I'm doing the new Andrews roller cam conversion. To me it sounds like a nice alternative to gear drive for an engine with higher mileage. It uses the new roller chains and hydraulic chain tensioners that only have 11lbs pressure instead of 35lbs from the old spring tensioners. It uses a new oil pump w/10% more volume. As far as power loss with the chain drive I heard it was about 4hp with the old style tensioners, so I think it would be minimul with the hydraulics. The reason I say for higher mileage engines is your crank shaft run out isn't as critical and you probably would have to change out your cam support plate also. I'm going with the 26N cams from thegood things I heard fromthis forum about the 26s in general.

 

Higher mileage.......eh.....Mine had 52k on it when I did it.....If your crank run out is too much, it likely was that way from day one.

 

Yep, I forgot to mention that I did mine at 44K, well worth the $$$. Big improvement, and no more tensioners. Now it'll go for as long as there's gasoline available.

 

Another happy 26g customer here. I also threw in a 95" conversion so I'm not sure where my gas mileage is at. I can never figure it out because I'm usually going 85-90 on the interstate when I'm trying to see what my mileage is and then it sucks a little bit more Yep, you'll gain some performance increase [8D]

 

at the Lynchburg TN Bike rally year before last, a vendor had a cam chest with chain tensioners and one with gear drive. both had a crank to move the parts. the chain tensioners took a great deal of effort just to keep moving. the gear drive would spool up and keep turning on its own very easily. quickly convinced me. i have almost 10K miles on my 510Gs now.

 

What does the gear driven cam noise sound like? The reason I ask is when I bought my bike from the original owner I asked if he had a stage one upgrade done and he said "well kind of". My bike has a Arlen Ness big sucker. Vance&Hines Ovals and a PCIII. It also has an odd whining howl that can be heard at slower speeds and it really hauls a$$. I get low 40's mpg on the highway but only 27-28 in town. I do tend to ride it like I stole it so that may explain the low in town mileage. How can I check to see if he had gear driven cams installed? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Pull your cam cover off and look inside. If it was converted to gear drive, you will see 2 gears there. If it is still using chain drive cams, you will see a chain. A bolt in cam, like the Andrews 26 and S&S 510 should not be any more noisy than the stock set-up in terms of valve train noise. The gears may have a little more noise if there is too much backlash as a result of flywheel runout.

 

no added noise with gear drives here.....30.000 miles on them

 

Thanks for the reply. I've got a manual for my bike. I'll pull the covers and take a look. Thanks again.

 

Gear drives the only way to go! why you ask? I was out in the middle of nowhere between Barstow & Needles on my way to the Laughlin River Run when I lost my cam chain tensioner. The chain finally broke but before it did itproceeded to tear up the end ofmy crankshaft too. You have a $25,000 bike with a $25 chain tensioner! Get rid of the chain, if you hear the gears, turn up the stereo! I put S&S 585G's and love it!!
GHOSTY, if you still have a camchain and hear a whine check your cam bearings.