02 Ultra - 35K. I am not original owner. I did trace some work back through one of the dealers listed in the manual and THINK they have been replaced. What type of cost can I expect to have someone get in and check, and then if needed replace?

Thanks

 

$150-200 to check. They are going to try and talk you into doing a whole lot more though.

 

probably 2hr labor and gaskets. or a case of beer and a mirror and a flashlight

 

Humm sounds like dawg has some first hand knowledge on how the game is played.....how can one be sure they even checked em is my question? Not withstanding how dealership track record with willingly participating in misinformation and misrepresentation being all too common. I would have to do it myself before I would feel good about the condition of my tensioners. Sorry just thinking out loud what many will be thinking.

 

If you don't have a manual get one and check youtube for diy videos. It's pretty easy just to check them.

 

If you are considering changing cams now is the time.
All it cost me was price of cams, adjustable push rods, new tubes and $50 extra to have them installed while having my tensioners checked.
Like others has already said you can do em yourself. Not that hard.

 

just did mine, i had a leaky rocker box gasket so i pulled the tank to fix that so i didn't need new pushrods. had 46K on mine, front one was worn but fine, rear should have been done before last year at least! not to hard to do, i used the CYCO pads and gasket kit (ebay for about $80), some new bearings and minimal labor from indy guy and i feel i am good to go for another 30K easily. looked at cams and plate upgrade, but the "since you are in there" didn't pass the wife test. my bike is stock except slip ons, and by the time you add air cleaner, tuner, cams, new style support plate, etc, it becomes a pretty big bill, at least for me. sure is alot quieter now though.

 

The service wear limit on the pad material is 50%. Anything more than that and the tensioner should be replaced according to my '04 HD SM.

If you plan on keeping the bike, and ride a bit, I'd go ahead and have the tensioners replaced.

The problem with failed tensioners is that they go w/o warning, and that often means very expensive repair costs because the oil pump, cam plate are toast; metal may have migrated into the engine, etc.

Good luck.

Carl

 

TwoBlue, i also have an 02" glide. Mileage about the same. I'm doing the job right now. I decided to go the gear drive route, so I'm changing everything "while I'm in there". My inner tensioner was about half gone, but the outer was a hair from suicide, so I got lucky. Simple to check yourself and IMO not worth ponying up the hour or so labor cost. You'll just need a new cam cover gasket. Harley quoted me a price of $75 for each tensioner, but I didnt bother looking elsewhere for better prices. BTW, I found that my oil pump is pretty heavily scored, so its time for that too. It's gonna be a kick in the wallet by the time I'm done, but it'll be a new, or actually better than new w the gears. I cant for the life of me figure why HD just wont go back to gears like the EVO. I get the EPA noise stuff, but it seems screwed up to me to have a wear item like that inside the engine. I dont wanna do it again, so hopefully this will be it, and give my engine some more kick too.

 

I couldn't imagine that gears would be that much louder to frustrate the enviroment...

That being said I am gettting ready to check/change mine as soon as the last of my parts are delivered in the next week or so. I eleceted to retain the spring tensioners for now but upgrading my cams and replacing my lifters. My 05 has close to 40k on it but I have no idea if the PO or any dealer has serviced them so after reading up on it here, I figured I better get it done asap.