Yep

Thanks Ses for posting the pics thats nice to know

 

Those haven't even worn down to the roller; once the shoe and roller come in contact the grooves should not get any deeper and thousands of miles left.

 

I replaced my cam tensoners last week at 23235 miles on my 03 FLHRSEI2. I replaced the tensioners with replacements from MC Spare Parts, they were excellent and the actual shoes are Teflon verses Nylon. They are exact fit replacements at half the cost and the frame is stainless steel.

 

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but that's interesting! I think the material you have is not actually teflon (PTFE) but UHMWPE (ultra high molecular wt polyethylene). Also known as poor-man's teflon. The OEM orange tensioners are not nylon, but Delrin (acetal) and weak under abrasion. Cyco tensioners are nylon 4.6 and seem to be much more robust under the abrasion of a rough cam chain.

This is the first time I've seen reports of UHMWPE H-D tensioner shoes! Please post your in-service experience with these over time; how long they last; whether or not they pit/fracture like the crappy Delrins. I'm using Cyco tensioners now & they're doing a great job, but maybe the next ones will be UHMWPE.

 

I sure will.

 

You had the spring activated tensioners. They apply a firm constant pressure on the chain. That was the problem, more so than the material that they were made out of.

These spring loaded chain tensioners would only last from 15k to 30K miles. In 2007 harley Davidson when to hydraulic actuated tensioners. This seemed to fix the problem. If you have a pre-2007 twin cam engine Harley has a kit to upgrade the tensioners. Better yet get rid of the chains. S&S has a kit to install cam gears.




This is definitely what I would do if I had a pre-2007 engine.

 

Ideally, yes, that's certianly the best long-term alternative. But there's a little problem of (a) crank runnout, and (b) cost. My (a) is out of spec, and I can replace the friction surfaces for a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost of a gear drive setup. I basically open the cam chest & check the darn things every time I change the oil (it gets easy after the first 6-8 times ). Also, later OEM delrin tensioner assemblies have a spring with noticeably reduced tension (or so it seemed to me), so they put less strain on the friction surfaces. I have a later set of tensioners packed with Cyco pads, and after about 12K mi, they are showing virtually no wear. "Better" is good enough for me, don't need & can't afford "best." I appreciate the advice.

 

No argument that gear driven cams are the final solution but actually the failures were the result of the heavy spring pressure on the link chain and the material that would chip and crack after exposure to oil, heat and the heavy spring pressure. However, while there were certainly failures of the early OEM tensioners, when one compares the failures to those '99-'07 (except Dyna) motors that ran for anywhere from 50K to 100K miles on the OEM tensioners with no issues, the percentage of failures was quite small. No consolation to those that had first hand experience with failures but facts are facts.

The later hydro tensioner/roller chain setup, while still a maintenance consideration, will last much longer, probably longer than most will own the motorcycle. However, if one needs to check for insurance, I would not bother checking at every oil change as M&P340 is planning to do. Checking at 35K mile intervals is adequate.

 

Where do you get your facts? I don't want to sound like I doubt what you are saying but once I heard of this issue I started researching and found lots of stories of these failing from 15,000 to 40,000 miles with the pre-2007 engines. Does anyone get 100,000 miles on these? Actually from what I've read it's very hard to get 50,000 miles on the spring actuated tensioners.
So many people get catastrophic engine failure before 30,000 miles and others go over 100,000 miles without a problem? How's that? Is it the brand of oil? Could it be that a lot of people ride with low oil levels?

Granted when someone gets the kind of mileage they expect out of an engine they don't say anything. But when they have catastrophic engine failure at only 20,000 miles they want to tell the whole world.

Here's one article I found very troubling: http://www.jamesrussellpublishing.bi...buyharley.html
Yes maybe he trumped up the issue but if you have anything to counter it I would really like specifics, not just "My brother knows someone who has 150,000 miles an early twin cam engine with no problems".

Here's another article: http://www.hdopenroad.com/guest-arti...ust-know-this/

also: http://www.lawabidingbiker.com/73/

 

We've seen the shoes buggered in as little as 1200 miles, and have seen one come in here once with 131,000 on the clock, that was never opened.
The inner was gone, but the oustide shoe was still working.
Scott