I now have 43,000 miles on my 05 ultra. I have never hadthe cam bearings checked. My bike makes no noise and runs fine. I just did a 900 mile trip this weekend and ran 80mph the whole way. I wonder how long the cam bearings can last. The dealer won't cover the checking of them under warranty so I am going to ride it till it quits. probably a bad idea, but I don't want to pay for them to inspect them. that is what I bought the Extended warranty. I know they will fail aometime or another. I guess it is inevitable.

Has anyone out there ever put more miles on a Harley than 43,000? If so, how many?

 

I am not sure about cam bearings, but your cam chain tensioners are probably in need of replacement. My '04 Service Manual specifies a service wear limit of 50%.

I went through a similar situation as yours. 44,000 miles on my '04 with a HD Extended Service Plan and concerned about a cam chain tensioner failure. My HD's service manager agreed to do the repair/replacement (without actually seeing the tensionersand without a failure)of the tensioners and get the warranty company that underwrites the HD ESP to approve the repair. He did so because ofhis experience that the tensioners seldomsurvive the service wear limit at my mileage, so heessentially guessed that once the tensioners were inspected they would indeed need replacement. Also, it wasless expensive to deal with worn tensioners in his shop, rather than if I was on the road and needed towing, accommodations, etc. under the ESP.

When the tech pulled the cam plate both tensioners were shot, with one practically worn to the metal. So the repair was genuinely needed. Like you, I never heard anything and the bike was seemingly running fine. The only symptom I observed was very high oil pressure at times, but when Idiscussed this with the service writers at the dealership, theynever suggested a tensioner problem. However, since the tensioner replacement (and the oil pump which was scored because of the tensioners wearing away), oil pressure has been rock solid with no peaking as was the case the last 1K-2K miles before the service.

 

Yeah it's not the Cam bearings that you need to worrie about.

 

I have noticed that my oil pressure has been running higher than 32 lately.

 

A good friend of mine with an '04 Ultra with 51,000 miles just blew his engine on a trip back from Lake Havasu, AZ .. prognosis is the cam barings went and so did the engine. He towed in back ( 300 miles ) and local HD dealer pulled his engine and sent it off to HD factory for a new replacement. That was 4 weeks ago and so far .. no replacement engine from HD. Just a heads up!!

As for me .. I have gear driven cams and don't have to worry about all that now. I just hope when your engine finally goes, you won't be to far from home and it won't cost you an arm and a leg to have it towed. Good Luck!

 

You should definately have those cam chain tensioners looked at. Just had mine done at 47k miles and the outer one was almost to metal. If the tensioners goes, so does the oil pump and possibly more. TC88's from '02 on have the newer bearings. If you have an earlier model, just get the dealership to check with moco and see if yours has been updated per the recall.

 

That sucks big time. i was hoping to get a lot of miles out of mine. Hopefully more than 50,000. I need to talk with my stealer and see if they will tear down and replace under warranty. I don't want to get stranded.

 

Grayhawk: The fact that this is an ESP repair situation instead of a MOCO 2-year warranty issue is important in this respect: Under the two year factory warranty when the bike is new, the dealer is required to return any parts replaced under the warranty to the MOCO;under the HD ESP (that is actually underwritten and administered by CNA Insurance) any parts replaced under the ESP are NOT returned to the MOCO or CNA. So it allows the dealer to be more flexible on submitting a claim.

I would tell the service manager that you are seeing higher than normal oil pressure and that you know this is a symptom associated with failing cam chain tensioners. I would also listen real hard on the way to the dealer and you will probably hear some unusual noise coming from the motor. All the dealer has to do is call the underwriter, provide your bike's VIN, ESP number, and mileage (which is easily within the mileage for failing cam chain tensioners) and the underwriter will likely approve a preliminary repair order. Then, when the dealer gets into the cam plate, etc., he may see that the oil pump must be replaced in addition to the tensioners.

Also, while the cam plate is removed, this can be a good time to do a cam swap. I did this on mine so the labor for swapping the cams was included, though I think there was a small charge for pressing the bearings onto the new cams.

 

Do I have to worry about this on an 07 as well?

 

Nobody knows, yet. The tensioner set up was updated to a hydraulic unit instead of a spring loaded unit. Only time will tell if the tensioner pads last longer.