V-Twin Forum banner

Cam chain tensioner failure survey

432K views 687 replies 357 participants last post by  <G Man> 
#1 ·
I would be really interested on who has actually had a cam chain tensioner failure, what year of bike and how many miles. Also was it covered under warranty. It does not have to be a catastrophic failure can include worn beyond factory specs.

It would be interesting to see if there is a pattern that developes.

I had a 2003 Ultra with 40,000 miles that was beyond factory specs and replaced under extended warranty in 2005.

Doug
 
#142 ·
lol, yeah i guess that answers it. good luck for all of you who cant turn a wrench, lifting the back pad, let alone the front is very tuff too do. reason is, the cheap metal that holds the tensioner spring and pad is more than likely to bend and/or break when you start prying on them.
i just finished installing the primary and secondary cam tensioners. knowing what i know now, what i saw ... i am not going to waste anymore time. i am buying a gear drive set. i wish i knew a place with great prices on cam gear sets?


this is a survey thread. i assume it is a survey to ask who has had failure, and who has not. it is also a reminder to a whole bunch of you that harley dropped the ball on this one. i personally think it's pathetic of them. simply because they could have designed a gear drive set instead of the crappy plastic tensioners riding on weak little chains.
 
#145 ·
I replaced mine at 33,000 Miles on my '01 ElectraGlide. They were badly dished out and it would have only been a matter of time before catastrophic failure. "metal on metal" The only reason I had my stealer look at them was because a riding buddy of mine asked me if I had checked them. The stealer didn't think it was really necessary but I insisted and the worn shoes were discovered. They also replaced the cams because the hard coat on one of the lobes was worn. I put in the SE203 cams and did get better performance but the whole job was quite costly.
 
#147 ·
I just did the AMS 96 big bore at 38000 and the cam shoes looked liked they had another 40000 in them, barley worn at all...CHANGE YOUR OIL!!! haha Amsoil 20-50 all 3 holes...

:beer: :clap:
 
#149 ·
Have 2001 Screamin Eagle road glide with 20084 miles. Use Mobil One synthetic and change every 3k. Mostly ridden on long trips at speed limits. Just replaced cam chain tensioners which were badly worn. Work done by Riders HD, Birmingham,Al. at a cost of $539.46. (labor-$315; tensioners-$130; gasket kit- $65; hose clamp-$1.25; shop supplies-$10.23; tax-$17.68) Ouch!
 
#151 ·
42,000 mi, Cought In Time!

I just pulled my cam cover to check the chain tensioners, 2001 Ultra 42,000 mi., used Syn3 from first 1,000 miles. The primary tensioner was about half worn, however the secondary tensioner was worn through to the failure point. One side was cracked and ready to fall off and very close to the metal. While I have it open I'm going to gear drive cams, the chains are history for me.


Gene
 
#153 ·
Gear drive all the way.. S&S has em.
HD still can't figure out the correct way to do things.
Personally, I do not want anything to do with twinkies.
Twice the moving parts, and no better performance... perfect.
 
#155 ·
My previous bike was a 2005 RG, At 8800 miles HD replaced the valve seals and while the heads were off I had it bored into a 95". Checking the cam chain pads the front pad looked fine but the rear was about worn in half also there were several large pits in the pad (from air pockets during molding?) which looked like they could catch and break off chunks of the pad at any time. My crank runout was .004".

I decided to change the rear tensioner and button it back up, leave the stock cams and buy a 2007 when they came out.
The 95" stock bike actually ran very well!

I bought a 2007 RG and at 8300 mile decided to go a 103". When the cam plate cam off both of the pads looked like new, barely scuffed also there was hardly any wear on the parent bearing surface. I put the new SE camplate in along with my Zippers Sleeper 103" kit. My '07 had a little under .003" runout.

I think that the new HD tensioner system is very good. I was leery about going with gear cams due to the amount of crank runout.

Dave
 
#156 ·
Took mine in and the rear tensioner was shot 42k miles....so both replaced...under my extended service plan...glad I got it when I bought my scoot!
 
