Yeah, I know nothing about the bike or the PO. I tore the top end off due to a leaky head gasket. The engine had been apart before, their were very deep pry marks on the cylinder surfaces that required decking. Im using an Athena gasket set and my cylinders and heads are sitting perfectly flush. Ive never used APE studs before which is why Im assessing every avenue possible. Im not quite comfortable with the hole ball bearing idea yet so ill still explore other avenues and hopefully find why im having this problem. My first mistake was tossing the stock studs (or whatever studs I removed), they would have been nice to have for comparison.
Tossing the stock studs really means nothing, you've been given the measurements, looking at more stock studs won't make anything any different. As i've repeated 3 times now, APE have built literally thousands of engines since the 70's, there are about as expert as you'll ever get anywhere, Measure the depth of the holes first to eliminate any PO stuff up then, if Jay {APE owner} said put bearings under them then, put bearings under them, or, cut a small piece of the same sized thread off a bolt, or bolts in this case, , any cheap bolt with the same thread will do, or even a length of threaded rod in the appropriate thread size, cut a slot in the top and screw it into the case holes, then screw in the studs. Hundreds of current members have APE studs in their engines and thousands of people world wide, I have a 35 years old set in one of mine...
