There seems to be no formula for when they explode or wear-out. I have seen them cut right down to the metal after 15k and then heard of others running them out past 50K.

 

I have over 110,000 miles on my 95" 2000 SERG. Replaced the tensioners and cams with gear drive at 57,000 miles - they needed it, caught them just in time. Replaced the stator at 85,000 miles. Other than that, no problems at all.

I'm considering a "preventative" rebuild soon though. I'm retiring in a few months, and plan on doing a 'round the country trip, taking my time, spending most of the first year of retirement traveling. I expect to do 25-30,000 miles, mostly on back roads, and I would hate to break down 200 miles from nowhere.

Besides, my dealer says he can turn my motor into a 103" torque monster for not much more than the factory rebuild service on my 95". Anybody else turn an 88" or 95" motor into a 103? If so, how did it run?

 

I have a riding buddy that has just rolled-over 160,000 on a stock TC-88. Save 2 sets of tensioner shoes and 1 drive belt, he has had no issues and is facing a similar dilemma. It's a hard choice to make when you have one with this many miles on it and it's time for another tensioner shoe routine. The dealer is trying to talk him into a Stage II and I am telling him to just service the tensioners and run on. Maybe go ahead and install the hybrid hydraulic tensioner upgrade while they are in there for just a few $$ more. If I had no apparent reason to think the motor was in trouble, I would not hesitate to leave it alone. You never know what you are going to get when somebody parts the cases and makes that build. You could wind-up with a piece of junk....it's happened before. If you have 110,000 happy miles....no reason to expect you can't get another 25-30K out of it. If it ain't broke....don't fix it.

 

Just had the tensioner up grade done on my 03 2nd owner 10,000mi and caught them just in time. One side of the tensioner ready to break off. New andrews cams 37's

 

I'm upgrading my cams/tensioners tomorrow.

If you regularly read Donny Peterson's articles in American Iron you will find he's a little off the deep end pretty often.

 

i call bull ****
my bike hasnt got 65k yet and the repairs are extensive never would have seen 100k lucky if it will with all my upgrades.
bullshit.
thanx

 

I have paid little attention to Peterson since the more-than-glowing initial report he made on the TC-88 at it's introduction. Then all the outer cam bearings started exploding and then the tensioner shoe issue started to rear it's ugly head. We were all told those piston cooling jets were designed and installed to make the engine run cooler, when the truth of the matter is the motor would melt down without them. I guess they had him fooled too at the time. I am still wondering how they logged all those miles and never had a bearing failure, or a tensioner issue. Somebody is lying, or the testers had different motors than the production run.

That being said....there are many TC's out there with over 100K on the clock.

 

here's my tensioners at 25K very little wear but some small chunks out of the wear surface

 

Pretty common-looking. Those little pieces of missing plastic are "hopefully" being caught by your filter, but they are going through the scavenge side of the oil pump then picked-up from the pan and sent back through the feed-side of the pump. I'd cut my filter open and take a look, or even better....go ahead and do something serious with the hydraulic upgrade or gears....then not have to worry any longer.

Some of us actually go so far as to drop the oil pan and clean it very well before we do the conversion. Those little plastic shards hide everywhere once they flake-off the shoe.

 

Hey TARPONROD, check your inner tensioner too. My outer tensioner looked similar to yours ( a tad bit more wear) but when I checked the inner one, it was worn 3/4 down. So I'm replacing them this winter with the hydraulic ones.
Seams that the inner tensioner wears faster than the outer one! FYI bro.