Baker or .... ?

[fbn ent]

Friend wants to know.....Baker (barely used) or the latest and greatest SE compensator. '08 Flt

[Ohio HD]

SE is much better, they are holding up pretty well since the last revision. 2008 will need a new alternator rotor too.

[Thermodyne]

Baker has a new design to their compensator, and I don't know how well its holding up.  The original and its revisions do not hold up well.  I've killed on and its replacement is raising hell.  All in less than 10K miles.

[fbn ent]

Well, there you go. Thanks!

[jsachs1]

The BAKER stuff is HORRIBLE. Pure JUNK.
John

[Admiral Akbar]

As far as I can tell, the M8 comp looks like it will fit. Many of the parts are the same. Cam and sprocket have much wider rubbing surfaces.  Much better than the later TC one.  Anyone tried to see if it will actually fit?  27000 miles on one in an M8 and it's as quiet as the day the bike was new.

[road-dawgs1]

I'm surprised there was such hoopla and raving over Baker products and now everyone claims their stuff is junk. I'm sure glad I never bit on one of their compensators or tensioners for my 08 when I had it.

[Billy]

As far as I can tell, the M8 comp looks like it will fit. Many of the parts are the same. Cam and sprocket have much wider rubbing surfaces.  Much better than the later TC one.  Anyone tried to see if it will actually fit?  27000 miles on one in an M8 and it's as quiet as the day the bike was new.

The M8 sliding cam is prone to breaking with HP in the 130-140+ range. I believe it's thinner in the valley area, maybe due to the wider rubbing surface.

Pics in this thread.

http://harleytechtalk.com/htt/index.php/topic,108045.0/all.html

[Coverdog]

Baker has a new design to their compensator, and I don't know how well its holding up.  The original and its revisions do not hold up well.  I've killed on and its replacement is raising hell.  All in less than 10K miles.

But yet I see guys on forums in line waiting for months to get one. I can’t figure that one out, they must think it’s Baker it’s good? I put in a SE and am very happy so far.

[rbabos]

Baker has a new design to their compensator, and I don't know how well its holding up.  The original and its revisions do not hold up well.  I've killed on and its replacement is raising hell.  All in less than 10K miles.

But yet I see guys on forums in line waiting for months to get one. I can't figure that one out, they must think it's Baker it's good? I put in a SE and am very happy so far.

It's pretty hard to beat the current HD offering for both taking shock loads out and now, finally lasting.
Ron

[Admiral Akbar]

As far as I can tell, the M8 comp looks like it will fit. Many of the parts are the same. Cam and sprocket have much wider rubbing surfaces.  Much better than the later TC one.  Anyone tried to see if it will actually fit?  27000 miles on one in an M8 and it's as quiet as the day the bike was new.

The M8 sliding cam is prone to breaking with HP in the 130-140+ range. I believe it's thinner in the valley area, maybe due to the wider rubbing surface.

Pics in this thread.

http://harleytechtalk.com/htt/index.php/topic,108045.0/all.html

I've seen some breakage also.   Still the are motors with those parts hanging together.  The part looks forged so I would expect when going higher power would be worthwhile to magnaflux and shot peen (or some other process) before assembly.

[Thermodyne]

I'm surprised there was such hoopla and raving over Baker products and now everyone claims their stuff is junk. I'm sure glad I never bit on one of their compensators or tensioners for my 08 when I had it.

Baker had a good reputation.  Then they expanded into new areas.  The compensator is something I bet they wish they never drew up on a piece of paper.

I'll never buy another "new" product from them.  As said above, I need to replace the comp that they gave me to replace the first comp that failed.  And I have an twisted Attitude adjuster that they never even responded to when I complained about it failing. 

[rbabos]

I'm surprised there was such hoopla and raving over Baker products and now everyone claims their stuff is junk. I'm sure glad I never bit on one of their compensators or tensioners for my 08 when I had it.

Baker had a good reputation.  Then they expanded into new areas.  The compensator is something I bet they wish they never drew up on a piece of paper.

I'll never buy another "new" product from them.  As said above, I need to replace the comp that they gave me to replace the first comp that failed.  And I have an twisted Attitude adjuster that they never even responded to when I complained about it failing.

