So I am starting to look for parts to upgrade my cam chest. I am having a hard time deciding which way to go gears or hydraulic roller conversion. My question is are there any differences between the 07 and later cam plates. I saw a 2014 with oil pump for sale and I am not sure if this will work on my bike or not. If i can i would like to peice together some used parts and use andrews cams. Really my issue is just the budget i guess i could just upgrade to cyco tensioners but would like to not have to worry in the future.

 

Gear driven cams is the only way to get around tensioner maintenance. Both the old and new require checking; the old just require checking more often. Gears and the hydro conversion with a billet plate are going to cost about the same; a bit of a premium for gears but not having to think about tensioners is priceless. However, if budget is the issue, go the CYCO route while you save some $$ for a geared setup......

All OEM cam plates '07 and up are the same.

 

Those Cyco shoes seem to last very well.
Scott

 

What year bike. Chains are actually more efficient, as far as drive load, then gear and the small inaccuracy is very little in the maximum revolutions you turn with a Harley. Also, the TC has no outboard shaft supports like the old EVO, and was never designed for gears. You truly do not know what the run-out is and even a few thousands of and inch at 3000 rpm is going to wear inaccuracy in the drive. So be sure your " upgrade my cam chest term" is truly that.
If you have a 2007 or later Harley, the roller chain drive is no problem. Once grooved in, the rollers roll. The only problem is the link chain in the older bikes. Even those only need $120 worth of shoes ever 40-50K (to be safe check at 30K).. Mine have almost 50K are are still fine.

 

How many miles do you put on in a riding season? Once you replace the tensioners and push rods with adjustables push rods replacing the tensioners a second time is a pretty simple 3 or 4 hour job. If you ride less then 10,000 miles a year you are talking about a 4 hour maintenance job preformed once every 3 or 4 years and using the Cyco shoes the cost is really low. On my Road King the worst part of changing the tensioners was removing 0the exhaust. Cam cover and cam plate comes off in minutes.

 

Use the Cyco shoes and install an oil pressure shim or spring.
Good to go for quite some time then.
Scott

 

Please explain the "TC has no outboard shaft supports" comment; are you referring to the later cam plates without bearings? Also not sure about your comment regarding chains being "more efficient as far as drive load". Remember when the MoCo replaced the rear ball bearing with a roller for the early chain setup? The heavier roller is not required for gear drive cams, hmmmmmmmm, wonder why? Not trying to start an argument but need some clarification on those comments which don't ring true to my ears.

The new hydro chains, once grooved in, the roller roll until they don't. All the focus on tensioner issues is on the early ones, as it should be, but don't think that the new hydro tensioners won't go south, they will as the attached photo shows; ironical huh? I agree that CYCO tensioners is definitely an upgrade to the OEM setup but they remain a maintenance item, hell, even replacing the OEM tensioners with new OEM units and polishing the chains is an upgrade and what a lot of us used to do 15 years ago, but gear driven cams is the only way to eliminate tensioner issues. Setup correctly, they will run worry free for way longer than most will own a motorcycle...........

 

Just an opinion here but based on 46 years in a engineering machine shop career. This include a supervisor/apprentice instructor position in our toolmaking shop that did all three major types of gearing on aircraft carriers and submarines till we farmed it all out. Outboard support on gear shafts help even if the bearings are sleeve type loose to under load, run true. Look at the outer cam cover on EVO and Sporty motors for what I refer to as outboard. Again this is just an opinion. Obviously gears WORK on TC Harley's. Is it an upgrade or a dog with two dick mentality. If you want the throw a few hundred dollars extra into it, it will be fine

tcarson..not trying to steal your thread...hope this discussion is what you want to hear. All the people in this thread actually have whole lot more real world doing this stuff then I. My thought are just an opinion from another though more like going from point A to point B mindset in a economics sort of way.

 

No problem with all the opinions. I actually got way more posts than I thought I would I cant believe I forgot so say what year bike it is a 99 lowrider. After hearing from Scott that the cyco tensioners are a good way to go. I think that is what I will do. I do have one more question I was thinking of doing the Andrews 37 cam at the same time I talked to a guy at Andrews and he said for a dyna that is what he would recommend. Is that a good choice. Also I know after a couple years the moco went with a different bearing design on the outside bearings the ones in the cam plate. The ones a few years later are not just round bearing but have grooves for the cam to slide into. So question is when I order cams will they work on the early set up with just the round bearing? Thanks for all the help and I am not dismissing anyone's opinions I know that it would be better to upgrade to a newer style or gear drives but money is an issue. I feel much better about cyco after hearing from Scott as we all know he see's way more motors than the average person does.

 

Also just saw someone asked how many miles I put on a year not really sure yet this is first year having bike it only has 16k miles right now I might at most put 10k on the bike a year it's seasonal here, but I hear some chain noise not super loud but after reading on here it's got me paranoid also my bike is early 99 so it could have bad inner cam bearings. I would just like to get some peace of mind. I figure after watching some videos the hardest part will be the push rods. If I have the money I will probably just order quickee push rods.