I fried the inner cam bearing on a 2005 Ultra I had, The bike had 25k on it. I was debating whether or not to split the case or just sell the bike, I opted for selling the bike. I was real clean and I got $10k for it, I only bought it for $11k used. The guy that bought it had an extra engine he was going to install, he also had an extra set of cams. So he installed the cams, new bearings and decided just to run it until the needle bearings that possibly dropped into the case would fry the engine. That was 3 years ago and its still running.

I surely wouldn't recommend this, but its a roll of the dice on whether or not the needles made it into the case.

 

My crank was .001

I have read that the tolerances on the early TC's were tighter than the later ones.



cheers

 

Had the same failure last year. Local indy took it apart to make sure pieces didn't get too far... found scarring on the pistons and crank. Now new crank/flywheel, pistons, cams, cam plate, and feuling oil pump. Good luck with your bike.

 

thanks for all the replies.
Unfortunately, the needle bearings were everywhere one could imagine.
New crank, crank sensor, pistons (went ahead and bored it out and went with 95" kit since I was in there anyway), cams (SE203), HD hydraulic cam tensioner upgrade.... $3200 later, up and running good as new. Just now at 1000 miles on it so starting to lean on it a little bit. Seems to be responding nicely.
Lesson learned. ANY, and I mean ANY pre 2007 HD Twin Cam needs to have the junk stock cam tensioners replaced....mine had 48,000 miles on them, so I didn't realize how much I'd already pushed my luck.... but if I were to ever get another bike without the upgrade to the hydraulic tensioner, or gear drive cams, it will be the first thing I do after the test drive.

 

Glad it is back on the road! Having a 2007 with 36,000+ miles these threads make me wonder about mine. I am curious how many cut open oil filters at changes to look for early signs of these failures? I also worry a bit about primary bearing but try and try and make sure primary chain and drive belt are not over tight. Keeping my fingers crossed for now along with looking and listening for signs.

 

I have heard that a good machinist can bore out the inner cam bearing locations to 07-up size to save the cases from being trash and needed to be replaced. Just a useless bit of information.

Glad to hear your build was a success!

 

New to HD Forums (been an reader for years, this is my first post). The more I read, learn and experience twin cams, the more I like my old EVO (1994 FLHTCU w/150K miles). Just dropped my 2006 FLHTCUSE off at the shop earlier this week when my oil pressue had dropped to half what it normally ran. Went by last night and the front inner cam bearing had disinegrated, destroyed the cams, cam plate, oil pump and will only know what else when they finish the teardown. Fortunately, when I bought it used with 10K miles two years ago, I purchased a three year extended warranty. The warranty, before this incident, has paid for itself nealry twice over. The bike now has about 36K miles on it. Good thing I didn't do Sturgis again this year.

 

Glad to hear you are out riding again and welcome from New Mexico!

 

Yeah. Mmmmm. Uhuh. Riiiiiiight.

A twinkie does NOT need gear drive cams. The late style with hydraulic tensioner works great! Plus it's more quiet and cheap than gear drive.

The only time gear drive is appropriate in a late model twin cam is when the crank has been welded and trued.

 

I opened mine up at arounf 50000 miles to do cames and the tensioners were about 90% good so i left them in ... now at 73000 and i won't inspect them again until at least 125000... maybe 100000 bur that 2 more years maybe 3...Ain't worried about it and by then i will get some work done.. 07 and newer have the better cam tensioners in them...I have never cut a filter open... i know there is some **** in there and i just change the oil and filter and keep truckin....