so I was putting my new clutch in and went to install my chain tensioner and the bottom motor side bolt striped out... I did not over torque it, it just would not tighten... probably pulled the treads out when I removed it... does anyone have any experience with the automatic chain tensioners? do they work way better than the stock one? or should I just get a replacement oem part and call it a day? was thinking of just trying to repair mine but I'm not sure if it would be very effective to try

 

Hayden!

 

Another vote for the Hayden M6 BT65.

Put mine in at about 32000 miles. Has about 160K now, original shoe still looks great. Best money I ever spent on an aftermarket mechanical part.

 

I’ve been running a Hayden for several years now. No complaints. Money well spent.

 

Lost here, since when you say bottom bolt threads, you do mean the back strapped toothed piece that is bolted to the primary case on the oem system, that the outer adjuster teeth mate up to, since the chain adjuster only has its one bolt.


If yes, then will need to repair the primary case threads (helicoil insert), so the back toothed plate can be bolted back up to the inside of the primary case correctly in the first place.

If you mean the long bolt with it nut, that its just a caputured bolt by the back straps tooth plate, so removing the back strap bolts top and bottom, will all you to pull the back tooth plate, to replace the long bolt that is captures in it slot.

If you mean the two lower bolts on the adjuster piece itself, easy enough to just go in to spot weld a few places on the thread channels, run a tap to reproduce the threads, and when you do go to install the small bolts, make sure to not over tighten, uses some 242 loctite so they don't back out over time on their own.


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As for the automatic primary chain tensions on the Evo motor, not a fan of the spring tensioner that can still allow primary chain buck/slap to top of case when the chain bucks to fully compresses it plastic guide all the way down.

Hence a bigger fan of pulling the primary cover more often, to double check to make sure that the comp/spring stack are still in good shape, and can adjust the OEM adjuster if needed at the same time.

 

I've run a Hayden 185,000 mi. I'm on my second "shoe". About 15-20 yrs go I found one of the springs in the unit had broken. It was "captured" so nothing got loose inside the primary chaincase. Replaced the broken spring and put it all back together. No other issues.

 

I`m a fan of the OEM manual chain tensioner.
No moving parts.

I did replace the nylon shoe on my `89 Softail at about 80,000 miles, but only because the primary was apart and I had a new part, the old one looked fine.

 

Yep, on the oem shoe, chain glides against it, and the only time that the shoe is hard against the chain, is when the chain slaps.

With spring loaded unit, you have the spring tension that is keeping the shoe tighter against the chain at all times, and when the chain does slap, the spring section over compresses to allow the chain to tag the top of the inner case instead.

 

Another vote for Hayden.

 

Ditto.


Ride Safe,
Harold