#315 ·
Tensioner - extended warranty ?



It's good to hear that the EW took care of it. My 03 FLHT has 40K and I haven;t had it checked yet (just bought it). I have a question: did the dealer charge to inspect the tensioners and other charges or was it pretty much fully covered?

Thanks.
 
#157 ·
I was on the bike, all of a sudden it got kinda loud in the lower end. Got online and started reading....opened the lower end and...guess what...the damn tensioner was GONE! Metal to metal, now what? Is my motor toast? Can I do this myself? Is my local Stealership gonna own me?

I've learned a lot in the past two days reading your posts...I wish I had been here a few miles sooner. But it's done now so all I can do is try to recover. I have the repair manual and am not interested in spending the extra cash for gear drives. Is there a good site with pics that shows this process step for step, I'd really like to do this myself.
I have a 2004 FLHTCI all stock.

Pete
 
#158 ·
I am dreading pulling my bike apart for this stupid problem that should have been avoided in the first place. If anyone starts a class action lawsuit I would like to know so I can sign on. I am planning on pulling mine apart soon and photo-documenting anything I find wrong. If mine is toast I am putting in the gear drive so I don't have to worry about it again. I am just a bit concerned by the run out of the shaft and how difficult it might be to set it all up...
 
#161 ·
I'm planning on doing mine while the 98ci kit is being installed with 10,ooo miles on it now. That's why I was hoping someone could tell me if there is an aftermarket company making the tensioners:confused: Also I would love to sue HDs A$$ off for this F-up but it will be almost impossible because HD tells us in the manual that the tensioners are a wear item, like brake pads#Spankme@
 
#163 ·
Just pulled the cover to inspect mine at 30K miles. The front looks like it has worn about .05 to .065. I haven't had a look at the back yet. I've been running synthetic oil since the 1000 mile service. Exclusively Amsoil since 5K.
I've been seeing small chips in the oil filter for a while, but if the outer shoe is any indication, they're in pretty good shape except for the wear.
I'm think I'm going to go ahead and replace them now and not worry about them for another 30K.
 
#164 ·
HD must have made a mint through this design fault - I can just hear all the dealers singing things like: "why don't we do a big bore (or SE cams or SE heads..), while we are in there?" Finally HD seems to have succumbed to the ongoing embarrassment and changed the design. Only, the new cam drive seems suss to me as well. Either it's another scheme to make more dollars down the line or a cheap cop-out. Two even flimsier little chains and save the roller bearings - this has 'expiry date' stamped all over it. Same goes for the replacement of the proven Timken bearing pair - the new single roller is cheaper for sure! Where is this going?
 
#165 ·
Completed the "Cam Bearing Repair Kit" (P/N 24984-99) on my 04 e-glide (FLHTCI) last night, used the Baisley oil piston spring and Torrington inner cam bearings, everything else was from the kit. Bike fired right up, good oil pressure but I have a loud tick/tapping from the front rocker box, could I have misaligned something? I removed the rocker covers and rockers in order to use the original push rods, the bike has 40,000 miles. Are the cams in this kit the same as the ones I took out?

Any ideas of a possible cause would be greatly appreciated, this was my first bike motor tear down/repair and this site has been a great help...thanks.

Pete
 
#166 ·
A dealer parts guy said their mechanics believed the tensioner falures were a result of excess runout on the crank. Motors with a lot of crank runout cause the chains to jump up and down, which really works over the tensioners. He said that motors with little or no runout have few issues with warn tensioners.

Any validity to that theory?
 
#168 ·
All's well, started the bike when I got home from work, oil pressure jumped right up to 50, the lifter clattered few times then everything got quite..Wow how sweet! I guess I got a bit impatient. Can't thank you guys enough for all the info that made me feel confident enough to do this on my own...saved me at least $1000.00. Special thanks to Gary Beatty for his cam tool. great tool at a great price. (beattygw@sbcglobal.net)

Pete
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top