free website stats program cam tensioners | Harley Davidson Forums

cam tensioners

kemo

R.I.P
Today I was bored waiting for the rain to come so I decided to have a peek at the cam tensioners. I have been paranoid about these with all the warnings about them failing at 20 to 30 thousand miles (mine has 25000 miles) so curiousty got the cat. While I am happy to say that mine are fine, but I think I will change them out this fall before I go south. I am still leaning towards a gear drive and Feuling oil pump and Feuling cam support plate and new lifters and adjustable push rods. So tomorrow I will go down to my Harley dealer and get a new gasket and put it back together and ride without a worry.
 
Today I was bored waiting for the rain to come so I decided to have a peek at the cam tensioners. I have been paranoid about these with all the warnings about them failing at 20 to 30 thousand miles (mine has 25000 miles) so curiousty got the cat. While I am happy to say that mine are fine, but I think I will change them out this fall before I go south. I am still leaning towards a gear drive and Feuling oil pump and Feuling cam support plate and new lifters and adjustable push rods. So tomorrow I will go down to my Harley dealer and get a new gasket and put it back together and ride without a worry.

You might look at the SE billet cam plate and new `07 style oil pump, it flows every bit as well as the Fueling pump but a lot easier on the wallet. I used several Fueling pumps in my day but I have to tell you I am more than impressed with the new HD pump.
 
Doc 1, you're quickly becoming an asset to this forum. Thank you for joining the other great minds in this community!!
 
Kenmol,

Before you button up the cam chest, grab a good dial indicator and remove the outer chain drive and check the runout of your crankshaft. Check on the diameter that the drive gear seats on. If the Total Indicated Runout (TIR) is greater than .003 inches there is no need in buying gears.

If the runout is over .003 inches you will not be able to get the proper backlash between the gears. If they are too tight they will chew themselves up. If they are too loose the gears will whine and the backlash in the gears will make a noise much like noisy lifters.

By the way, the factory spec for crankshaft runout on twin cam engines is .012 inches, so many will not have the required .003 for gear drives.

On my '05 I kept seeing bits of orange plastic in my oil filters. (I always open the oil filters to see what's circulating in the oil system) Somehow, the bits were getting through the scavenge pump, into the oil tank, picked up by the supply pump and getting to the oil filter. I had a few pieces in the oil tank too. I pulled the cover and there were some pretty good size chunks missing from the face of the cam tensioners. They actually had only slight wear as far as the faces being groved by the chain, but the chunks worried me. My crank run out was about .005 so I just replaced the tensioners and the oil pump and put it back together.

Later,
 
My tensioners went bad on my 2003 Road King at 17000 miles. I replaced the cams with Andrews 26G gear driven cams and couldn't be happier. Very noticable difference in the low end and midrange... I love knowing that now it's solid down there and don't have to worry about the tensioners going bad again.
 
found orange plastic in my filter too. went with the roller chain convertion with the 21 cam from andrews not a neck jerker but runs good and no tune
 
Back
Top