Forgive my ignorance.... but what do you mean by "keeper".....???

Since this is an old cam tensioner thread, and if you are talking about a cam tensioner and/or cam tensioner shoe... if one has actually "broken up" inside the cam chest... you have a ton of work ahead.... Those broken pieces can damage the oil pump, the lifters, etc, etc... it would require a major disassembly and cleaning of the engine... Most will argue you will need to split the cases and replace the oil pan (too many baffles to clean out reliably) to be sure you got all the pieces out... if you leave any in, they could immediately damage anything you fixed/replaced in the cam chest...

I don't believe I've heard of a case of the hydraulic tensioners actually breaking up and disintegrating, like the earlier spring tensioners did.... but anything can happen..

 

If you are getting noise coming from the cam chest area , it could be a number of things...
1. A lifter gone bad
2. Oil pump gone /going bad
3. Tensioners going bad, ie, pad has worn down to metal and riding on metal chain.
A quick maintenance test if tensioners are starting to wear at a faster rate than normal ,(without unbuttoning the cam chest ),is, open up oil filter and spread out the gaze and check for orange/yellow spicks .

At your mileage , (and you have some noise in the cam chest area), I would factor in , new tensioners ,,, new lifters ,,,, at least check oil pump internals...
You have to remove the cam plate to replace the secondary/rear tensioner and lifters.. This leads to another decision as the pushrods need to be removed... Do you reuse stock pushrods by removing them from the top , (more work), or replace with adjustable ???
I know this goes on and on ,,, but it's the nature of the beast ....... Hell,, why not throw a nice cam in there as well ......

If all this is to much drama ,,, you could do as a mate of mine did when he had some noises he could'nt pin point ,,,, I asked him how he solved the problems ,,,, simple he said ,,,,,Just got louder pipes .....
Let us know what you find out in the cam chest ,,, Good luck

 

You have given me a lot to think about. Keepers = tensioners
I don't think it is a lifter as there would also be noise in the rockers
I have oil pressure and its normal. First thing I checked when I got the noise.
Tensioners wearing out and the last part let go and it is metal on chain makes sense and I think that I what the noise would sound like. The noise is more of a constant noise not a cycling noise of a lifter. I just hope I find the tensioner worn out and in one piece and not "broken up". I can hope but we know it is going to look like orange pepper all over the place.

I only guessing until I get it open. Working around the STL heat too.

I will try to get a video with sound to help the "next guy" and post it before I pull it apart.
Its been a hell of a year for me rebuild the ford transmission, clutch in a mini,... now the Harley … the way things are falling apart I am afraid to take leak. hahaha
Thank you for the info

 

One other thing to inspect, and maybe change out "while you're in there", are the inner cam bearings..

In the early twin cam years, they had some problems, and a few came apart, causing a big repair bill...

In later twin cams, they have not been as problematic as the early years... however... the MoCo still uses the same type/brand of inner cam bearings, just a different size from the early years. There is a much better design available... It's not something I would go into the cam chest just to replace, but anytime I open up the cam chest for anything, I replace them, regardless of mileage.

The OEM inner cam bearing is an INNA brand, caged needle bearing. Most replace them with the Koyo (formerly Torrington and often referred to as Koyo-Torrington) brand captive needle bearings. Here is a comparison of the two make/type bearings...



Good luck with the repair....

 

Mine were just inspected in May, by Fuel Moto. They said there was no apparent wear. I have a 2015 with approximately 35,000 miles on it.

 

I finally got back to the bike. Had to build a motor for my kid's mini cooper. How my kid can not understand that if you have an oil leak you have to keep an eye on the oil level.

Back to the Harley!

So at 77k the outer tensioner (pic below) was making the noise. New is flat. I looked behind the plate and there was some wear on it but not like this one.
I guessing my noise was the center of chain hitting the tensioner. The noise sounded like something doing a constant noise with engine speed. It was low and on the right side. I did do a vid of the noise but didn't come out. I've put about 300 mile on the bike. Good news, no noise.

This is only for the outer. If you are doing both you will need to remove the pulls push rods, hold the lifters, pull the cams.... more than what I am going to cover

Parts needed: @$50 to $60
one gasket
one tensioner
Fix:
Remove the right foot rest
Spray the exhaust nuts with PB baster, 4 on the flange, 1 behind the cat, and the cross over clamp under the bike.. (I did this the day before) Unbolt and push the pipes down and out of the way.. I pulled the covers to clean them. The front flange nuts can be removed with a long extension though the lower faring vent and left nut form the left side of the bike.
Unbolt the cam cover and clean.
The tensioner are not that strong bit I stuck a piece of welding rod it so I didn't lose or drop parts.. The new comes with a pull pin for after it is installed.
Put it all back together.

Note: this is not to replace the book, if you're going to do this, buy the book. (you know there are some that would blame me for their screw ups)

Took me 30 minutes. Plan about 2 hours if you're not someone who is always working on motors.

Before everyone starts I change the oils (all3) every 5k. Always used SYN 3 20w-50. The motor is a stock. I do highway and city and I do ride it like I stole it. If I get the noise again I'll post back here and I figure I'll explain how to do the inner. hahaha



The dirt on this is from it sitting on the work bench for a week.


Hope this helps the next guy or gal.
Outlawspeeder

 

Outlawspeeder,,,,,
Thanks for the update,,,, Glad you got to the bottom of your noise/problem ..... Cheers ....

 

All I have to say is if you have noise from your camchest fix it asap. My 2015 Ultra Limited had a bad cam chain tensioner when I bought it. The dealer supposedly fixed it but a couple.months later it failed again and now Im replacing the oil pump, both chain tensioners, chains, cam support plate, bearings and lifters. Im pretty sure the old one was bad for a while and put some plastic or metal through my oil pump. Its all acored up inside and the oil scavenger side of the pump is all pitted like some metal ran through it. There is no metal or anything in the bottom of the camchest or oil pan bit it definitely went through the pump. Im replacing everything just to be on the safe side. I blew out the oil passages and didn't find anything in them so Im hoping everything else is good.

Oil pump scoring.

Darker tensioner shoe is the secondary tensioner that was not replaced. The lighter one was the one the dealer replaced and it looks worse.