S&S gear drive cams

[gunmetal]

I just completed my cam upgrade on my 03 Fat Boy with a S&S gear drive kit. My bike has 8k miles on it and there was a noticable amount of wear on the tensioners. I installed the 510 kit with adjustable pushrods and a Power Commander III programmer. The bike seems to run much better and sounds awesome!!!

 

[Hoople]

Sounds Great.. While you had the engine semi torn down, did you happen to check crank run-out. I am thinking the earlier engines like yours have much better numbers than the current 96/103 engines. Just was collecting info on if that was a true theory.

 

[Charlies Harley]

I have to do the tensioners on my 06 softail and still can't decide on gear drive or hyd tensioner setup. Wanting to ask you if you have any gear whine and why you chose the gears.

 

[03hdfatboy]

I just completed my cam upgrade on my 03 Fat Boy with a S&S gear drive kit. My bike has 8k miles on it and there was a noticable amount of wear on the tensioners. I installed the 510 kit with adjustable pushrods and a Power Commander III programmer. The bike seems to run much better and sounds awesome!!!

I went to S&S gear drive when mine had 4K miles on it and I was supprized how worn the tensioners were. I love mine, you can tell it's gear drivin a little, but no where near as loud as some I've heard.
Oh and what Hoople said about the crank runout at 18K mine took out the cam plate, charging system and put a hurtin on my oil pump.

 

[trickydoc]

I just completed my cam upgrade on my 03 Fat Boy with a S&S gear drive kit. My bike has 8k miles on it and there was a noticable amount of wear on the tensioners. I installed the 510 kit with adjustable pushrods and a Power Commander III programmer. The bike seems to run much better and sounds awesome!!!

getting ready to do the same. can you answer some questions for me?
1. is your bike injected or carbed?
2. did you dyno tune or just install a map?
3. if you installed a map, what map did you use?
4. do you have stage one air cleaner, (Big Sucker) or other.
5. did you do exhaust work. headers or slip ons.

I already have the big sucker, slipons and PCIII. Thanks for any info
Wayne

 

[gunmetal]

I didn't check runout on my crankshaft, I haven't noticed any gear whine. My bike is a fuel injected model and the programmer I installed already had the map on it. I got it from a friend that had the same setup as mine. I also have a screamin' eagle air cleaner. hope this helps!

 

[trickydoc]

great thanks, that will help. your setup is a lot like mine. thanks again. cams are on the way will start the install mid of next week.

 

[gunmetal]

Do you have the tools for removing and installing inner cam bearings?
If not I suggest buying them because I couldn't get them out without destroying the bearing cage. If that happens needle bearings will fall into the bottom of the engine, so I purchased the tools before i screwed them up.