Who has had cam bearing failure?
Intermediate
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 48
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RE: Who has had cam bearing failure?
I'm going to replace the cam bearings and tensioners with a gear drive cam. Is there another upgrade that I should do at the same time? A dealer said to upgade the oil pump, but I don't want to spend more money than really necessary. Any comments?
Cruiser
Joined: Jun 2005
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RE: Who has had cam bearing failure?
I did not replace the oil pump when I changed out my cams. I am not sure that it is necessary unless your tensioners are heavily worn and there is contamination in your oil. I had 27K on my bike when I changed out the cams. The front tensioner was fine, but the back tensioner was beginning to show signs of wear and tear.
I do not trust the dealer mechanics at all. I take my bike to an independent shop that has an excellent rep. If your bike is not under warranty I would look around for an good reputable shop in your area.
I do not trust the dealer mechanics at all. I take my bike to an independent shop that has an excellent rep. If your bike is not under warranty I would look around for an good reputable shop in your area.
5th Gear
Joined: Nov 2005
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RE: Who has had cam bearing failure?
I had the cam bearings fail on my 99 wide glide. The bike still ran, so I wasn't stranded. But, there was enough noise from the cam chest area that i didn't want to ride it anywhere. Being cheap, I took it apart myself, which is an easy job. I could not see anything wrong myself, but obviously there was. I planned to replace all the cam bearings and go back together. At the time I didn't have access to the required tools to press the cams out of the cam support plate. So I went to my local shop. The immediately sent me to Harley, as this was all covered under a factory recall. St. Croix Harley in New Richmond Wi installed new bearings, oil pump, cams, basically everything in the cam chest. All for free!! I had 10k on it and put another 20k on it since. So don't be afraid to get one of these bikes or to get it fixed.
Intermediate
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 48
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RE: Who has had cam bearing failure?
The way I understand it, until the bearings actually fail Harley won't do anything. I have had three dealers call Harley and it was the same each time. There is no recall.
Stage III
Joined: Dec 2005
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RE: Who has had cam bearing failure?
I have a 1999 Dyna w/ 21,000. My cam bearings just self destructed. I lost everything in the twin cam area, cost about $1,400.00. HD won't take care of it. They stick to the 5 year warrenty. My problem is that I took mine to the dealer twice before the end of the five years and they refused to do anything before failure. As for percentage of failures everybody I know of had a failure of thiers if they didn't take care of it by themselves. There is a class action still in the works.
Intermediate
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 48
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RE: Who has had cam bearing failure?
I have a 2000 Road King with 23,000 miles. It was built July, 1999. Just bought it and it was my first Harley. Over the years I heard that Harley had gotten reliabilty issues pretty much fixed. You would think a company with record profits would treat customers better and stand behind thier products. Next week it's off to the dealers to have Cam bearings and gear drive put in. I love to ride it, but I'm diappointed in Harley Davidson. Thier arrogance reminds me of the mindset that Detroit had just before the Japanese started to take over the car market. The Indian is do out in 2006. I hope it goes well.
Banned
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 802
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RE: Who has had cam bearing failure?
Best thing to do is to spend $25-$40($150 if a shop does it for you on average) and do the heavy duty Torrington inner cam bearing and Niche Outer cam bearing upgrade. Whether the bike has 5, or 50,000 miles, is a 99/00' or even an 01' or later model. HD does not use high quality bearings in their bikes. The last 2 new HD bikes I bought in 03', the first thing I did when I got em home was to put them on a lift and replace all the junk bearings and questionable areas on the engine with upgrades. I have never experienced a catastrophic engine failure with these precuations taken. Its good cheap insurance.
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4th Gear
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 8
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RE: Who has had cam bearing failure?
The Harley dealers over here (UK)don't tell you a thing!!! I had my (early) 2000 FXDL dealer serviced from new until about 22500 milesand no one has ever mentioned this and mine is "at risk" from this.
I do most of my own work on the bike now (I'm a pretty competant mechanic)how hard is this to do yourself? do you need a press to get the bearings off?
Thanks guys
Justin
I do most of my own work on the bike now (I'm a pretty competant mechanic)how hard is this to do yourself? do you need a press to get the bearings off?
Thanks guys
Justin
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