Average Life of Hydraulic Cam Chain Tensioners

[SP33DY]

I'm working on a Softail with about 50,000 miles on it. CVO 110, 100% stock except pipes. The outer tensioner shoe wore through to bare metal, chain broke, blew a hole in the cam cover, bent pushrods and valves. Pinion runout is 0.002".
I was just wondering if anyone else has seen the shoes wear out this fast. I have seen stock engines at close to 100,000 miles with tensioner shoes that were still in functional condition.

[Hybredhog]

How's the inner shoe? if it looked good, maybe there was an oil blockage for the outer, or a bur on the  chain. Seems there would be plenty of splash & oil fog in the area?

[SP33DY]

The inner shoe has grooves worn into it 0.030" deep, outer is 0.095" deep.

[rigidthumper]

Stuck bypass valve in the cam plate? Excess oil pressure can cause premature wear on the guides.

[SP33DY]

Bypass blows off at 65#

[rigidthumper]

Hmmm...

[MikeL]

You kind of wonder where all that plastic and damage metal ends up, you hope the filter but we all know the filter doesn't filter 100%. Perfect time with .002 run out to install gear cams and change out the inner cam bearings.

                                                                                                                                                                     MIKE

[FSG]

The outer tensioner shoe wore through to bare metal

was that tensioner assembled correctly ?

EDIT: add pic for other viewers

[Billy]

The outer tensioner shoe wore through to bare metal

was that tensioner assembled correctly ?

My thought exactly.

[SP33DY]

was that tensioner assembled correctly ?

Maybe not!

When I removed the shoe from the casting it rides in, four items fell out. The inner piston, the small stamped metal seat that the spring rides on, the spring, and a 0.118" ball. I have had the piston and spring come out before, that's normal, but never saw the spring seat and check ball fall out. The oil feed to the tensioner in the cam plate is clear also. At this point, I think the assembly was defective and caused the tensioner to fail.