I've seen discussion on other boards about guys leaving the tensioners out. It seems this would work. Anyone else running without them?

 

Wow.... I absolutely wouldn't do that...!!

If you open the cam chest to remove the tensioners, with little extra effort you can replace the old OEM shoes with Cyco shoes... done & done right!

And people wonder why I don't recommend buying a used bike...!!!

 

no.......

 

Let us know how it works. Just keep it at WOT all the time should work..least for a short while anyway.

 

are the guys leaving them out going to a gear drive?

 

WOT would be okay ... it's letting off the throttle where the excitement might / would start

 

What are these other boards you’ve seen this discussed at? I can always use a good laugh.

 

Ok...if they are necessary, then what do they do other than keeping slack out of the chain?

If you decelerate, there's tension on that side of the chain and the tensioner spring compresses, and its the same slack as no tensioner.

The chains aren't loose enough to jump gears, so that's not it.

Old small block chevys have chains and no tensioner and some of those are way loose (like an inch of play), and run fine.

If the chains don't hit the case I don't see why a tensioner is necessary other than to quiet the chain some.

I'm just trying to understand why these are needed in this motor.

 

I wouldn't leave them out as the motor is designed for them unless you switch to gear drive, BUT I will say the OP does have a point. In all the years of building Small and Big Block Chevy motors when I was younger, the timing chains did not need a tensioner.

It is entirely possible the HD Twin Cam tensoners were designed to keep the noise down. That was the main reason they didn't go with Gear drive when they first came out with the twin cam in 1999

But after 2002 when they switch to the crappy crank they needed the extra play in the chain to make up for crank slop

 

Exactly. One more reason if I buy another bike, it will be an Evo.