Finally, found some time to begin working on my 2001 Ultra project again. Front tensioner looked ok … the inner not so much. Appears to be a clean break with no other signs of orange pieces or flakes, and no metal to metal contact with inner chain.

Hope to make some additional progress at night this week. I did discover some light grooving on cam plate from the oil pump. Not sure if I should be overly concerned … your thoughts please? Thx

 

I do not like the looks of those grooves on the cam plate; hard to say from the photo you can catch a fingernail in those grooves and, if so, I would replace the cam plate. Which BTW ups the ante. The MoCo figured out when they introduced the two billet cam plate upgrades how to push the customer to one of the billet upgrades by raising the price of the replacement early OEM cam plate.

So, unless you go to the aftermarket which will cost a bit more, or find a used early OEM cam plate on Ebay, you the two billet options are:
1. 25284-11, the SE "Hybrid" piece which allows the use of your OEM cams and includes cam plate, hydro tensioners and hi-capacity oil pump for 499.99. IIRC, the early plate was about 165.00 before the billet upgrades were available. Additionally, since your bike is an '01 model both the outer and inner chains are the early "silent" Morse chains, not the new roller chains; a new front chain is included in the kit and unless you buy a new inner chain for 78.99, you would retain your OEM inner chain. With only 35K miles, I think I would run the original OEM chains as they have stretched and been "polished" with the 35K miles of wear.

2. 25282-11, the SE '07 up cam plate upgrade for the later models which includes the cam plate and hi-capacity oil pump for 429.99. However, since your bike is an '01 model, you are still stuck with the original OEM Morse chain on the outer cam sprockets and unless you replace cams, you are also stuck with the original OEM Morse chain for the inner cam sprockets. The only way to take full advantage and completely convert to the later hydro setup would be to purchase new cams as well as all the associated hardware, i.e., hydro tensioner, outer sprockets and inner/outer roller chains for about another 200.00 IIRC.

Prices above are retail; about 80% plus shipping from an online discount HD dealer.

So, making the decision to replace the cam plate requires some due diligence to figure out the most economical way to address the issue or take a chance on the original cam plate. Let's see what others have to say.

BTW, I see you have the bike stripped down. I don't know your tastes but I have attached a photo of an '02 that has been reconfigured along the lines of the Streetglide.

 

Thank you very much for all the info DJL !!

Also, that 's a good looking bike. Yes, planning to do something similar with this '01 but low budget.

 

Slipped a pair of mufflers on last night and fired her up. Appears to be running great, nice idle with good oil pressure. Diving into front / rear suspension & brakes now before addressing electrical and audio. Thanks again for all the cam tensioner guidance !!