Well I have gone down the road of upgrading my camchest with the hybrid unit from HD, new cams etc. Not my question.

I took the old cam chest out last night, 2005 Road Glide with 55k miles on the clock. I was expecting the tensioners to be in far worse condition based on everything I have read about them. Please take a look at the pictures of the primary chain tensioner (not the best images, Blackberry):




So no deep groove in the material though I do see the pock marks as I have seen on other posts. I am still moving forward with the upgrades, I was just looking for some opinions on condition, did they need to be replaced, did I somehow have better shoes then some other bikes, or with the amount of pocking was I close to full failure???

Just trying to keep myself educated. Perhaps this might be helpful for someone else with the same vintage that is concerned about this issue.

 

I think research has shown that the cam chain is the problem, not the tensioner pads. If the chain was cut with dull dies there would be sharp burrs that would chew up the pads much faster than chains that were cut with sharp dies that would produce smoother chains. Obviously your chain didn't have any burrs.

 

Yep, I agree. Change 'em while you're in there and you'll sleep better while you're riding (or something like that). I forked over the $500 bones to upgrade to the SE hydro unit but only because I was doing a lot of other work to the motor. If I had kept her stock, I would have just replaced the tensioners...

 

I would definatly change them.

 

What are the odds that there are 2 "Architects" from Long Island???

 

While the groove is actually pretty minimal considering the miles, the pitting is pretty bad. I don't think failure was imminent on those, but worth the change.

 

I'd have to take issue with that. Certianly the age of the dies that stamped out the links in the silent cam chain had a tremendous impact on the roughness of the chain, and thus its tendency to cut into the tensioner pads.

But the max sustained operating temperature of the OEM polyoxymethylene (Delrin) tensioner pads (from 1999-2005) was 180F, while the max sustained operating temperature of the polyamide 4,6 nylon pads used in Cyco & post-2005 pads is 275F. The crappy yellow Delrin pads just get softer quicker (had lower heat deflection point) in hot HD engines, as evidenced by the spalling of the face the OP noted, than the white nylon pads. You just don't see that with the nylon pads.

It was a simple case of poor design/engineering, testing and quality control. It is not unreasonable to expect better of HD, IMHO.

 

I agree with change them while in there and go to hydraulic tensioners, My 2002 TC 88 made it to 52,000.00 on the original tensioners, I started hearing a ticking notice and was doing the forks and went into the cam chest. I upgraded and then sold the bike , LOL

 

I appreciate the feedback. As stated, the swap is underway just looking to keep myself and others informed. Better to be the guy that the tensioners survived then the guy that had the full failure. I will consider myself lucky and will put it behind me as the new hybrid unit is sitting on the bench just waiting to have the new cams pressed in.

Now if this white **** would just go away, because my winter mods should be complete in about two more weeks!!!

 

CJ, lots of Architects on LI, it is a small island after all!!!!