If the old/ original tensioners wore out because the springs were to strong . I believe 40 lbs , are the new replacements set / made to a lower rate ? And did HD do anything with the plastic pads ? Thanks

 

Nobody knows for sure why some of them wore prematurely. One theory is that some of the timing chains had burrs on them which caused accelerated wear on the nylon pads. By the time a set of tensioners is worn down, the cam chains are usually polished smooth and won't wear the next set of tensioners as fast. There was more discussion on this topic a few years ago. I learned a lot at Harley Tech Talk Forums.
http://harleytechtalk.org/htt/index....70cd7a4dc24d34&

 

I replaced my trashed OEM tensioners with another OEM set, much newer of course. And although I didn't make any empirical measurements, the new ones seemed to have much reduced spring pressure! However, the friction material appeared to be the same old yellow phenolic crap. I'm about to change them out again, and I'm going with the Cyco Gaskets polyimide friction blocks peened onto the second set of OEM spring tensioners. Be interesting to see how long they last.

 

The old chain tensioners...

were made with a type of plastic which produced bubbles in the interior of the plastic, with a solid outer surface, during the manufacturing process. Once the outer surface was worn down, you could see what many thought were gouges from the chain 'chunking' pieces out of the plastic.

The newer style was stated to be made with a different plastic that did not have the same problem with bubbling inside during manufacturing. And if you upgraded to the hydraulic tensioners, that was also stated to be an improvement.

 

Said bubbles. Mine at 40k

 

The new roller chains also made a big improvement over the linked chains.


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