M8 Cam Bearings
 

For those of you upgrading your cams in the M8 spend a little extra and replace the stock cam bearing.
Pic left is SE and right is stock one taken out after 11k miles.
Also, be aware a lot of the M8's are having issues with the plastic lifter plate that holds the lifters in place. They're cracking and allowing the lifters to spin, thus damaging the cam.

interesting
 

my dealer tech showed me a blown cam bearing last week. said same thing "replace with SE bearing" he says with single cam, too much stress on factory bearing. time will tell.............

Haven’t heard that about the lifter retainers. Did yours crack?

No but there's a HD bulletin out about it...
The Indy (Master HD Tech) I take my bike to had his crack, but then he's got a 120 motor in his streetglide
Tried to order a S&S replacement but they on back order, go figure...

And HD wonders why sales are down?

When the dealer changed my cam, the shop foreman said they always change the bearing.

I just did a stage 2 and had both the inner cam and the lifter cuffs replaced with better quality

Go to bed!

HD sales are down because those of us loyal buyers are getting old. The younger generations are more interested in pussy hats and trans bathrooms than getting wind therapy.

hate to get OT, but this is true..the Livewire electric Harley is scheduled to be released next year..the times they are a changing and HD knows they need to change along with it to survive..900 lb $30,000 machines for them aren't going to continue to be their bread and butter in this day and age with the aging clientele

Once the livewire electric forum opens up, i'll be gone. Can't stand these millennials as it is.

Livewire? An electric motorcycle..... whats the point?

"Harley-Davidson Chief Financial Officer John Olin said the company will spend $25 million to $50 million per year over the next several years on electric motorcycle technology. The goal is to be the world leader in the electric motorcycle market. "

“The universal appeal of that product was the most astounding aspect of that initiative,” Levatich said of LiveWire during the call. “It gave us a lot of confidence that electric motorcycles have broad-based appeal. … They are going to sit alongside existing Harleys and garages as much as they’re going to create new interest in the sport.”

At any rate, Revival’s Stulberg says, the appeal of an electric bike is not mutually exclusive vs. that of one running on a conventional internal combustion engine. While the thumping sound of the latter is undeniably alluring, the flying feeling provided by the former matches it for pure riding thrill.

“This will only increase the respect that the brand gets,” he says. “At least finally, they can say that Harley does low-tech heritage and it does cutting-edge technology. They can do both. If Harley can do that, it’ll save the company.”

So expect a whole new world of aftermarket parts and upgrades to open up.

Duracell longer life harley batteries......samsung motherboards for the electric bike's dispays.....intel chips....on and on.....uggh

Enormous torque, utter reliability, no maintenance. No oil changes, no cams, no lifters, no exhaust, no wrenching needed likely ever. You'd never have to visit another "which oil" thread again. No sumping. Nothing.

Probably not the first choice for a touring bike, but for around-town, it may very well turn out to be brilliant.

Your had me at, "Which oil thread" ....... Ill buy 2 please.

:icon_dance-tap:

Forgot about this, this was a silly commercial and it's definitely got a big ol' Save The Planet" message, but maybe this helps some see why some folks may see the potential benefits of going electric...

Dont forget....

No anything that makes a harley a harley.....

Not sure all progress is all good.

exactly my point...the harley faithful have been putting up with the flawed bikes but the younger generation won't tolerate buying a 25k bike and then have to start immediately replacing parts, sometimes before it leaves the dealer. Now I'll go to bed

Agreed across the board. Just pointing out that a big sea change is coming that could possibly appeal to customers to whom the current lineup doesn't appeal.

I like my Harley exactly the way it is. Would be interested in perhaps adding an electric bike to the stable, but definitely not looking to replace the current gas-sucking tire-shredding noise-making idle-shaking steel horse.

Sorry so funny I had to post this in two different threads. Lol

LMAO......that is fantastic!

Torque!! That's the best thing about electric motorcycles.

Oh yes, one more thing. You don't have to buy gas. The Marriott I stayed at this weekend had three free charging stations.

I bet those electric volts coming from these bikes should have the good old Harley sound we all chase when buying a new bike🤓

SE High lift cam bearing
 

The SE inner cam bearing has always been reserved for the high lift cam,special valve spring applications and are included in the stage 111&1V kits only.
The bearing exchange process can easily go wrong so it is better to leave well alone and go with the bearing which is tested and working in your Bike.
To be sure some who have never changed a spark plug will disagree with this but I really don't care!

OOOO yeah always change the cam bearing....

