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The many threads on worn cam chain tensioners

trvlr

Junior Member
With the recent threads being posted regarding worn cam chain tensioners - or the need to pop the cover and do a visual every 20k or so...do any of you seasoned wrenchers routinely crack open the oil filter on oil changes and look for the tell-tale signs of worn tensioner material being trapped in the oil filter material?

Found an article posted by Glider on doing this and looking for the orange fragments of the tensioner shoes within the filter media, for a heads-up on these shoes beginning to wear. Sounds like a pretty good idea. Curious if you guys do that routinely.

Cutting An Oil Filter - Harley Davidson Community
 
I use a chain muffler cutter to cut open the oil filters on my friends filters if they are still using the spring loaded tensioners.
kemo
 
How about the hydraulic tensioners? There was a thread a while back on the shoes being excessively worn on an 07. I think it was wildspirit97 that had posted pic's of the orange tensioner shoes that were trashed at 30k mi.

I like that idea of a muffler chain cutter.
 
How about the hydraulic tensioners? There was a thread a while back on the shoes being excessively worn on an 07. I think it was wildspirit97 that had posted pic's of the orange tensioner shoes that were trashed at 30k mi.

I like that idea of a muffler chain cutter.
*******************
07 and up TC had the newer Hydraulic style tensioner system, No yellow shoes on any of the 07/96cu" motors..

I would rather pull the cover.
signed....BUBBIE
 
I did it last time I changed oil. I used a dremel tool with a cutting disc. Oil filter was clamped to a bench vise and I put a drip pan on the floor under the filter to catch the oil drippings. It was a little messy and took a little while, but I got it apart. No colored plastic bits inside.
 
I did it last time I changed oil. I used a dremel tool with a cutting disc. Oil filter was clamped to a bench vise and I put a drip pan on the floor under the filter to catch the oil drippings. It was a little messy and took a little while, but I got it apart. No colored plastic bits inside.

And think of the peace of mind you had by taking the time to do that!
 
By cutting with the Dremel you destroyed a lot of other evidence such metal traces and as you said it was messy. It is better to cut it open with some sort of pipe cutter other then an abrasive wheel.
kemo
 
When you look inside the oil filter make sure to pull apart the element (undo the accordian part) and look close between the folds. I never saw any material on the outside but found small pieces of orange shoe between the layers. I have 57k miles and pulled the cam cover off to take a look. I am due for tensioner replacement real soon.
 
I cut my last filter open with a large set of pipe cutters. Being an electrician is good. There wasn't anything in the filter but there were flakes of something that looked like orange plastic in the oil drained from the tank. I'm getting ready to open her up and do the conversion.
 
By cutting with the Dremel you destroyed a lot of other evidence such metal traces and as you said it was messy. It is better to cut it open with some sort of pipe cutter other then an abrasive wheel.
kemo

The mess was from the oil draining, since you never get it all out by draining it prior to cutting. The cutting disc was one of the non-metallic discs and the metal from the cut pretty much stayed to the outside of the filter. It made a pretty fine cut around the filter. I didn't say it was the best way to do it, just the way I did it with what I had!
 
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