I am told that the tensioners on the cam gears must be replaced at 25,000 miles at a cost of about $400. Can this be true? I thought a Harley engine would go 100,000 before it needed repairs or rebuilding.

J

 

The engine might go that far but the tensioners won't. Do a search here and you will find more info than you want to read.

 

I see you are from Tulsa. I just discussed this issue with Victor at Myers-Duren. He claimed 40,000 miles is about the life of the cam gear tensioners in his experience. I see posts on this forum where guys are getting nervous about them at 25,000 miles. These tensioners have a "shoe" that the cam chains rest on and they are made from some type of polymer........and this polymer wears down. You can avoid the inevitable changeing of these expendable tensioners by buying and installing a cam gear drive......expensive.

Every motor-driven vehicle requires maintenance.......imagine adjusting the valves (16) on a BMW K bike for example. It's just part of ownwership. There is NOTHING inexpensive about owning and maintaining a motorcycle, regardless of brand.

Send me an eMail....we can visit sometime besides the forum.

 

Mine went 51K miles. When they wore out they got the secondary cam chain. I think you should probably have them checked every 25-30K miles. Just take the cam chest cover off and you can look at them with an inspection mirror. They cost about 60 bucks for both. If you replace them before something gets torn up it's relatively inexpensive. If you are under warranty/extended warranty they are covered.

 

I've found out from talking to many mechanics, that the life of the shoes directly relates to how you ride. If you on and off the throttle alot, changing the rpm's,the shoes well wear faster than a steady rpm range.
Thats why the tourers/baggers seem to last longer than the FX models whom are more likely to hot rod the motor.
Ofcourse there are exceptions to every rule, as Iam one of them[8D]

 

As liltrk said, do a search and you'll get a ton of info on the tensioner issue. Some people would have you believe that every Twin Cam 88 will melt down at 25,000 due to tensioner failure. This notion is encouraged by a few dealers and installers of gear-driven cams who have a lot to gain by scaring you into doing a $1,000+ install. If you plan to mod heavily with high-lift cams and racing valve springs, then, yes, you should install geared cams. My dealer said stop worrying, that, yes, some tensioners fail, but it is not a widespread problem at 25,000 miles. I have 26,000 miles. The dealer said he'd change them out if I insisted but that he felt it would be a waste of money at this stage.

 

Cams are really easy to pull off. you can pull them off yourself, the parts are about 50 bucks for replacement shoes. Find a local machine shop, they will install your new shoes for about 50$, then go put your cams back in. Total cost about $100. total time about 2 hours. Do it every 30k miles. You change your oil, right? this is no different

 

I had mine replaced with a S&S 510G kit - Also had to do the pushrods - Got charged for 4 hours labor which seemed fair to me - I love how it turned out and now I don't have to worry about it - PipeDaddy has the right idea if you are good with a wrench but in my case I knew it would be better to have it done

 

Replaced the first set on my 2000 EG Classic at 40K miles along with a stage one big bore kit,they still looked good with only normal wear.
Then at 103,000 miles with a high compression build I went gear drives,the second set of shoes was in 63,000 miles but the rear shoe was in bad shape when it was pulled.
No worries now with the geardriven cams
I've heard that a lot of '03s had bad shoes that wear prematurely and in fact a friend's '03 Ultra had a tennsioner failure at 23,000 miles.
This is not an accross the board problem with all Twin Cams though.
Check 'em every 40K or go gear drives and forget about it.

 

I am pretty new to the HD world. My 01 Ultra has 26K on it and I am wondering how many of you have done the cam chain tensioner replacement yourselves. I have a shop manual for my bike and it explains shoe replacement in the context of a complete tear down. My question is: Do you have to pull the cams out of the bike to do the shoe replacement, or can you just replace the shoes with the cams still in the bike? I have considered doing the job myself. If I do, I will be buying the HD cam chain tensioner unloading tool that comes with the pins to hold the tensioner arms off the chain. The front shoe looks pretty easy to replace with the cams still in the bike, but I am unsure about the back arm/shoe.

BTW, I checked with a local HD shop and the replacement is a 450.00 fee. I figure if I can do it with the cams still in the bike (not having to replace the pushrods with an adjustable set) I can do it for about half the cost of the dealer fee and have the tools left to do the replacement again for less than 100.00. If, however, the cams have to be pulled, it looks like I would have to either pull the heads and remove the pushrods/lifters or use a bolt cutter to cut the current pushrods and replace them with an adjustable set. If I have to do that, then $450.00 to have the shop do it is not a bad deal. Any help and advice you all can give will be very much appreciated.