Well noticed some knocking past week in my 2003 Rk. Figured it was the cam tensioner problem. Well it sure was and a lot more. Indi repair shop says it was one of the worst fails they personally have seen-Need to also replace cams-lifters-secondary cam chain-bla bla bla---well no better time then the present to upgrade to a 95ci kit !

 

Great picture of this ongoing problem with TC88's. How many miles did you have on them when it failed?

I replaced mine at 30K, and even though they looked fine on the wear surface, close inspection on the back side detected a crack in one of them that could have failed at any time. You can see it on the left one in this picture.

 

It has 50k on it. But I did buy the bike used few weeks ago and changed the looks of the bike from stock. The past week or so kept getting worse and louder at higher rpm. I knew the history of tensioner issues. But never expected all the other damage it caused !

 

Looks like mine both times they went bad, the first around 31,000 or so and the second around 35,000 or so later. Upgraded to Fuel Moto 98 with the hydraulic arrangement. Very happy!!!!

 

Did i see somewhere that the '07 TC96 was the first year for an OEM hydraulic tensioner?

 

The question I would ask is....How many times did you inspect them before they failed?

Let me guess.....Never!

I inspect mine every 10,000 miles and replace them every 20,000 miles whether they show any wear or not. (it works out to replacing them about every year or so)
It's easy, it's cheap and it's a simple way to guarantee you'll never have a catastrophic failure like the OP just had.

 

06 Dyna, 07 all others

 

I have had it happen 2 times, the first bike was stolen after I fixed it, and the bike I have now got a reman engine, with the same stupid tensioners, so on the 29th of this month she is getting an S&S cam plate , Oil pump, zippers tensioners, and Andrews 21N conversion cams. It will switch the cam chains to the 07, and up chains , along with the cam plate that has the hydrolic tensioners.
They are doing it for cheap, because I was gathering parts, and I don't have time to do it.

 

[/HTML][/HTML]I believe they were on the 06 Dyna's but 07 was the first year for touring bikes.

 

Andrews 21N's are a great choice for an 88, I love mine.