Changing cam tensioners, do I have to remove cams?

[rossl]

I've got 45,000 miles on my 04.  I remember reading that there is a way to change both tensioners without removing the cams.  Is this true?  How do your the rear one off/on without removing the cams from the plate?

[Bear]

As near as I know the cams have to come out.          Dave

[RK101]

Don't see how you could do it without taking them out. Good time to up grade those inner bearings as long as you have the cams out.

[Faast Ed]

We banged our heads on the wall trying to pull that off last winter on a freinds bike. He even made a special tool.

In the end we had to pull the cams off the plate to install the inner tensioner.

[Herko]

Ditto.
You'll spend more time trying to save time.
Cams out of the plate.
New inner and outer bearings...done right.

[RK101]

As long as you're in there, might as well put new upgraded cams in also.  Perfect time to do it. 

[rossl]

That's what I thought......................

[NtTrain]

DO NOT mix the camplate and cam cover bolts.

[Six Blues]

I think you can only inspect the inner without removing the plate, but you can't change it.

[FSG]

DO NOT mix the camplate and cam cover bolts.

+1 here and be careful torquing #1 and #2 cam plate bolts which go through alignment dowels only the tip of the bolt bites into threads.  A comparison pic is below with the blue box being the thread engagement and the lower bolt being through a dowel.

If your interested there's another thread active on the use of studs in place of the bolts in the dowel locations.

[jazzman713]

im getting ready to change over to the new cam conversion kit this road king only has 6000 miles on it should i change out the inner and outer bearings as well being that we will be in there if so what kind do you use and how much are they thanks

[Faast Ed]

There are no 'outer' bearings on the new style cams.

I'd change the inners because they don't cost much ($7 each), your cams will be out of the way, and the new bearings are built better than the oem bearings.