J&P Community

 I recently brought my 2002 flstci in to my dealer for a 30k service. He called me and told me the cam tensioners should be checked for wear. It's $300 to check them and another $200 to replace them. Not wanting to say no and have something go wrong down the road i had them go ahead.Now they tell me the oil pump housing is scored along with one lifter. And the tensioners do need to be replaced. I looked at the parts and they did look a little scored. Is this a common thing? I don't know of anyone who has had this done.

I've always been under the impression that the tensioners needed to be changed about every 20 thousand miles...and if they go too far..it can ruin your engine. You can also change your cams out and not not have to deal with it anymore too. IMO  it's a Harley defect.

Some additional information Cam Tensioners

 Thanks, i guess i did the right thing by having them done. I just hate that it cost so much.Of course if it's a Harley defect they should pay for it. But that won't happen.

balfbaby,

The early twin cams were notorious for that. I believe there was a recall on the 99's.

 I also was told to R&R tensioners every 20 thousand miles,or for the same or about the same cost change the cam out to grear driven not chain. Odd how the Harley  service  manual does not mension a mileage check on the Cam Tensioners.

 They don't mention that but they do require the steering head bearings be disassembled and repacked. When i asked my service advisor about that he said no they just grease it at the fitting on the neck. Go figure!

 The problem in 99 (first year TC) was the cam bearing taking the load, switched from a ball bearing to a roller bearing to resolve, nothing to do with the tensioner shoes. Until they switched to a full roller cam chain (06 in dyna's, the rest in 07) the chains were made of rivited side plates that were stamped. If the dies were sharp, the side plates had nice clean edges and the bike that got that one went a long time without tensioner shoe wear, if the die was dull, the side plates had a sligt burr on them and tore up the tensioner shoes much sooner. That is why there is such a difference to how many miles one bike gets over another on the shoes. The roller chains have solved the excessive / irregular shoe wear issue

Sorry I didn't see this sooner...best thing to do about the excessive wear in the cam chain tensioners...is to install gear drive cams....about the same money from the sounds of how far they went into your engine....unless you've still got the balance of a factory warrantee available....

 I think you should consider yourself lucky on the tensioners for 200.00.  I asked my local service department about changing my tensioners that were on the verge of coming apart, and was told I would need chains and guides as well, at a cost of well over 200.00.

I switched to gear driven cams.   

 It's $300 to check them and another $200 to replace them.My son-in-law who was with me mentioned gear driven cams but the service guy blew it off. Must be cheaper.

 My local dealer was about 900.00 parts and labor to change tensioners along with everything they advised, and I spent 1400.00 with an independant for gears and cams.  The difference was about 500.00 and I won't be worrying about the same problem in a few years.

I haven't met a dealer tech yet that recomended gear drive.  They seem to like the plastic.

Balf, it's less expensive and better (more acurate valve timing and no tensoners to wear out again). They would never recomend that..........

How much more noise does the gear driven cams produce? I  discovered  the tensioner problem when I was investigating metal particals in the oil filter and discovered the oil pump gearotors were pitted and the pump walls were scratched. I removed the two chain tensioners and again discovered a bad front cam bearing. It had extreme wear and I assume thats where the pump got the pittng from. I am looking for a replacment bearing to solve the problem. I don't want H-D bearings. They are INA/ brand bearings and are no good. I had a problem with the pressure and return fuel pump disconnects and H-D said I had to buy new disconnects. Wrong I told them! I went down to me local "O" ring store and rebuilt the disconnects myself. If you search for a remady you will save a lot of money and that money you can put into the gas tank and ride the thing!

Gratnted, there can be additional noise, but S&S offeres an oversize and undersize inion to reduce noise to a minimum.

 HD won't recommend 'gear-drive' mainly cause they don't make, or market it..(no $$ for them)

It's like way back when HD was threatening voiding anyones new bike warranty if you were using Synthetic motor or tranny fluids..

Till they came out with THEIR Syn3, then it became  the best thing since sliced bread..

That's biz. @ the stealership