Dropped by the Indy today and talked about doing a gear cam (I'll be doing it myself), he said the first thing to check before I attempt this would be to check the main shaft run-out; I wasn't aware that there was a fair amount of bikes that have tolerances out of spec that a gear cam will not work...he said if I'm over spec then I would need a new crank or stay with the chain driven cams.

I'd hate to tear-down getting ready for my install to gears and find out at that point gear camsare not an option becausemy crank is out oftolerance?

I have a sneaky suspicion that this is why HD runs chain cams to begin with and not that EPA bull$hit about noise!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Well duh!

Tear it down, check tolerances and if ok go gears, if not go roller chain conversion.

 

Not that big of deal to check the runout. I checked mine before I ordered my gear drives to be on the safe side. I think you are crazy not to check but 1000's have never checked and run gear drives. I figured if my run out was over spec I would go with the roller chain conversion while I had it apart. Mine were in spec. I helped my buddy with his and his were like .0035 and fairly low mileage bike around 35,000 miles on an 05. mine is an 04 and had ~52,000 on it and mine were ~.0015. It is a total crap shoot.

 

I was told that I should take the entire cam-chest out to do a proper run-out check?

 

YouTube - 2007 Harley Davidson 96 Twin-Cam Pinion Shaft Runout


YouTube - 2007 Harley Davidson 96 Twin-Cam Pinion Shaft Runout Part 2.

 

Damn GLIDE! Nothing better than a video to show ya how it's done!

Thanks Man!

 

Like they say....one picture is worth a thousand words

 

Pulled mine down today with the intention of installing Andrews 26G cams and a gear drive conversion. Runout is .004-.0045, no gear drive for me. Time to go to plan B. Either stay with the stock chain tensioner setup or do the later style cam plate/oil pump conversion. Bike is a 2005 RK Classic, 47,000+ miles. Outer tension shoe looks great, about .022-.025 wear. I'll post a few pics later.

 

Neckball, did you have your dial indicator exactly prependicular to your shaft? If you did not have it at a perfect 90 degrees it will not be accurate and will actually show more run out than you really have. The video above is excellent.

 

What's the max run-out allowed to use gear cams?