-26 of the Service manual are the assembly process. Follow it exactly or you will damage an engine component! Double check each step made or risk damaging your engine! I cannot stress that enough! If a part or a bolt wasn t removed, skip that section. There are alignment holes that determine TDC (Top Dead Center). If you look at the Service manual drawing, they are located under and to the left or right of the crankshaft snout. You can use a 7mm hex wrench to align them.
Once you re sure of your work, it s time to button up the engine. Once you put on the valve covers, it s the perfect time to add the fuel injector connections of your fuel controller. You only need to make the connections to the injectors at this time. You can leave the rest until you finished the engine and backbone assembly. Once you re ready to reassemble the backbone you may need to relocate your sturdy screwdriver. Place another screwdriver in the upper hole so you can access the lower lip to lift the backbone again. Remove the lower screwdriver, lift the backbone with the prybar, remove the top screwdriver, then lower the backbone into place. If you have a hard time getting the back bone to go down, place the rubber mallet on the top rear of the backbone and hold it there. Take your BFH and hit the top of rubber mallet until you get both holes aligned. Aren t you done yet? Come on it s almost beer 30! If you added a fuel controller, finish the install according to the manufacturer s instructions. Put your tank, seat, side covers, plugs and plug wires back on then reconnect the battery. A word before you fire it up. Each cam manufacturer has a specified break in procedure. Follow it. LLoydz recommends his cams be broken in by regular driving. Make sure you have a base line setting for your fuel controller before you fire it up. Search the forums and the web to get an idea of what you want. Go ahead and fire it up!