My thoughts exactly. That is why I did not put cams in mine. If you have money to burn, no problem.

 

I think I have the record. 82,000 milesout of my tensioners which I replaced this last January with gear drive. They looked exactly like the OPS.
PITA checking them every 10,000 miles, ( I commute down here so 20,000 per year is average.)
Gear Drive made sense because I needed cams anyway and run-out on my motor is not likely. ( Thanks HD.)

 

Hey man,
fyi, having the full kit means having new cam either way, i.e. you can buy same spec (stock) cam or new one.. so the cost of the new cam is built in.
Your second thought of having 'different' spec cam is very well regarded.
In my case, I have a 'carb' bike, so no tuner, no computer download, just a small carb jetting job to get it slightly richer and off I go.
If I have money to burn I will take it to the Dyno, but I care not much for that because the bike was going to get the kit for peace of mind either way.

And if you follow my post here
Cam bearing disaster averted ..
You will see that this was money well spent or else I would be looking at 2-3 K in Engine repairs alone.

Regards

 

I didn't realize you get a new cam with the hydraulic cam tensioner kit? I knew you get an upgraded oil pump but not the cam.

Yes I would agree that you wouldn't need a tuner with the same cam but I meant for the guy's that switch to a different size cam. there are many days I have wished I had a carb bike for things like this

 

I have seen it, where they have taken the chain and buffed it out so it was smooth. and then throughyl cleaned it in solvent and re-isntalled with new shoes.

Gear drive cams is great as long as you don't get too much crank runout.

The adapter/upgrade is a good way to go.

$1600 is ridiculous.


~Joe

 

I switched my 2005 88 over to gears at 1,500 miles. when we took the factory crap out, it already had grooves in the tensioners!!

~Joe

 

On my old bike (99 Electraglide) I installed the SE hydro tensioners... I just got a newer one on saturday (05 Ultra). I am wondering if I should open up the old one and switch the cam plates over, or if I should just goto gear drive? Would I need to replace the stock cam plate to add gear drive, or would it give me any advatage to have SE plate and gear drive in new bike?

 

The old plate is re-used for gear drive, but check the run-out on your pinion shaft. Should be .003" or less. HD cheapened the heck out of 2003 and later bikes by eliminating the lefty Timken tapered bearing on the left side. Plus the crank was weakened a bit more because the 05 was cold forged while your 99 was hot forged. ( Frankly 99 is just a better bottom end.)

That's why so many choose to go with the S/E hydraulic set up, a much more forgiving system as far as cranks "out of spec" goes. But if you're withn .003" and ride alot, the gear drive is the ultimate, IMO .

 

Mine failed at 34,000 miles causing me to have to rebuild the engine. $3000 later and I'm pissed at Harley Davidson. No more.

 

Just had the hydraulic kit put into my bike at 34k miles. My outer pad looked pretty new and the inner was maybe 25% worn with a little pitting. I was religious with oil changes and never had the pads checked. I said "screw it, they will fail eventually" and just did the swap. Hopefully lots and lots of cheap miles in my future with just fluids, tires, and brakes.

Edit: ha I guess we are rehashing this old thread. Anyway, I've made my contribution to the story.