Bike is an 02 WG and has 30K miles on it. I think the tensioner looks pretty damn good, but would appreciate others opinions.

What I can see of the rear tensioner, it looks about like the front one.

 

Change them now....better yet , upgrade to the newer style if you can.If not change them out while your ahead....could be disaster if you wait too long

 

I'll have them changed. I have the skills, and tools to change them out, but my stress levels have diminished over the years. I planned on going with a S&S gear drive.

I was at my local indy shop today picking up a cover gasket, and was talking to a new dude there, and he said he's never seen a twin cam motor that the crank run out was too far off for gear drive cams. From everything I've been reading about them, there seems to be a lot of people with run out problems.

Either way I'd go with the HD hydraulic kit if I can't go gear drive.

 

The 02 have one of the best cranks and are the best candidate for gear drive cams, tensioners are looking thin but have a few miles left until you get them changed out

 

Thanks, I like good news.

I'll call the shop Monday and set up an appointment to get the S&S kit installed. They told me the max cost would be $1,200 which includes all the all the parts, and labor. HD wants $1,400 to change it over to their hydraulic kit.

Just got it all put back together, was sweating bullets worrying about dropping a massive piece of gasket material in the cam chest. It came off pretty good though with all pieces accounted for.

Gonna fire it up check for any leaks, then clean it up for a group ride in the morning.

 

mine looked like that when I check at 52000....not bad but there was little orange pieces of that crap everywhere in the cam chest.....when I took the cam plate out found that I had a lifter go south and had scored a cam..also had scoring in the oil pump; may have been from the pieces from the tensioners....replaced with new cams, gear drive,cam plate and oil pump.....while you're there.. might as well upgrade,

 

Change it, if the inner goes out you'll grenade the whole cam chest full of parts

 

Did anything change on the tensioners in '04 or '05? I've got an '05 and a friend of mine has an '01, with similar miles. One of the lead mechanics at a local HD dealership said my friend should change his out ASAP, but mine are different and should be fine.

 

Not positive, but pretty sure Harley didn't go with the hydraulic cam chain tensioners till 2006.

You should have the old style spring tensioner.

 

06 dyna was the first to get hydraulic. 07 for the other bikes