When I bought my new-to-me 05 Road King the previous owner told me that he had paid an indy to "install an upgraded oil pump". I asked him if changed out the cam chain tensioners and he said he couldn't remember. I asked if he went with the SE kit that includes the upgraded oil pump with hydraulic cam tensioners (PN 25284-08) but he said he didn't know.

At some point I know I'm going to have to drop the exhaust and open the cam chest to find out for myself, but in the mean time I've been looking to see if HD even offers an "upgraded oil pump" for the TC88 that DOESN'T upgrade the cam chain tensioners to hydraulic. I haven't found one so far, but figured I'd ask and see if I'm missing something.

 

Nope. The porting on the new pumps is different than the old ones. Requires a new cam plate. Ask him how much he paid for the thing.

 

Doh I didn't even think to ask how much he spent on upgrading the oil pump.

 

just open it up so you know it wont take long to do it!!!

 

Yeah, like he says. 30 min and a coupla gaskets and you'll know. The old ones look like this:
and the new ones look like this: Or there are just 2 gears there if he was a real sport.

 

So what gaskets do I need other than the cam chest cover gasket?

I plan to crack it open on my next oil change.

 

1 or 2 exhaust gaskets, depending on configuration. Looks like you have true duals, so 1. And the right footboard needs to come off too, 2 big allens from underneath. Leave it on the side stand, and very little oil will leak out. Clean around it, remove the bolts, rubber hammer, possibly a tweak with a screwdriver, and it pops off. The outside tensioner is right in front of you. The back one can be seen with a mirror and light. If they are yellow= old pump. White= new pump. Gear drive (unlikely, it costs more) could be either pump, but involves new cams and ancilliary equipment. If you can see bearings in the plate, it is old style. If no bearings it is a new plain bearing plate. Note the bearings around the cam journals. Old style. If the cam plate is something other than plain cast aluminum post a couple pictures cause it could have a SE or Feuling plate. But this is unlikely. Expensive, he would have remembered the price. My guess is it is completely stock and the PO is FOS.

 

With 100% chance of rain today I figured now would be the time to crack open the cam chest and have a look, as well as change the fluids. I was a bit disappointed to see stock shoes in there. I measured the outside thickness of the shoe to be .165" and the worn patch to be .125". At just 26,300 miles I've gone through the front shoe about 25%. Obviously with the rear shoe I couldn't get some dial calipers on there but I could visually inspect it. It appears to be about 30-50% worn. Pics attached just for the record.

 

Looks like all original stuff old man, and time to change them too.

 

Looks like time to change them, anyway.