Does Harley Now Have A Cam Chain Tensioner Upgrade Kit?

[Rocket J.]

Jonas,
I sold a cool little Kawa W-650. It's the Triumph Bonneville clone. Burns regular gas and gets 60+ MPG. the guy got a fun bike and I got some $ to put into my "real" ride.

Chopper, I know what you mean. Yeaaaah, I already have a stage one done. It's just that my Glide is running go very good and I don't want to take even a remote chance that it won't run as good after the Dealership mechanic works it over. I know that's just a phobia on my part and I need to get this upgrade done now. I'll report back after putting some miles on the upgrade, but I'm thinking anyone planning on buying a bike with the spring loaded cam chain tensioners should just go ahead and factor in the cost of the hydrolic upgrade to the price of the bike.

 

[Jonas]

Jonas,
I sold a cool little Kawa W-650. It's the Triumph Bonneville clone. Burns regular gas and gets 60+ MPG. the guy got a fun bike and I got some $ to put into my "real" ride.

I know the exact bike your talking about. They are nice, did you sell it to Marine?

 

[Chopper]

Yes and no, the shoes are a wear item and you have to keep up maintaince but there are lots & lots of bikes out there running just fine on the system you have. There are no recalls or even product campaigns out on it. Relax and enjoy what you have, it's a upgrade not a necessity, if I had the money & time to do it, I would, but if I had a phobia about my dealer, no way, phobia's usually come from feelings, trust it what ever it is.

 

[Rocket J.]

Not a Marine. We frequent the same gun forum and I took a couple of his rifles as partial trade + some cash. We were both happy with the deal.

C'mon Chopper. I'm lookin' for affirmation here not, cold clear logic
I just don't know the mechs, is all. I've been through the whole drill of getting convinced this is an absolutely required upgrade for the longevity of my bike. I somehow still manage to moan and groan about spending so much no matter that I know it's far better off with the upgrade.

 

[Bud White]

heres my EXP with the Tensioners.. Last year we popped a 04 apart to look at them at at 11k miles since my buddy was worried about it they looked good and money was tight so he decided to wait till this winter to do them .. He put about 3500 miles on it this year then decided to do the up grade .. in that time the outer shoe wore over 75% it was shot the inner was fine barely any wear like we saw the year before..

he keeps up on his oil and uses the M1 20w50 vtwin .. I think its a Roll of the dice if yours will be fine or not .

 

[Chopper]

OK, do it, this is your affirmation speaking, plus Bud does have a very, very, really good point.

 

[Charlies Harley]

Wow, Iv'e got this 2006 with 48,000 miles on it, don;t know whats been done to it if anything, with what I have read here am I on borrowed time or what? What else should be looked at? Maybe just ride it like I stold it and fix it when it blows up, I kind of thought it would be good for 80 to 90,000 miles

 

[Chopper]

With 48.000 miles it would not be a bad idea to just pop the cam cover off and check the tensioner pads if the bikes history is unknown. If one of the tensioner pads breaks up then it's drop the pan & pull the pump time and hope you get all the pieces out and nothing gets pluged in the cam plate. At 50,000 the new HYBRID CAM PLATE AND HIGH FLOW OIL PUMP KIT would be a smart investment if nothings been done prior. The engine is a +100,000 mile motor but there is also maintenance involved and tensioner pads are part of it. Who knows, you could have gear drives in it.

 

[Charlies Harley]

Thanks for the speedy reply there Chopper, I have had that little voice haunting me over the milage and what may not be done on here. The hybrid cam plate you spoke of, is that the update to hydraulic tensioners spoke of in the earlier posts?

 

[Jonas]

heres my EXP with the Tensioners.. Last year we popped a 04 apart to look at them at at 11k miles since my buddy was worried about it they looked good and money was tight so he decided to wait till this winter to do them .. He put about 3500 miles on it this year then decided to do the up grade .. in that time the outer shoe wore over 75% it was shot the inner was fine barely any wear like we saw the year before..

he keeps up on his oil and uses the M1 20w50 vtwin .. I think its a Roll of the dice if yours will be fine or not .

That is scarey, less then 15,000. From your observation youhave thought the bike could go 25K plus with no worries. Being the outer, it is very easy to see and ID wear compared to the inner. You see alot of them that do not have much wear but pits. I wonder if they start breaking apart around those pits. So the wear does not correspond to the milage in a linear fashion.

Here is a picture of mine at right around 30,000K. If not for the pits, I would say they look great.