I was changing my fluids the other week and noticed I had a lot of wear in my primary chain tensioner. It's a TC88 with 72K. The chain seemed a little loose so I adjusted to make up for the wear to specs from service manual. I've not been happy with the shifting since and swear I can hear noise from in there. One thing is I could not find any Redline Primary fluid which I have been using for the past several years and used a competing product.
I was thinking of picking up one of those self adjusting tensioners. That item is about 110 bucks, plus the outer primary gasket at 35 bucks. So at 150 bucks, is it worth it.
Does anyone think by going to the self adjuster that it is worth it? Don't want to waste my time.

 

Whats the price for the stock replacement?
Theres lots of old posts here about the HD and aftermarket ones if you do a search.

 

I have a friend that has a brand new stock one that he said I could have. I like the idea of automatic adjustment ... just not sure if it really works well.

 

Things do wear out! You could replace it with the same, or use an M6 automatic tensioner. I have one in my old Evo and it has improved the ride and gear changing.

 

I do not recommend auto tensioners.

 

A lot of us are very happy with them!

 

OK Mark, You have to explain

 

I have a hydraulic type auto tensioner and am very happy with it. It varies the tension as needed depending on the load I'm throwin at it. The new style ratcheting stock Harley unit is a less than desirable upgrade. It can apply too much pressure to a high spot on the sprocket and could cause premature failure. The M6 type variable tensioner performs well, but is known to have spring life problems. Of course, you could always just go old school and manually adjust it at the recommended intervals. That's worked for years!

 

Oops, deleting a duplicate!

 

I have an M-6 Tensioner, and at 107,000 miles, Everything in that primary is original. I run cheap 10W-40 oil and change it every 5,000 miles with the regular service.

I peek in the inspection cover to check the shoe, and I swear to you guys, there is no more groove on my adjusting shoe than on a bike with 10,000 miles on it.

Litterally installed it and forgot it.

I re-used the primary gasket and saved my $35.

I would love to hear from Mark at Baker as to why I shouldn't love this little improvement.