'99 Road King, 11,000 miles. Out riding last Saturday, and the check engine light comes on. Get it home, and check the diag code. 42 - Camshaft Position Sensor and 56 - Camshaft and Crankshaft Position sensor timing.

I'm thinking that means the Camshaft position sensor is bad.

Figure I'll replace it this upcoming weekend, but I really WANT to ride during the week. Cleared the code, and rode Monday. No engine light until the ride home from work, and then it came on, but went back out. Checked codes, nothing, not even historic code. Tuesday, same thing, Wednesday, engine light came on right after starting out, but then went out, but have the historic code showing error 42/56. Today, no engine light other than the normal startup.

Only symptoms that I know to even look at the engine light is that I notice a slight backfire/pop on deceleration.

First question, how bad is it to ride with a bad camshaft sensor?
Second question, is it really a bad camshaft sensor?
Third question, how hard is it to replace?

 

Get it fixed. It will get worse. There more days to ride before you cause any damage to the engine. Just replaced one last month on a 2000 ultra for a customer. He did the same thing then it got re bad where it ran like AS******

 

Thanks Drago1.
So we went out for a short ride yesterday, 120 miles. Made it 100 miles before the engine light came on. Ride was past a HD stealership where I picked up the sensor. Came home, had dinner, popped open a 12 pack, and the neighbors and I started replacing the sensor.

Take apart the Deutsch connector, and it's full of oil??? No oil on the outside of the connector, but there was probably at least a tablespoon of oil inside the connector. I did a quick search to see if this was something I was missing, a new 'lubricant' or something to keep the contacts from rusting...

Anyway, long story short, replaced the sensor, since I had bought it, in under an hour. Cleaned out the connector, and put it all back together. Started with no problems, but after a few to many beers, the longer ride will have to wait for this afternoon to see if it's really fixed.

 

Just out of curiosity how much did it cost?

 

$66.00

 

Do you know what part number it was that you got?

By chance was it 32496-99? If so do you still have the bad one?

Need an old one to fill in a hole on mine..

 

Yep, that's the part #. Send me your address.