So, I've been checking the tensioners on my 02 Fatboy about every 10,000 miles. About a month ago with 28,000 miles I take my dental mirror and check both tensioners and they were both about half worn. So, I figure it's time to replace them and call my Indy to schedule an appointment. 3 days later he calls and says bike is ready. This was 2 weeks ago.

So I put about 300 miles on bike since new tensioners and I'm sitting at a stop light and smell smoke.....look down and see oil everywhere on right side of bike and pipes are covered with oil. Luckily I was less than a mile from my Indy so rode right up to his shop. He comes out and says "hmmm, we have a problem".

Long story short, the new OEM tensioners failed and exploded with plastic pieces clogging the oil pump. This is after ONLY 300 miles. Anyways, he talks me into buying the Screaming Eagle tensioner kit for 500 bucks and he'd install free of charge.

Picked up bike today and it seems like I'm good to go for many, many miles.

The reason I'm posting this is encourage anybody who is ready for new tensioners, don't go the cheap route. Either do Screaming Eagle kit or gear drive.

 

It actually sounds like he didnt install them correctly. Plenty of folks replacing tensioners with no issues. I'd also be worried about those plastic pieces finding its way around. Did he pull your oil pan to see if anything got out?

 

Sounds like an installation issue to me as well. You have the hydraulic tensioners installed now?

 

Yep, pulled pan and cleaned and flushed 3 quarts of oil through to help remove any pieces that might have remained. Told me the filter caught lots of pieces too. This guy has done a bunch of tensioners...has done them for friends of mine with no problems. He had me stop by to see the tensioners before he removed them and they were installed properly....I even tugged on them to see how much spring tension there was.

 

Yep, Screaming Eagle kit. I looked at the tensioners after 300 miles and they were installed correctly.....just wore down extremely fast.

 

Original tensioners lasted 28,000 miles, and OEM replacements "wore down" in 300 miles? Sounds a little fishy.

 

Fishy was my first thought until I saw how evenly they both wore down, then I used an Allen wrench to pull them back to check spring tension. I didn't see anything wrong except that they wore almost all the way down and the front one shattered.

 

This is interesting. Can you post what brand replacement tensioners you used? Your chains were worn (the original cam tensioners took the abuse), so it is doubtful that they cut up the new tensioners. It would be helpful to others to know what to look out for.

 

Apparently MoCo doesn't carry the early style any longer so he bought them from J&P Cycle. They look the same as the ones that had 28000 miles.

 

There is but one brand spring loaded tensioner shoe I use for replacement; Cyco. I have thousands of miles on more than a few sets on bikes I've done. Anyone who puts a MoCo replacement shoe (orange) or any shoe that isn't Cyco is asking for trouble.

OP unless your indy changes cams wit that SE "kit" the inside tensioner (even though it's hydraulic) will wear faster than the front one because that "kit" retains the silent chain on the back side of the cam plate. 2007 and up Softail and Touring bikes have roller chains on both sides.

Personally, if your indy doesn't know all that I'd do it myself. You can't do any worse than he did.