I have a 2000 Heritage Softail Classic with about 36000 miles. I have had no real problems to date and love the bike. The documented cam-bearing problems that have occurred with the early 88 models has been a concern for me. American Rider just had an article by Joe Minton describing the excessive wearing of the spring-loaded cam-chain tensioner shoes, and recommended the SE Hybrid Cam Plate and High Flow Oil Pump Kit (Part No. 25284-08) which he states replaces almost everything inside the right engine-case cover except the cams themselves. I am considering having this done as a precautionary measure. I welcome any comments from anyone that has either researched this or better yet actually had the part installed. I am not interested in changing cams therefore I feel the S&S/Andrews Twin Cam gear-drive systems would be a little over kill for me. Thanks.

 

All '99 models and some early 2000 models have the outer rear cam bearing that may fail....The first questions is your bike one of the early 2000 models with it? You can verify this thru the MoCo.

My 2000 was one of those models. They gave owners a 5 year/50k mile warranty on that part. I rode mine until the warranty expired and then swapped to a gear drive. I never had a problem.

At 36k miles, your cam tensioners may be getting worn. The update would be part of a tensioner change. Personally, I don't see the need in swapping cam plates and oil pumps if there is nothing wrong with your current ones.

 

I myself had a '99 model but never experienced the outer cam bearing issues. From my experience what I have seen though, on the early models is excessive wear on the cam chain tensioner shoes. It seems the problem stemed from the actual chain that was used. The chains did not have a rolled edge on them and after a while it actually cut down into the tensioner shoe. I have replaced a few for guys. I replaced the chain and the shoes. My suggestion would be to pull the cover off and check out the shoes. The bikes I have worked on had in excess of 50k miles. The last the tensioner shoe actual separated allowing the chain to come loose. He was just lucky that nothing else was damaged.

 

If you already have SE-203 cams, is this anything to worry about?

 

Maybe, depending on when the cams were put in. If they were put in before the update, they may have the ball style bearing on the rear cams outside....You can pull the cam cover and get a peak to see if the rear cam bearing has ***** or rollers. If it's got rollers, it is updated.

 

Thanks to everyone that responded to my question regarding the TC88 Cam Bearing problems. I think considering I'm not having problems now, I will wait until late fall/winter to make a decison on which way to go. That should put me around 40,000 miles and make me feel better about investing any money.

 

If by chance you have the weaker bearing, keep your fingers crossed that she doesn't let go before winter. If it it does, it most likely cost you thousands instead of the few hundred it would have cost to have gone in and changed the bearing and/or tensioners if they needed it.

 

If it were my bike, the cam cover would be off this weekend to at least provide a visual of the tensioners. They have been know to go out at 15K miles or 50k miles... its a roll of the dice with those things. Total cost - $10 in gaskets and a couple hours of time...

 

I just checked mine at 36k miles. The wear was minimal. I felt better checking than not knowing. Took an hour or two.

 

Here is my primary with less than 5k miles. It will be definitely be replaced before 36k miles...