Just so the mnods know, I did post this int he Dyna section as well. Just trying to get some good ideas. Thanks.

Finally got back into the HD world. Just bought a used 06 Street Bob - very custom. Fell in love at first sight and was able to get the "used buyer's" discount. I wish my first post was different, but...I've had some bad luck so far.

Stator went bad 10-days ago - replaced under warranty - no big deal.

6-days ago the motor let go. Turns out the primary timing gear at the front of the crank broke - lost 3 teeth. Bike is at the dealer and will be covered under warranty.

I've heard this is not that uncommon on the 06's. Any insights?

My question to all...It has a Woods cam set with the gear drive - no chains. Very aggressive lift and duration. Found out this engine did the same thing when it was at 95 cubes (now a 103) and had chains with an aggressive cam profile...

I am thinking 2 things: 1) weak /poorly designed cam support plate 2) cams are simply too aggressive. Should I pay the extra money and go with the Screamin' Eagle billet cam support plate? Could this be the common theme/weak link? And/Or should I go to a milder cam with the chains as opposed to gears?

What do you guys think? I can't get the HD extended warranty with my current cam grind, so tuning down would allow that, and my dealer is offering me the warranty at a VERY good price, due to the issues I've had(current warranty expires this February).

I could ask a lot more questions, but I'll start with these. I am going to post this in the tech section as well...I'll post a pic of my babe later.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

So far what you have described leads me to believe that you have possibly a crank that is starting to scissor, meaning excessive crank runout. Double check with the dealer doing the repairs to ensure they check the rounout on both ends of the crank. I know that originally HD set the upper limit at .010 and have now gone to .012 runout saying that is normal. But with gear drive cams, that much runout can be death to the gears ( and quite possibly the rotor on the other end of the crank).

There are many builders now indicating that gear drive cams for the 06 and up engines are a bad choice even if at the time of install, the runout is in the .002-.004 rangedue to the crank issue. I am not sure what HD is gonna do in the future with this problem (other than hope all of the bikes go out of warranty before the crank twist). This is not a universal problem, but there are instances of this occuring.

The high lift cam is really not the problem here. Check the runout, let me know what they find. I am curious if this is another crank starting to go.

 

Andrews has some new cams out for the 06-07's gear drive with out bearings in the cam plate (THEY ALSO HAVE IT IN CHAIN AND THAT'S WHERE I WOULD STAY WITH THAT CAM PLATE). The factory increased their service wear limit on the pinion shaft run out to .010". I called Andrews tech line and they told me that the limit for their new gear drive cams in aluminum (no bearings) is .002" What is wrong with this scenario? The clearance tolerance cam shaftto plate is .0008" loose. Times two is .0016". What's wrong here also?

 

Thanks for the good insights. The crank run out was at .014 when they tore it down, BUT the disintegrating gear may well have caused things to bind and knocked the crank out...Tough to say cause versus affect.

I'll make this more interesting and tell a bit more of the story...The same exact thing happened to this motor (before I bought it) when it was at a 95 cube with chains and not gears. Common themes that I have found: 1) Same aggressive cam profile 2) Same/stock cam support plate. The motor received a new crank (obviosuly) when it went to 95" and again when it went to a 103" (the build to 103" occurred on the heels of the first crank gear failure.

There is obviously an issue with 1 or more parts or design. I am really leaning towards going to a screamin' eagle cam set with chains that will allow me to get a factory HD extended warranty...

 

I ran a Delcron cam support plate in my 03 with Woods TW5G cams (.575 lift) and had no problems. Am running Woods TW400-6 (.650 lift) in my current bike and am now in the middle of a tear down to go to 120" using all HQ parts. If a crank has excesive runout when gear dirve cams are installed, they will eventually eat themselves up. Didn't have any problems with the 03, but got excessvie runout in my 07, but more due to the build/power/poor crank design than anything else. Cams will only eat the gears if they are set too tight, too looseor there is too much runout. There are way too many builds out there running Woods cams that are not having any problems to blame it on the cams quick ramps, lift or design.

 

just like dalton says. i've been running the delcron cam plate w/the tw6g w/ no problems. i would really go w/the cam plate if you have the means. with so m uch more spring pressure for the cam the stock plate is flexing like chris benoit on a roid rampage. my crank runout on my 06 was .04 when i did my 95 inch and the cams/heads and all that crap. either way good luck w/the new build.

 

It's probably a combination of the cam support plate not having bearings for the cam shaft end, and the weak ball bearing Harley changed to on the sprocket side of the crank. They stopped using the bullet-proof tapered Timkens back in '03, I think.