I have a 2001 Heritage Softail Delphi EFI. As far as I have found I don't think this motor has a cam position sensor. Is that correct ? Going to install screamin eagle cam plate 25284-11 hyd. tensioners. with Andrews 21,s . Harley says 99-01 use the original silent morse chain on the inside front cam drive. and 02-06 use the single row front roller chain. My question is, if it doesn't have a cam position sensor why cant I use the roller chain. I'm still confused what the chain has to do with the cam position sensor anyway. Looks like it would read off of the outer main gear? I know it was a change year, that's what's confusing Could someone please explain it , my brain is about fried with this conversion !
Just trying to find out before I order my cams. Also, would the roller chain be better than the silent or not ? I know someone out there knows, Please , Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.....Mac

 

2001 was the year that the CPS was eliminated. You are right, the inner chain has nothing to do with the CPS. However, the 25284-11 kit allows the user to run cams for the '99-'06 motors and those cam sprockets are designed to run the Morse link chain; a roller chain will not run properly on those sprockets..............

 

Thanks, when I look at the cam drive sprockets that's what I see, the 07 up I see the sprockets for the roller chain. I think the 07 up cams have a bigger inner bearing journal than the 06 down. Therefore they cant work in an 01, I guess I'm just confused why HD would tell you on the description that the 02-06 use the roller chain on the front cam. Any idea what cams they are talking about that take a 148 bearing that has sprockets for a roller chain? Or maybe I'm Just overthinking this whole thing.

 

B148 inner cam bearings are for 1999-2006 (except Dyna then it's 2005). They are a full compliment bearing as opposed to a caged bearing.

With the conversion the rear cam which has the two gears on it (one on the pinion shaft and the other on the cam) runs with a roller chain that's easier than the silent chain (link) on the back side of the cam plate between the two cams. So the conversion to hydraulic tensioners to avoid opening the cam chest to check the secondary tensioner isn't really a fix. That silent link chain tensioner behind the cam plate will still need to be checked.

You could change the cams to ones that do use a roller chain between the two and would increase secondary tensioner life (Andrews comes to mind). I predict we're going to see some hydraulic tensioner failures on all those "conversions" the dealers made so much money on knowing it wasn't a full fix. Just like with the spring tensioners the customer has no idea and rides the bike into the ground. I know I did; spring tensioners at 54K miles, but the TC88 was still new and nobody knew it was a potential problem.

When and if I convert my older TC88 to hydraulic it'll be with roller chain cams. For now, I just change the shoes on the spring tensioners. I ain't paying $500.00 plus for "still gotta look". I can look for the cost of some gaskets and Cyco shoes.

 

I am not sure what you are confused about. '99-'06 cams do have a smaller inner bearing (B148) the '07 (B168) (.875" vs 1.00") up cams which is why the 25284-11 kit is a "hybrid" kit. The inner Morse link chain must be retained to run the earlier or "conversion" cams because those cam sprockets which are integral to the cam shaft cannot run a roller chain. IIRC, Andrews "N"series conversion cams are designed to run on the roller chain but the OEM cams are not. So, if you run Andrews cams and purchase the inner roller chain, you can run a roller chain on the inner cam sprockets.

You have to run the Morse link chain on the outer/front cam sprockets in the '99-'01 models because the CPS reads off the outer rear cam sprocket but when the CPS was eliminated in '01, the '02-'06 models could run the outer roller chain. I understand there are guys that run the outer roller chain on '99-'01, disconnect the CPS and finagle the wiring so the ECM doesn't throw a code but I have never done it.