Congrats.

One thing needed......Screamin Eagle cam chain follower upgrade kit.

~Joe

 

Congrats. Let's see some pics!!!

 

She's a beauty! Enjoy!

 

Traveler, what is that, what does it do?

 

There are MANY articles and posts on it that can be found on here.

In short, here is the deal.

1999 the Twin Cam engine came out. The cams are operated with a cam chain with 4 cam chain followers. From 1999 to 2005, these followers were spring loaded and the material they were made out of was a brittle orange material. Additionally, the chains were rough, and they tended to eat up the followers quickly. Some have gotten 50,000 miles out of them, some only 5,000. When they wear out, and can happen VERY quickly, if CAN result in complete engine failure....meaning the engine is destroyed. As they get chewed up, the pieces also get into the oil, and CAN plug up the oiling system. Harley, through Screamin' Eagle, came out with an update kit, which converts the older engines to the new 2006 + setup. It costs around $1,000 bucks. Another option that you will hear about is "gear driven cams" which eliminates the chain and uses gears for the cams. The problem with this, is that as the engine wears, the crankshaft can develop some slack in it, called play or "runout". if the runout gets excessive, it can cause the gears to wobble and bind as they turn, eventually leading to breaking teeth off. I had a 2005 DYNA, and when I got rid of the original cam chain followers at 1,500 miles they were already heavily grooved. Disaster averted.

So, the BEST thing to do is to get the Screamin Eagle (SE) cam chain update kit. If you just merely check them regularly and change them as they wear, you are not dealing with the problem of the little orange bits getting into the oil, and possibly blocking up oil passages.

Gear driven cams are only good if you completely disassemble the motor, have the crank welded and trued, and assembled with minimum runout.

It was criminal IMHO that Harley used this for the first 6 years of Twin Cam production.

Sorry....the bike is GORGEOUS....but needs about a grand in mods to be TRULY bulletproof.

~Joe

 

Potterboy,

Not to dispute what was said above but I would spend some quality time nosing around over at: www.cvoharley.com before I laid out any big bucks right out the gate.
I've have a twin to your bike and also owned a 2005 SEEG and never had an issue with either bike, cam shoes or otherwise. Of course I don't abuse my equipment and I've always keep them properly serviced.
If this issue was of major or grave concern the MOCO would have issued recalls and service bulletins to correct the issue for us long ago rather then deal with ~7000 of their highest paying customers being pissed off along the way by engine failure's. These bikes have held their book value fairly well which attests to their reliability.

All that said I would recommend having the cam shoes checked every 7500 miles to be on the safe side.

Bgill

 

respectfully,

CVO Harley will tell you nothing different, as the bikes are the same.....more chrome and a tad bit bigger bore does NOT change the fact that the Cam shoes are JUNK, and they drop chucks of orange crap in the oil supply and HAVE clogged up oil passages in engines. Check them all you want....the pieces that break off are in the oil!! Again, at 1500 MILES my engine was already showing DEEP grooves in the shoes, and I took action.

I won't get drawn into an arguement simply becasuseI know in this instance, that I am right, and if a person decides to ignore it, then later on, when the engine blows up from valves hitting pistons, AND IT WILL,....... I will NOT be willing to feel bad for the poor S.O.B. who decided not to take precautions.

It IS that serious. The engine is a ticking time bomb until the shitty cam chain followers are removed and replaced. Harley SHOULD be legally liable for this, but sadly they are not.

I hope you don't end up with a pretty bike on the side of the road with a blown up engine, because some Rich RUB at CVO heaven tells you everything is fine....fact is they are WRONG. CVO...non CVO....Harley is Harley.

~Joe

 

Joe,

Your missing the point on my CVOHARLEY.COM reference, they offer a complete catalog of information dedicated to these 2004 & 2005 SEEG's that dates back to their introduction. Something like 1600 topics and 32,000 posts to date which is a great place for someone to research and learn about their purchase.

Your right in that the cam shoes should be checked and addressed if needed, but how do you or I know they haven't been already?

Turning someone's "dream bike" they just bought into "a ticking time bomb" isn't cool in my book and especially under the circumstances.

Potterboy,

You can always visit your local Harley dealer and ask them to run a service history on the bike off your VIN number. If the bike has been Dealer maintained they should be able to tell you everything that's been done to the bike to date.

I think its called an SWR report: service, warranty, repairs.

If you know where the previous owner(s) have had the bike serviced you can also check the histories there, if the previous owner is unsure to if/when the cam shoes were last checked/serviced.

Good luck and enjoy the best looking and factory set up bike the MOCO has ever produced IMHO.

Bgill

 

You're right...forget what I said....ride it until something breaks, then pay to fix it.

no need to address issues, and it was silly of me to pass on information when you are still in the honeymoon phase.

~Joe

 

I'm with traveler on this one. I would at least cut apart the oil filter at every service to look for orange particles but I agree the shoes need to be checked periodically!