I like your advice..I have not touched mine except the stage one kit, I am taking mine in for the 30K service soon.....but after reading these threads, I'm expecting to drop a grand on the Screamin' Eagle® Hydraulic Cam Chain Tensioner Plate Upgrade Kit ..sheesh..

 

I did mine almost a year ago, IF I remember correctly...

I also replaced the cam chain and sprockets, along with adding a baisley spring to the new oil pump, new adjustable pushrods, and new OEM style rocker arms. I did all the work, so the cost was for parts alone. Around $650 in total.

I immediately found the valve train noise to be all but unnoticable, after the build. Don't have an oil pressure guage or temp guage, but both seem to have improved greatly. Even when riding this summer during the heat of the day, it was noticably cooler according to my 'denim legheat suppressor'. I'm pleased with it!

 

I am dropping my bike off today to get the upgrade kit done, along with SE 204 cams. My bike has 14K miles, but I am doing it as a precaution. The only question I have is (and HD won't answer). If we are replacing shoes with a shoe, won't there still be the same problem?

I asked the dealer this several times, and their response always bad mouths gear driven cams. My response is to the dealer is: "That was not the question. If we are replacing shoes with shoes, won't we have the sme problem?"

Dealers response: bad mouth gear driven cams...

I am starting to get nervous about this decision...wtf!

I understand the upgrade kit is quieter. I don't care about the noise, I care about reliability & performance.

 

The material of the new shoes is similar to what the primary chain adjuster uses.

 

I have a buddy who works for the Harley dealership near me. Once I found out about this issue, I took my newly purchased 2002 FLHTIC with 51K on it to his dealership this past Tuesday. He sent me photos of the two tensioners, the cam, and the oil pump. There seems to be some scratches on the cam itself, so they are also going to remove my oil pan for inspection and cleaning. The total for the new hydraulic setup, new lifters, regular maintenance service, and inner bearings comes to $1,400.00 before taxes.

I was told to not have the adjustable push rods installed, for they will fail at sometime, not if, but WHEN.

The images he sent me are below...

I will post any other information once I get the bike back.

 

the problem is with the chain. some chains are good some are bad. me, I got a bad chain wore out 2 sets of tensioners b4 60k. all replaced now w SE stuff. one question... why would adjustable push rods wear out? my guess is that they are made better than the harley Indonesian/Chinese parts. not a complicated thing... anbody want to back this claim up? and with all the other chinsy crap they put in our bikes. your shifters gonna fall off, your breather tubes will rot and plug and leak, etc. you have so many things to go wrong b4 that push rod is going to take a crap. don't listen to people at the dealer they do not have your best interest in mind at all. take all the input you get and formulate your own plan. this forum is full of horror stories from dealerships. if you got that kind of mileage check your shifter at the tranny its loose. this is my second set of shoes my guess is they were wore out by 55k and I ground into the metal for the last 5k
good luck.

 

I was told the same thing about the push rods from my dealer. I went with the "sure fit" I think they were called. They also told me th adjustable have a nut in the middle (that's how adjust them) which makes them unbalanced and noisy.

 

"I was told to not have the adjustable push rods installed, for they will fail at sometime, not if, but WHEN."

I was told this by someone I trust that is no longer working for HD, but instead has his own shop near Kansas City. Everyone has their own opinion on what is best, but it all comes down to trust. I was a volunteer firefighter for 12 years, and during that time, I fought fires side-by-side with my now Harley Mechanic, so there is no issue when it comes to trust. I know I can trust him, and he suggested the exact same thing as this individual from KC. Personally, I just wish that if HD realizes there is an issue with certain parts that fail repeatedly, that they would stand by their machines, and back them up. What does anyone have to say about the inferior fairing mounts on the touring models? That is a whole other issue, but just another fine example of terrible engineering. Again, I am neither a mechanic or engineer, and I realize that things break from time to time, but it would have been nice to have had these issues addressed by HD when they started to present themselves. Just my humble opinion, and I know they are only worth 2 cents. I may have added a nickle, so I apologize if I stepped over the line.

I guess I should be counting my blessings, since this is the first time my cam compartment has even been looked at during the life of the bike, and it has over 51K on it.

 

I have an 04 Road king Custom, i just had the screaming eagle hydraulic cam shoe tensioner kit installed. anyone else have any burping from this upgrade? i am thinking the oil pump is causing it because it is a better pump.. any suggestions?

 

I am going to do mine myself. Anyone know which specialty tools I need, and also if there is an instruction sheet that I can look at before purchasing this kit. If anyone has a pdf version or such of it. Would like to see what I am getting into first.