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Gear drive cams vs chain?

maine-e-axe said:
Anyone running gear driven cams, how do you like'm? any problems? more power? any noise? who makes em?Way to go or not? Thanks for any help:newsmile090:
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I changed out my chain drives for ss570 g on my 2000 dyna...... Mine was the one with the little round bb sized ball-bearing on cams that had a problem com'n apart... 17000 mi. my shoes were chipped and worn BAD

I went with the 570ss gear drive -- 95" 10.25 teflon coated HD pist.--fueling oil pump & lifters(best lifters I've ever used)--delcron cam support plate--also manley valves n springs... ported and flowed by BOB GAGE of snohomish wa. ....(very glad I did it back then and it still runs great today....)

NO NOISE in gear drive and lots of getup n go .... no oil problems as "too much oil hanging in motor" which caused foaming oil problems hd would not address when they should have...

Harley went without a much need replacement design on their oil pumps and cam chains for many years and only finally in 07? was that problem addressed... The 08/09's came out with a good fix...BIGGER gears on oil pump and better cam chain design with a hyd. tensioner on them.....ALSO a hyd. tensioner on the chain-case drive has proven to work well....

signed....BUBBIE
 
I just had the gear drive cams put in, and got the bike back today. The bike (03 RG) has 43000 on it, and we're planning a trip to Yellowstone this Sept. Not wanting to have a disaster up in the mountains in the middle of our vacation, I figured that now was the time.

The spring tensioners were pretty far gone; the outside significantly worse than the inside.

I had S&S 510 cams installed, along with all new bearings, including the Torringtons. Oil pump was fine.

So far, I've only driven it home from the shop, but I definitely noticed more pull in the midrange - around 3000rpm. The bike is also louder and has more of that old school "potato, potato" sound at idle. The mechanic said there was no significant runout, and frankly, I cannot hear anything coming from the cam chest.

Tomorrow it's freeway time, and we'll see how it goes. But I really like the idea of not having to worry about disaster caused by cheap plastic parts getting sucked into the oil pump.
 
Hard to beat the new hydraulic/roller chain setup, particularly if you do your own work; changing cams is a piece of cake compared to the same job with a gear drive setup. I just changed cams in my 107" FLHT and converted from gears to the new hydro/roller chain setup; very easy and quieter. The gear drive setup wasn't real noisy but you could hear the gear "whine" if you tried. Some like the whine, including yours truly, but I don't miss it now that it is gone. I am planning to make some changes to my Deuce later this year, also gear drives, and will be probably be converting her over as well.
 
Gezzer Glide said:
Where can you get one of those new hydraulic/roller chain setups?
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PN 25284-08; $361 plus shipping and cam spacers from Zanotti's or another online discount dealer.

I believe the '99-'01 models must retain the OEM front silent chain and sprocket to retain the cam position sensor function. This kit uses the billet cam plate. There is another option for about the same price that uses the stock cam plate but requires conversion cams, so the cost of the change over means new cams as well. However, if you are in the cam chest much, the stock plate option is much easier to work with. Besides, if you go the stock plate route, you have a perfectly good excuse to ugrade cams.
 
picked up bike yesterday, not sure about performance yet! but I do notice that there is a good bet of whining with the gear drive.
 
hdcycledude said:
picked up bike yesterday, not sure about performance yet! but I do notice that there is a good bet of whining with the gear drive.
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Thats why H D chose the chain drive, The EPA noise police have been hounding them for years to get the noise down on air cooled motors
 
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