Last week I picked up a 2004 H-D Fat boy with 41K miles the bike made the 2.5 hour ride home without an issue. I was a bit worried about the timing chain tensioner issue and the former owner said he did not do anything to the bike besides changing the engine and trans oil. So I decided to remove the cover and have a look, not bad in my opinion but I would like a second opinion.
Outer shows pitting.
Inner seems as thick as the front one but have not been able to see the face.
WWGRMD?
Thanks, Paul
I would probably replace the tensioner shoes this winter. I'd use the cyclo shoes myself.
The inner tensioner wears faster than the outet, owing to the (poor) design. The outer shoe trails the chain motion, the inner shoe leads, and wedges as a result, creating much higher drag and wear.
As long as I was replacing the tensioners, I'd consider doing the inner cam bearing. Mine had a little damage on one of the cam bearing surfaces.
Yeah, like FT says, I'd replace that too. And HD inner cam bearings post about 1992 are not as strong as the earlier ones. Use one of the earlier ones that has more rollers.
Put an oil cooler on it so the new stuff lasts longer.
