I have an '04 Heritage Classic with 40,000 kms

Yesterday a mechanic told me I should have the cam chain tensioners replaced in the next 10k ( he said they were fine now but 100% need to be replaced around 50K)

Is he accurate? 100% need replacement?

thanks for any comments,

 

I would tend to AGREE with him, there have been a lot of ISSUES with those TENSIONERS!!! I got RID of mine with only about 5000 mi. and went GEAR DRIVE!!! Wasn't gonna wait for something BAD TO HAPPEN!!!

 

on my 03 softail, the rear one was just about done at 25K miles

 

Usually between 35-50k miles. Most certainly by 50k miles.

 

I waited too long. Ended up paying $5K for the engine to be sent back to HD for a rebuild after the tensioner broke lose. Get it changed out. I use gears but I understand the new style comes highly recommended now. That happened at about 65K.

 

did mine with gear drive at about 30 thou
some wear but not worn out..

 

Switching to gears next week. One less thing to worry about.

 

i got 30K on my st bob and ordered a new one today!

 

You want to change it before it goes bad. Because if it breaks, it will take most of the motor with it.

 

thanks for all the replies.

It appears to be such a common problem that Harley should issue a 'recall' and replace the tensioners free of charge.
I'm not very happy to pay for this.

thanks again for the info.