Failure does not occur until they are worn out. Regardless, it is semantics. There are a few ways to check this. The best way is to remove your exhaust and pull the cam cover. The outer shoe will be visible and can be pulled back to check the surface where the chain rides. The rear tensioner is a little more difficult to check with the cam plate in place. I use a small dental mirror to check the rear tensioner.

 

Beg your pardon Hogpro, but failure definitley can occur before the tensioner material is worn out. The tensioners on my '05 FXSTD showed normal wear at 12K miles but the outer tensioner was cracked and about to lose 25% of the tensioner shoe when I first inspected them. I have seen tensioner shoes that were completely gone and the chain riding on the metal holder on one tensioner while the other was showing normal wear. The will fail and can fail in a heartbeat without warning.

 

You are correct. I guess that my explanation was poor and did not get the point across. I have had 1 bike that had cracked tensioners but they were also worn out at the same time. Regardless, it is what it is. I recognize that pic of all the tensioners. Someone borrowed it. LOL.

 

Yep! Got it from you. Good to see you around here. Wasnt it you who changed a set at 25k and had the new ones fail at 15k.

 

I have never had a set fail. My frist swap was at 40K and they were about half worn. I checked them at 60K (replaced with stock tensioners) and they were about to go. At that point I got the S/E cam plate with hydraulic tensioners and bigger oil pump. I am now at 75K and have not checked them yet.

On my Dyna I checked them when I got the bike (33K) and they were as shot as could be. Cracked, toasted, completely ready to go. Added the S/E hydraulic plate to the Dyna too. When I did the big bore (finished that yesterday) I checked the hydraulic tensioners with about 6k on them. Not a scratch. That was quite a contrast to what I am used to seeing with the orange shoes.

 

Always good to be on the safe side!

 

engine damage occurs WAY before they have any real wear on them,the pad material is harder than alluminum,and the tensioners "pit" as they wear (if you look at any used tensioner,you will see little holes)the material scoars the pump & cam plate.we`ve seen this damage as low as 10K,the early tensioners are junk,& a very poor design and should be replaced with a gear drive (not the hyd. upgrade crap,as that will fail sooner or later too) at mile one