My pipes are baffled. 26g is looking pretty good. I'm also looking into the S&S 510g setup.

 

If you have anything even close to 30K miles. CHECK YOUR CAM CHAINTENSIONERS. When mine wentI swore I had a rod knocking around. I don't hot rode my bike. I switched from reg oil to full syn Amsoil at 1000 miles. Mine is a babied touring bike with alot of highway miiles. I'm a nit-picky maintance freek. I want my stuff to last.
HD factory denies any problems, however they have already changed the chain design. Mine went on my 2002 back in early 2004 @ 32K miles. There is a problem and the HD factory knows it but they deny it!!!Too much $$$$ to recall all big twins from 2000 untill know!They have inconsintancy in their material used for the wear pads, along with a poor design.
If you need to change them, look in to installing a gear driven one, it will save you from doing it again in another 30k miles. Also have adjusable push rods installed, they will save you shop time to install which means less $$.
Not fun being stuck on a tripup in Canadataking up those prized vacation days waiting to get it fixed.

 

I have been reading some of these posts on the cam tensioners. Can any one comment on what the symptoms of warn tensioners are?

My oil pressure gauge is reading much higher now that it did for the first 30K miles. Could pieces have come off and cause a blockage in the lines?

Any suggestions would be helpful . hate to take it to the stealer and have them hunt around for hours and find nothing.

 

Lots or information in this thread, some accurate and some not.

The early tensioners can go at 10K miles and some don't approach the 50% wear/service limit until 50K miles. I believe a previous poster likened the possibility of failure to a "crap shoot" and another to a "ticking time bomb"; those are accurate statements. However, when you consider the actual number of failures to the total number of bikes; the percentage of failure is very low. On the other hand, they can fail instantly and cause catastrophic damage and for that reason they should be changed; ou could roll snake eyes.

The problem is not so much the material of the tensioner shoe but the heavy pressure applied by the spring. The new tensioners are made of a different material and the applied pressure is hydraulic; oil pressure. Additionally, the new chain is a roller link chain as opposed to a non roller chain. There are very few instances of failures with the new hydraulic setup. Those that I have seen or read about were due to DIYers that installed the tensioner shoe spring/cup in the wrong order.

Anyone that intalls gear drives and does not follow the proceduer for checking the inner and outer gear lash is asking for trouble. Talk about a ticking time bomb, when a tooth breaks on a gear drive setup, very bad juju happens. The tolerances are quite close. Installed properly, gears are very quiet; you shouldn't hear them at all.

Someone looking to adress this issue and save $$$ can install new tensioner shoes and they will very likley last many thousands of miles. The chain has been "polished" from the previouis miles so, while not a roller, passes over the tensioner much easier.

The new hydraulic setup is the better way to go and if one wants to retain early cams, the SE "hybrid" kit is the way to go. The OEM route requres conversion cams. Much easier install than gears and very quiet.

A previous poster has advised changing the inner cam bearings if/when tensioners are changed; it's a good idea and worth metnioning again. New outer bearings should be installed as well if new cams are installed.

 

You didn't say what year bike you have ....

Just to be clear ... you realize the whole 'cam chain tensioner' issue affected 1999-2005 Twin Cam motors, right?

The hydraulic, roller chain system was introduced in 2006 to replace the spring, 'silent' chain system ....

[I only added this caveat / reminder because one could easily have 30K miles on an '06 or later bike ....]

R/
'Chop