Is it worth it

[wildey]

Heres my story. I had a 06 Ultra, Did the 88 to 95 big block upgrade. Then learned about the tensioners and at the time Andrews did not have the hydraulic ones out.

Soooo, I opted for the gear drive instead. Well once inside the crank runout was to much, I think I was around .004 of I remember correctly so decided to put in an S&S crank, well one thing after another it was EXPENSIVE by the time I got done and never really ran right so I ended up selling it.

My personal opinion. Get the Hydraulic tensioner upgrade and leave the rest alone and only fix what needs to be done.

 

[Big D 2002 RK]

Good video RWD. Cam tensioner upgrade looks like the way to go. What about the plates getting small cracks in them? Is this a concern with the upgrade?

 

[R_W_B]

Heres my story. I had a 06 Ultra, Did the 88 to 95 big block upgrade. Then learned about the tensioners and at the time Andrews did not have the hydraulic ones out.

Soooo, I opted for the gear drive instead. Well once inside the crank runout was to much, I think I was around .004 of I remember correctly so decided to put in an S&S crank, well one thing after another it was EXPENSIVE by the time I got done and never really ran right so I ended up selling it.

My personal opinion. Get the Hydraulic tensioner upgrade and leave the rest alone and only fix what needs to be done.

Thanks for sharing, that is a valid scenario to point out.

Good video RWD. Cam tensioner upgrade looks like the way to go. What about the plates getting small cracks in them? Is this a concern with the upgrade?

I hope I didn't confuse the issue into thinking that the best way to cure the cam chain issue is to buy a new trued crank to accomodate a gear drive setup. I was kinda just thinking out loud of what I 'might' do come time to rebuild my whole engine (if I dont trade it in on something). In your case (unless your runout is within limits) I would go with the hydraulic tensioners.

And when I say within limits, I would want mine to be a little less than the required runout to allow for future stress. Harley's don't have real tight runout from the factory. But I know of quite a few guys that do run gear drives, some of them for years now with no problems. You just have to luck out and get a real tight crank.

I'm not sure what you mean the 'plates' ? If you are talking about the hygraulic tensioner pads, they have less pressure on them than the spring tensioner setup due to hydraulic setup putting less over pressure on them. However even they should be checked every 15K or so miles.

Here is another link with some info on the SE Hydraulic upgrade kit which I like. (course mine came OEM with hydraulics in 07)
H-D's Hydraulic Tensioner and Oil Pump Upgrade - Hot Bike Magazine