2004 FLSTF Fatboy, 12.5K miles, V&H Long Shots, SE Stage one intake.

I'm a worry wart... 12.5K miles, but the early tensioner specter has been living large in my head. I decided to address it at the earliest possible opportunity. I'm still not 100% sure which of the many options I will use to address this. I was looking at just Cyco shoes, new S&S 509 cams, bearings, lifters, etc, but then I came across the Fuel moto Wood package which says it will bring the chest up to 2012 specs with Wood TW-6 cams Wood lifters, etc all for about the same price. I'm calling FM Monday. I wanted to open it up before ordering parts just to see exactly where I stand. Well dividends paid pretty well this year so here I go.




I pulled the cover and checked the outer shoe. I didn't measure but it had obvious wear. I'm estimating about 2/32 with a little pitting.

What is that black thing along the right side of the chain? I've watched a dozen videos, and never saw that.







I pulled the gears off. With back wheel jacked up, in 5th gear, and my elbow on the foot break pedal, the bolts broke loose easily without a need for the cam gear locking tool.




I cut out the old pushrods and prepared to pull the cam plate. Here is a hint... I wondered why in the videos no one addressed draining the oil. I knew there was only a small amount of oil held in the cam chest so got this far without draining the oil. When I pulled the plate out, I found out I was draining the oil whether I wanted to or not. Good thing I had the pan there already.




Of course I pulled the lifters first, followed by the cam plate. After the oil drained, 20 minutes, I got my first glimpse of the inner tensioner shoe. The wear was about the same as the front shoe, but the thing I was shocked to see was a crack along the leading edge. You can see it in the pic below. I can stick my fingernail in it. I'm glad I decided to open her up.




I'm done until I order and receive parts. I did decide to check the crank run out while I was there. I'm not sure how you do that really. I posted that question in another thread, but what I see is +.0015 and -.0015. Still not sure what that means.

 

I replied in your other thread, .003" runout is good and is the max allowable if you wanted to run gear drive cams...

 

The black thing to the right is the cam chain guide. Not much info on these things. When using a dial indicator, set it and turn the crank, find the low spot according to the dial and then reset dial to zero at this point. Then take your readings.

I just inspected my tensioner so with 10k on them, much less where than yours. I did have some pitting, so I'll replace them.

 

Thank you both

 

The reason there was so much oil is that the softail oil tank sits above the crankcase and while the bike sits, gravity takes over and allows to drain back into the crankcase and from there, into the cam chest. If you had run the bike for a while before opening the cam chest, that oil would have been picked up by the pump and circulated back into the system. Normally, there is about 8 or so ounces that will drain out.

BTW, the tensioner shoes look pretty good but they should be replaced for good measure. Don't know what the FM kit includes but unless replacing the cam plate with one of the SE billet plates or an aftermarket plate, the early OEM cam plate if a fairy robust piece of hardware. Not a cool orange or blue color but running the cams in outer bearings as oppose the later OEM plate that place the cams in the parent material (cast aluminum) of the cam plate is a better choice, IMHO anyway. Woods cams and lifters sounds good and should you decide to retain your stock cam plate, consider installing a high capacity oil pump, like the Daytona pump. That pump, your OEM cam plate with new inner and outer cam bearings and CYCO shoes is a robust setup and will run many miles trouble free.

Keep us posted on progress and get ready to re-jet that carb; again.

 

Thnx djl. I will chat with FM in the AM and find out exactly wat their kit contains. I have already priced out the job using Cyco shoes, the stock plate and putting in new cams, oil pump, bearings, lifters, etc. The prices FM is showing are pretty close to that so I need to ask about the details, specifically on their oil pump and cam plate.


I'm 48 and 190 on that carb now. I'm betting that just bumping the main to a 195 will do the trick. That is just a guess... The Wood cams have quiet a bit of overlap and I've read that that will lower vacuum to some degree so we'll have to see what she runs like after I decide on cams.

 

The Wood 6 at OE compression WILL NOT have the low-mid punch of an S&S .509 or an Andrews 21.
That said, IF the compression is brought up to support that 40* intake closing number, it will run good.
Cyco shoes, Zippers oil shim, S&S std lifters is our tried/trusted, and true methodology here.
Scott

 

I'm fixing to do the same job on my '06 FLHT, even using the 509 cams. Scott, do you have a recommendation on oil pumps for the older cam plates? I've got 40k+ on the engine so I figured it might be a good idea to replace/upgrade while I'm there.

 

A shim or spring will kick the pressure up.
As long as your pump is in good shape, then no reason not to use it.
If a pump is needed, we've been using the Daytona pumps.
VERY cost-effective.
Scott

 

Scott is right about the Woods cams; I should have caught that myself. The Woods 6 is a good cam but you would need to deck the heads to optimize. The S&S 509 has a much earlier intake close and will deliver strong on the bottom where the 6 will soft, even in a 95" motor. The 509 is a great bolt in cam for an 88" motor.