timing chain question
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Joined: Apr 2008
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timing chain question
i have an 05 road king that just rolled up 30,000 miles. a good friend and his wife both ride road kings a few years older than mine. he keeps telling me horror stories about the cam chain tensioners. others have told me it only happens to a few bikes. he just caught his before major problems happened. i have always done my own work, but mostly on older bikes, so as i am doing my service i decided to check out the timing chain tensioners. i figured the price of some gaskets and some labor will give me piece of mind any way. the primary or outer chain tensioner shows about 1/32" of wear at the upper end. i can't check the inner one without taking off the push rods, cam block etc. here is my question... should i finish doing the tear down to check the inner tensioner, or put it back together and have another look at 60,000 or so or go on in and do the job. in really dont want to be down more than a few days as there is still some good riding still to come before cold sets in.
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 2,543
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From: Ashland Ohio
Get all the parts ahead of time. It's a one day job. I would swap them all out. Second time around, they tend to last longer, too. The chains are now polished from the first set of tensioners. Now... I would say you could wait until cold weather to do this, too. Take a dental mirror and see if you can see the rears at all.
Pretty easy procedure to check the outer and inner tensioners, and there is a Youtube video that outlines the steps:
I pulled my cam cover and checked the tensioners when I bought my bike in June. Tensioners had what I would consider to be light wear outer and inner except for the pitting that occurs in that plastic shoe material.
Fast forward 3 months and I pulled the cover again to track down a loud tapping in the area, and found the inner shoe was now split down the middle and the crack went down half the shoe material. If I checked that again in 10,000 miles, I would have certainly had trouble. My experience made me stay away from the stock spring tensioners, and had the dealer install the SE hybrid kit that has the hydraulic tensioners with the larger oil pump. They changed the inner and outer cam bearings while they were in there. Since I had the loud tapping, I had them change the lifters and install adjustable pushrods. Engine is nice and quiet (for a Harley) now.
Even though the SE kit still has tensioner shoes, they are of a different material and the tension is supplied by oil pressure. That's the system that's in place for all the 07 and newer bikes and ya don't hear that much about failure in that new system. Even if a shoe were to fail, it's not followed by a 40lb spring that will wreak havoc in an engine.
I chose not to go with gears, but many have had success with them, especially with the older cranks like mine. Like was already stated, have all the parts ready and it sounds like you can do it yourself.
Good Luck
I pulled my cam cover and checked the tensioners when I bought my bike in June. Tensioners had what I would consider to be light wear outer and inner except for the pitting that occurs in that plastic shoe material.
Fast forward 3 months and I pulled the cover again to track down a loud tapping in the area, and found the inner shoe was now split down the middle and the crack went down half the shoe material. If I checked that again in 10,000 miles, I would have certainly had trouble. My experience made me stay away from the stock spring tensioners, and had the dealer install the SE hybrid kit that has the hydraulic tensioners with the larger oil pump. They changed the inner and outer cam bearings while they were in there. Since I had the loud tapping, I had them change the lifters and install adjustable pushrods. Engine is nice and quiet (for a Harley) now.
Even though the SE kit still has tensioner shoes, they are of a different material and the tension is supplied by oil pressure. That's the system that's in place for all the 07 and newer bikes and ya don't hear that much about failure in that new system. Even if a shoe were to fail, it's not followed by a 40lb spring that will wreak havoc in an engine.
I chose not to go with gears, but many have had success with them, especially with the older cranks like mine. Like was already stated, have all the parts ready and it sounds like you can do it yourself.
Good Luck
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 28,597
Likes: 3,957
From: Vermont
Make it a winter project. At 30k you have enough stuff to keep you busy over the winter. You've got the fuel filter swap at 25k and the fork fluid change. Change out the brake fluid if you haven't already been following the 2 year change intervals. Do the hydraulic upgrade while you're doing everything else. Also gives you a chance to freshen up the breather baffles and gaskets.
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