Yea. I agree. I didn't check the runout when I did my tw-555's. I never thought to do gear drive. The tensioners on my 12 103 look well designed. Don't see the point in switching to gears. Doing the 107" kit and heads now and I'm tempted to check but in reality I'm not gonna rip it all apart even if it is out of spec. I'm gonna ride it...

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It is highly unlikely your crank run-out will meet .0035 or less required to go gears. Replace the original shoes with Zippers/Red Shift tensioners.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...58187178,d.aWc

 

My tensioners were toast at 20k miles. Went to gear drive and so far so good. Quiet after about 5k miles. Crank run out is key. If too much ,excessive wear and noise are on tap.

 

+1 what grbrown said

 

.003" is max runout recommended to run gear driven cams.

The thing I don't like about the later OEM cam plate is that the outer cam journals run in the parent material of the cam plate. I have seen a few that showed excessive wear after performance cams were installed; not many but enough that I would not run performance cams in the later OEM cam plate in one of my bikes but that's just a personal thing; plenty are running performance cams in the later OEM plate apparently with no issues.

If the OP decides to upgrade the cam chest he could do it with the 25282-11 kit with billet plate and higher capacity oil pump or gear drive, if the selected cams are available in gear drive. Gear drive setup would cost a bit more, so, assuming runout is within limits, it's a personal choice. Certainly more work to setup; the 25282-11 kit is caveman simple to install.

No worries on lifters. With roller lifters it is not necessary to install new lifters with new cams; again, a personal choice. If the lifters have 35K mile or so on them, replacing them would be a smart thing to do. No need to break the bank on lifters, CompCams VThunder lifters and the new CYCO lifters are less than $60 a set to your door. JMHO.

 

As far as I know you can't go gear driven in SE cams. That makes that choice a bit easier.

 

Typo?

 

I did the screamin' eagle update with the hydraulic tensioners and used S&W cams on my TC88. I have 30k plus miles on them with no regrets and zero problems. I'd probably do it again if I had to.

 

(EDIT : I meant three thousandths below ,not thirty!)

.0030" ( thirty thousandths,) is the original acceptable run out on the 99 -02 twin cams with the hot forged crank supported by the Timken Left taperes bearings per Harley Davidson. Somehow (?) Harley now says that the weaker, later cranks have a new tolerance of .012" ( 4 times as great.)

But I do have the good motor, so I have gear drive cams installed Jan '11 at 81,000 miles and still going strong 3 years later at 140,000 plus, and still running the original cam plate and oil pump.

I wouldn't have it any other way with my bike but later models would do well to stay with the hydraulic tensioners IMO when doing a cam upgrade.

 

I have checked 1 2007 flhx 1 08 ultra and 1 09 flhx all the cranks between .040 and .045 run out so we all just put the chains and tensioners back on. another friend has an 05 police bike it also had .040 run out he put chain drives in and they are noisey kinda a whiney sound.