While having my 80,000 mile service done last week I talked to the Service MGR at Independence Harley, in College Station, TX. I asked if he had seen any problems so far with the miles I have on the Ultra, with the Chain Tensioner. He had not seen any problems, but also said they had not worked on any 07' or newer bikes with the amount of miles I had. He told me they would open up the oil filter and see what they find if anything. Well......they found small pieces of plastic, which per him could only be from the tensioner.

I have the extended warranty in which they called and got the OK to tear into it. They found the "Primary" with wear marks and the secondary with none. The tech could not really tell me how many more miles I could have gone with the way it was. But, he did say it was good that they changed it when they did, because the oil pump assy was pretty scratched up from the pieces that broke off the primary tensioner. The piece they showed me was no bigger then the size of a pin head, it sure don't take much to screw up the oil pump. I might add there was no noise at all that you could hear from the chain.

It was nice to have a dealer listen to a concern of mine and not just blow me off.

Digger
Camas, WA

 

glad to hear a good ending. curious what you chose to replace the old one with?

 

I will not complain if mine needs replacing at that mileage. Did he give any indication about how long it might have been wearing to the point of damaging the oil pump? With no noise or anything to indicate a problem I think I will look at mine at least every 5k miles after 50k miles. Every 10k now.

What kind of riding are you doing to put this many miles on? Touring, I hope.

 

80,000 miles on an 07??!! Dammmmmn They didn't dare try to blow you off.

My hats off to you. You're living a good life.

 

Good post...I figured after the '07-up bikes started getting some miles on them, we start seeing tensioner wear worries all over again. I never figured the new hydraulic set up cured anything 100%.

 

80,000 miles....there's not a moving part in that motor that isn't going to be showing wear.

You must ride for a living....whew!

I think your at the point where alot of your parts are near the fatigue point. Those swingarm bushings have got to be almost shot.

Gonna need a new bike within a year of so with the amount of riding you do!

~Joe

 

Wow, 80k in two years. I'd have no complaints with changing the shoes at this interval. For most people that would be about 4 or 5 years.

 

I'm interested to see if more 07 and newer bikes start to show tensioner wear. I was almost set on a conversion kit for my 05, but now I may go back to changing it to gear drive if possible.

 

Your but must be sore

 

I think Gear Drive is the way to go if possible, I been waiting for the same problems to start showing up on the newer bikes I have an 05 FLTRI and gear drive will be my choice. The chain tensioners require maintenance and I don't think small pieces of plastic floating around in the oil is a good thing.