We now have the Electric generation with the worlds fastest motorcycles.
Don't worry the electric Harley's probably won't sell, with their 107 mph Speedlimiter!

+1 Definitely. The OEM is NOT rock solid (plenty of failed inner bearing threads) and why wouldn't you change it out while you're in there.

The Torrington bearing is like 12 bucks and pretty much never fails.

If it makes you happy just screw with it! You can also change your underwear 3 times a day,
but most people don't!

Yeah, keep one of those sets of underwear handy if you decide not to change it out.
You'll probably shit yourself when you get the bill after a failed cam bearing wipes out your entire motor.

Think about it. Where else is reusing worn bearings in a performance application a "good" idea? I'll wait. ;)

You are influencing the inexperienced to undertake a highly technical activity with great consequential risk of failure.This is the M 8 forum where most are upgrading new bikes.
The best bearing for Stage 11 cams is the one that is already factory installed and tested and run in by the owner! Not the one that you just bought from the store.
I suppose you have done this yourself? If so did you also swop the opposite drive end bearing,which no one ever talks about?

if'n your putting in a new cam then you should be putting in a new cam bearing

the stock M8 bearing is P/N 9215 an INA Caged Needle Bearing and it is best replaced by a Torrington/Timken/Koyo B168 which is a Full Complement Needle Bearing, it's also available from HD as P/N 24018-10


as far as "swop the opposite drive end bearing,which no one ever talks about" well that's just plain silly as the cam just runs in parent material at the camplate/drive end, there is no actual bearing there



https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.hdf...8484f667fb.jpg

Caged on the left<br/>Full Complement on the right

"Silly" is a kind way of putting it.

The poster you quoted pegs the needle on my BS meter.

Yeah Peter, you have just proven yourself to be pretty much a moron when it comes to Harley-Davidson mechanics. There’s no bearing on the opposite side of the cam, the MOCO did away with that in 2007. That was the bearing(s) that caused so much grief in the early TwinCams.

As far as the stock bearing being the best one, there’s a history of the cage on the stock inner cam bearings failing and allowing needles to enter the crankcase.
Any mechanic doing a cam swap should replace the stock bearing with a full compliment bearing. If the proper tools are used correctly to pull the stock bearing and set the new bearing there should be no problems.

Moron?
 

Having mentioned that Screaming Eagle do not supply the inner cam bearing on their lower lift Stage11 kits and that they are included in the Stage 111 and1V
It should be clear to anyone that I have Installed a number of both kits.
My sarcastic comment about nobody worrying about the outer bearing was to highlight that the load end runs perfectly without any bearing?Whilst you encourage the uninitiated to go out and buy pullers and inverters to replace perfectly good needle rollers.:icon_dunce:

:icon_doh::icon_doh: Wow, just wow.

Well I guess it could be the load end considering that is the end driving the camshaft, but it also has a constant input of oil under pressure whereas the other end relies on oil being splashed from the crank. What I do know is when you buy an aftermarket cam they say to replace the bearing in their instructions, Redshift includes the bearing with their cam. When the caged bearings go to crap the needles enter the crankcase and if you’re lucky enough to not wipe out the crank and rod bearings, at the very least the cases have to be split and all the needles accounted for. If you’re in the cam case and have the cam out the bearing should be replaced. If you’re doing stage 2’s and not replacing the cam bearing because the MOCO didn’t include it in the kit then you’re doing the customer a disservice, I don’t care if you’re charging them for labor or not.

Also I don’t encourage the uninitiated to do their own mechanic work, but if they want to do it I’ll give them advice and loan them the proper tools to do it. There are some who should not attempt mechanical endeavors. They should pretty much make that assessment for themselves. There are things I don’t attempt, not because I don’t think I’m capable, but because I don’t have the tools and it comes up so seldom I just hire it done, so I don’t look down on those that don’t or can’t do their own work. But if I’m changing a cam or cams for you, you’re getting the bearing(s) replaced with a full complement bearing.

We will just have to agree to disagree.I am only on this Forum to offer my advice based on the questions I see from the people who want to do installs themselves.I do not talk to people who can afford to have it done professionally. This forum is full of requests of what cam to use and where to get the puller and inserter.Two weeks ago we were all consoling a friend who had damaged a new roller and lost a needle during the install.Some people on this forum also can't wait for an opportunity to go up against the decisions of Harley Davidson at every step
You and I both know that despite the Rushmore and M 8 upgrades they believe the cage bearing they install to be adequate for the load until you fit conical springs and high lift cams.