The way I see it is ,it was rushed to the market without ample testing. They were told the original oiling concept wouldn't work but fk no, don't listen to those idiots.  Must have taken a page from the HD manual on that one. Same with the original manual chain tensioner. Hit the market too fast without enough rough testing.  I don't know if it's been updated to prevent bending or not.  Their latest comp design looks better in regards to oiling but the springs in my view, why bother. A spring that bottoms too soon can cause some major crank impacting, almost worse then no comp. There's a reason the former SE, now stock comps  springs are so huge. Even they will bottom out under high loads but the running start is less to hit bottom.
Ron

[Jim Bronson]

A friend of mine is on the fence about this too. Now I have some advice to give him thanks to HTT. 

[jmorton10]

Same with the original manual chain tensioner. Hit the market too fast without enough rough testing.  I don't know if it's been updated to prevent bending or not. 

It's been updated & it's still a piece of crap.

I had one installed when they came out with an updated version called the "armored attitude adjuster".  It was supposed to cure all the bending problems etc. of the original.  They where selling an upgrade kit also to convert the original POS to the new version.  I was a sucker & bought the upgrade kit which added another layer of support to the original setup.

I took my primary off a few days ago to remove a defective Baker DD7 tranny & found the new attitude adjuster parts broken in 1/2 & being ground up in the primary.

~John

[rbabos]

Same with the original manual chain tensioner. Hit the market too fast without enough rough testing.  I don't know if it's been updated to prevent bending or not. 

It's been updated & it's still a piece of crap.

I had one installed when they came out with an updated version called the "armored attitude adjuster".  It was supposed to cure all the bending problems etc. of the original.  They where selling an upgrade kit also to convert the original POS to the new version.  I was a sucker & bought the upgrade kit which added another layer of support to the original setup.

I took my primary off a few days ago to remove a defective Baker DD7 tranny & found the new attitude adjuster parts broken in 1/2 & being ground up in the primary.

~John

Oh. I guess that settles that question then.
Ron

[Thermodyne]

Same with the original manual chain tensioner. Hit the market too fast without enough rough testing.  I don't know if it's been updated to prevent bending or not. 

It's been updated & it's still a piece of crap.

I had one installed when they came out with an updated version called the "armored attitude adjuster".  It was supposed to cure all the bending problems etc. of the original.  They where selling an upgrade kit also to convert the original POS to the new version.  I was a sucker & bought the upgrade kit which added another layer of support to the original setup.

I took my primary off a few days ago to remove a defective Baker DD7 tranny & found the new attitude adjuster parts broken in 1/2 & being ground up in the primary.

~John

Here's the Armored tensioner.  Note the bent piece of armor.

[skunk]

Same with the original manual chain tensioner. Hit the market too fast without enough rough testing.  I don't know if it's been updated to prevent bending or not. 

It's been updated & it's still a piece of crap.

I had one installed when they came out with an updated version called the "armored attitude adjuster".  It was supposed to cure all the bending problems etc. of the original.  They where selling an upgrade kit also to convert the original POS to the new version.  I was a sucker & bought the upgrade kit which added another layer of support to the original setup.

I took my primary off a few days ago to remove a defective Baker DD7 tranny & found the new attitude adjuster parts broken in 1/2 & being ground up in the primary.

~John

John,
     Not sure if my DD7 is coming out or not this winter(will be revisiting my 1-2 and 2-3 upshift issues with Baker again now that riding days are getting limited) but I think I will open the primary and inspect my "Armored Tensioner ". Thank you for the heads up on your findings.

Thermodyne,
   Thank you for the great pictures

[jmorton10]

Here's the Armored tensioner.  Note the bent piece of armor.

Mine broke in 2 pieces right in the middle of where that one is bent.

~John

[Propflux01]

What would be causing this? The product itself? The adjustment too loose/tight?

[rbabos]

What would be causing this? The product itself? The adjustment too loose/tight?

High decel loads mostly. That's when the chain tries to go straight on the bottom, pushing whatever is in it's way to do so.
Ron

[Thermodyne]

What would be causing this? The product itself? The adjustment too loose/tight?

High decel loads mostly. That's when the chain tries to go straight on the bottom, pushing whatever is in it's way to do so.
Ron

To be sure its decal loads, or engine braking.  But since the oem part tolerates the same loads without issue, the blame is in a poorly engineered part.  The reinforcement is nothing more than a Band-Aid. 

Now with that said, this is not the only worthless primary chain tensioner out on the market.  And there have been some much better manual tensioners introduce since the Baker was shown to be lacking.