Good news-50K on 99 Ultra-and still running strong!

 

Well.....he!!. Every time I think I have my old early TC upgraded with the latest stuff....here comes another problem for me to worry about.

I am not going to participate....I am not going to worry about my connecting rods and crank. I have a riding buddy that just rolled over 160,000 miles on his and I don't think he's worried either.

I agree the TC-88 was a POS, but they have the mods out there to fix the tensioner issues and improve things on the early ones with the larger oil pump.

The good news is they are likely at the end of the line with the TC and maybe the pushrod motor as far as that goes. Don't worry about all these TC issues....the MOCO will soon have a new engine out for us to fix-and-design-as-we-go. I bet they have one on the drawing board as we speak.

 

would be nice if the MoCO would have tighter specs on the crank run out and make a strong azz crank to be proud of. So, I knock on wood that my 103 build hasn't taken a dump on me, and it's run well since completed 4K ago.

 

"someone give me some good news about the twin cam"
It's due to be replaced soon.
"the cam plate having bushings and not bearings WTF."
The pinion end of the camshafts don't even have bushings! Wait, that's not good news.
Uh.... It's due to be replaced soon.

 

"What the hell the more I find out about the twin cam the more I loose faith in harley."

Then go buy a Yamaha.

There are literally 100's of thousands Twin Cams runing out there with absolutley zero issues after a lot of miles. You say that every twin cam has this issue but produce ZERO facts or evidence to back this up except for the "4 twin cam engines he took apart all with the same problem."

You do not even give the year or model of these engines or if this was an indy shop looking to drum up business by spreading rumors. Did you spend $$ to have this guy tear apart your engine to check for these "known" issues?

 

I am not climbing into the mud-wrestling pit here and am a loyal Harley owner...and have been all my motorcycle life. I have paid the Harley tax and that includes the Twin Cam tax and I still won't own another brand.

I do express some slight concern over the dropping of the outer cam bearings in favor of the bushing. I know this is and has been common practice in automobile engines since Hitler was a corporal, but based on all of our knowledge of what the MOCO can do (as in tear-up an anvil trying to improve something), I don't like it. A six or eight cylinder engine has many more places for the forces to be applied across many more bushings. I also realize that the EVO and it's predecessor ran the outer cam in a busing and not a bearing, but I still like my bearings out there in the support plate. That is....after they pulled their heads out of their butts that resulted in the early model TC cam bearing failures.

I could be wrong, but I don't hear of many outer cam bearings failing any longer and the MOCO is notorious for changing a design just to make parts obsolete so they can sell new parts and keep the aftermarket as confused as possible.

Now...I really do think that as of this moment I have a strong and reliable Twin Cam and I am not the slightest bit worried.

I would say that maintenance is now even more important than ever. You can't just run one with dirty or poor quality oil and expect those outer cam bearing wear surfaces to live. There is a thread on one of these forums somewhere about some guy finding "gold dust" in his oil and I think we can all figure out what that is and where it is coming from.

 

simpkinst
I'm not saying H-D is bad or not worth it. all I'm saying is that for the price and the name you would expect more reliability other then a 2 year warranty.
I also did not say every TC has a problem. I said every TC he had done with over xx miles.
As far as prof goes I don't like to walk around other peoples shops taking pictures, cause that would be suspicious.Let me ask you this what do you think should happen when you take a hardened tried and true, roller bearing to a imperfect porous surfaces with only a hardening process that turns the end of the connecting rod purple then proceed to exert forces with only a regulated amount of oil pressure to protect the surface. Not to mention a roller bearing creates pressure points on each and every roller that touches the surface. They would have been better off with a flat tri-metal bearing, maybe not, just my opinion.
If any of this sounds harsh please forgive me. I don't like it when people I don't know are on the edge of calling me a liar.
I guess your just going to have to take my word for what I saw with my own eyes. FYI you are the only one asking for prof.
Give me some good news is the title

BTW love your bike. very nice. I like blue too.

 

never called you a liar. I simply stated you throw out these statements and expect everyone to take them at face value. If this was the problem you say, there would be no high mileage twins out there with ZERO problems.

Were these 88's or 96's? There are difference engines. Why won't you state what twins there were? Were all 4 103's? Were all 4 maintainted propery or did they go 20K w/o an oil change? What Twins apparently all have this issue? I know of at least 14 guys with Vtwins with over 50K on them. None had this issue. Why is this?

You can also tell us if its a harley dealer or Indy w/o mentioning names.

 

All I know is the one had 45,000 and used to pull trailer 88inch touring bike, well Im thinking it was 88 cause the owner of the bike was looking up s+s crank with 4.00 stroke, I talked to him a bit and seems he is good friends with the owner of the shop. sat and talked to both of them. Synthetic oil, tensioners were worn badly but not down to metal. his engine was on the stand and I was shocked to find out how much resist those tensioner put on those engines. he says allways changed oil sometimes before recamended. his crank was the worst. His complaint was the more throttle he gave the more the engine wanted to resist.
Other engine torn apart on bench and engine stand. tensioners were toast connecting rod scored bad. 40,000 reg oil, oil change no info.
Other were both 96 cu in. bushings egg shaped worn connecting rods not bad but could see scars on the rod were bearing was digging in. Oil light on. was complaint.
4th had a bad crank due to runnout low miles, and scaring of bearings.
Thats all the info I have.

 

Having installed HD wrist pins myself, they're SUPPOSED to spin. In fact, they slide into the rod very easily with just the push of a finger.