View Poll Results: Have your Cam Tensioner's failed? If so at what milage?

20,000 Miles or less

8.11%

20,000 to 35,000 Miles

12.16%

35,000 to 50,000 Miles

6.76%

50,000 or more

16.22%

Who cares, I'm tired of hearing about them. Just ride it!!

56.76%

Voters: 74. You may not vote on this poll

Cam Shoes. Who's have actually failed?

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#41

03-01-2012 | 10:47 AM

AtkRWC

Elite HDF Member

Joined: Jul 2006

Posts: 4,813

Likes: 5

From: Rio Grande Valley-Texas

Quote:

Originally Posted by babalu

The hydraulic option definitely is easier, but I'm already in there, may as well get the performance too.

You might see a performance difference on a pumped up motor on a dyno run but for us average Joes...not much difference. You can still run what ever cam you want. Most cam makers have the same grind for any plate you want. I'm not saying don't go gears, but the Hyd plate does make sense, or should say did make sense for me as I went with mild cams (26s) and wasn't willing to worry about backlash and runnout.

BTW, there are some great videos on youtube on checking runnout and setting backlash for gears. Good luck.

Last edited by AtkRWC; 03-01-2012 at 10:50 AM.

#42

03-01-2012 | 01:36 PM

danmo

Outstanding HDF Member

Joined: Feb 2008

Posts: 2,908

Likes: 2

From: Southeast Wisconsin

Mine just got changed out last week at 54,000 miles. Now I bought my bike with 28,000 so they could have been switched before.
I just had them replace, no upgrade to the hydraulic.

#43

03-01-2012 | 04:43 PM

nkfd13

Cruiser

Joined: Feb 2011

Posts: 140

Likes: 0

From: northwest Ohio

ok alot of you guys have replaced yours but how many had theirs actually fail? I checked mine at 23,000 and they showed very little wear.

#44

03-01-2012 | 07:43 PM

dynhd1

Road Captain

Joined: Aug 2008

Posts: 579

Likes: 4

From: Pittsburgh PA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluehighways

I'm kind of curious about the financial benefit to changing over to the newer Hydraulic Tensioners, or for that matter a Gear Drive? If I do some farmer math on this; it seems like the break even point money-wise is like 125K miles. In other words if you just simply treat these shoes as a 25K maintenance items; the cost of replacing the shoes every 25K miles is slightly less than the cost of converting to the Hydraulic Tensioners. Going with Gear drive would shoot things up to near 200K miles!

Right on the money just inspected mine at 35k , showed about 10% wear. Changed the needle bearings at a cost of 13$, 7$ cover gasket and 135$ in rods. Ill open it back up at 50k.

#45

03-01-2012 | 10:52 PM

K00LJerk

Road Captain

Joined: Mar 2007

Posts: 522

Likes: 3

From:

Quote:

Originally Posted by nkfd13

ok alot of you guys have replaced yours but how many had theirs actually fail? I checked mine at 23,000 and they showed very little wear.

Hit the nail right on the head how many have failed? Sure some have failed but not at the epidemic numbers these threads would indicate. If you're diligent about maintenance you'll have not worries. Yep Harley and indys would love to sell you parts you don't need (for peace of mind) but why not wait till you actually need it or next upgrade. JMHO

#46

03-01-2012 | 11:26 PM

goodbirds

Outstanding HDF Member

Joined: Apr 2006

Posts: 2,395

Likes: 25

From: St George, UT

Mine failed near Kalispell, Montana on the way to Canada. I thought the noise was a collapsed lifter, not uncommon for a Harley. I rode it that way until we reached Kamloops. I actually stopped by the Harley dealer there to fix the broken mount under the tour pack, but when the mechanic started up the bike to take it inside, he said "oh oh, bad shoes". He showed me the inside cam shoe which had worn down to the metal, and the outer one wasn't too far behind it. 42,000 miles if I remember correctly.

The bike ran okay anyway, just noisy. This on the 02 Ultra I had at the time.