Well, was bored tonight decided I'd finally (21K milage 06 Fxst) pull the cover and have a look. Not a hard thing to do didn't even have to pull the exhaust. Whew was I relieved when I looked. Not even worn at all. I'll put a new gasket on and think I'll have another look at 30K.

 

Did you get a look at the back one? I think that's the one they say you have to look out for. They say it takes quite a bit a disassembly to inspect but I thought I saw a thread where the inspection was done with a dental mirror. I have an '06 with 15k and probably need to take a look at mine too. And if they're worn, then the question....gear driven cams or the hydraulic tensioner?

edit: Here's the thread with the dental mirror inspection: https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...88-03-rkc.html

 

The inner one always wears faster than the outer. I'll be working on a bike that had complete tensioner failure next saturday and get some pics to boot. this bike has 15K on it I think. We have no idea what to expect at this point in time with this bike. But the picture of the ball bearings that came out of the cam chest is enough to give me the ******.

Drew

 

Mine is an 04 Heritage 88B, I got lucky and lasted 82K, dont ask how-don't know. Running regular castrol oil 5w-20 and by the grace of God. BTW bike now has over 100K on it.

 

ditto that...inner one wears faster most of the time. It can be looked at with a dental mirror, and you can also use a dental pick to get a feel for our deep the groove is.

On 05 RK changed mine out at around 40K, the inner one was worn, but not too badly.

Oh, another thing is sometimes there is not much "wear" as in, not too much of a groove, but they can get brittle and break up.

If you're out of warranty, this is one thing it is probably best to play it safe on!

 

Yeah, I looked at the inner one also. As much as I can see it looks good too. I used a little mechanic mirror. I can't move it away from the chain as I can with the front. But what I can see there is no grove's in it.

 

As a matter of interest how often do these things fall apart? and how often are you surposed to check them? in the book you get from Harleys when you buy the bike they dont even get a mention.

 

If my memory serves me right, on the '99-'06 softails, 30,000 miles is the "recommended" mileage to crack open the cam chest to check tensioner wear. If it's worn halfway thru the tensioner, they recommend replacing. As to how often they fail/fall apart leaving you S.O.L.?

I swapped out to gear drive a little before 30k miles, and the tensioners had worn away about 1/4 of the tensioner pad. However, one of the tensioners was wearing off to one side (not in the middle of the tensioner) and the chain was wearing on the tensioner bracket, and making a noise similar to a small stone hitting the inside of the fender.

 

The 06 cam plate has an oil spray hole that directly lubes the inner cam chain for the tensioner. Prior years do not have this hole.

Definitely check ~30k miles.

 

DD&Weevil

Thanks for the info.