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Cam chain tensioner s
- Thread starter Doris
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Yours?
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Nope...a mates.....I now run gears on one and hydraulics on the other anyway....
I did that check on mine (when I had the bike – which is why I flogged it...completely fucked!) Only joking JD, no signs of wear. There is a good walk through thread on how to do it on the HDRCGB website (search cam chain tensioner check). As Pingu says, well worth checking as a known weak point on earlier TC's
Loving the pink workbench Pingu!
Loving the pink workbench Pingu!
They were prone to that and also cam bearing failures. My 1999 FXDX suffered it out of warranty but HD did fix it. I eventually converted the bike to gear driven cams with the assistance of Dermot from the Harleyhog website (not sure if that is running these days)
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New fangled stuff is always gonna give you trouble
Yep, recognised weakness. Taking a ride from New Jersey to Tennessee in June on my FLHT so will be getting this checked first as it's done 48k miles now.
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Only up to mid 2000, for the bearing from memory..but I need to refer to my book of all things Harley to confirm....
Yep, mines a 2002...
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Good precaution, my inner one was getting near worn through at 20k. They said it probably wouldn't make 30K so I went ahead and upgraded it.
From NJ to TN you may be riding through WV?
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Feck , I'm having nightmares about cam chain tensioner's on my porsche 944 S2 so this isn't helping. Slightly off topic but still a concern, am I correct saying that I have hydraulic maintenance free tensioner's on my fatbob 2010 SE ?
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Different chains, sprockets and tensioners.....I'm not sure I'd describe them as "Maintenance free"....besides which...now you've got to worry that the outer cam support bearings have been ditched in favour of running direc t in the cam support plate.......hope that helps.
...oh and the fact that twisted crankshafts are a problem...and cheap mains bearings...and........
You boys and your fancy Twin cam ways.
To think I was worried about a slight weep from my base gasket...lot to be said for Evo engines
To think I was worried about a slight weep from my base gasket...lot to be said for Evo engines
You boys and your fancy Twin cam ways.
To think I was worried about a slight weep from my base gasket...lot to be said for Evo engines
Twin cams..... Way ta go...
Get up to speed Rob.
Oh you can't your on an Evo!
We cruise in style
While the twin cams dash from one mechanical disaster to the next
While the twin cams dash from one mechanical disaster to the next
We cruise in style
While the twin cams dash from one mechanical disaster to the next
Cruising in style is another way of saying we ride slow.
I've got to change the cam tensioner pads on my 1990 944 S2 16V motor. It's only got 17k on the clock from new, but seemingly like the TC 110 HD motor they are prone to fail within about 60 k miles, or on a time scale that turns the tensioner pad brittle with age.
Not sure where the tensioner pads are on the 110 TC motor but no doubt buried in a time and effort consuming place, maybe they should be a time/milage service item like on most plastic/nylon chain pad tensioner's/ runners.
My SE 110 has only got 2.5 k miles so I think I'm alright at the moment. Much prefer the idea of hydraulic tensioner than those bloody springs though.
I've never really understood why they needed twin cams in the first place. Simply isn't an issue on a single cam.
Cruising in style is another way of saying we ride slow.
Not sure where the tensioner pads are on the 110 TC motor but no doubt buried in a time and effort consuming place, maybe they should be a time/milage service item like on most plastic/nylon chain pad tensioner's/ runners.
My SE 110 has only got 2.5 k miles so I think I'm alright at the moment. Much prefer the idea of hydraulic tensioner than those bloody springs though.
Just a few things I’ve learned about the 06 and earlier Twin Cam tensioners that you may already be aware of.
When the plastic tensioner shoe wears through to the metal backing plate what’s remaining of the shoe will fragment apart, the chunks can lodge in the oil pump and passages which starves the engine of oil causing serious engine damage.
The more difficult to inspect inner tensioner shoe wears through around 25% sooner than the outer one.
How long (miles) until the inner shoe is worn thin enough to start breaking varies quite a bit, seemingly as soon as 25,000 miles to as long as 50 or even 70,000 miles. It varies this much for a couple reasons. One is the smoothness of the cam chains vary from batch to batch depending on the wear of the stamping dies. Another is the amount of air voids in the plastic material forming the shoe. If you look at Pingu’s photo of the worn shoe you’ll see the micro bubbles that remained in the plastic from the injection moulding. My understanding is the shoe moulding procedure and material was changed some years back to eliminate the micro voids.
Retro fitting Harley’s hydraulic tensioner upgrade which includes a higher flow oil pump may be the best option long term. However simply replacing the worn spring tensioner shoes with the latest ones made with better plastic is an upgrade. Also while wearing out the original shoes the chain will have been polished smoother, so once replaced they should be good for a long time. Maybe check them again after another 50K.
Multi valve ?
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