I learned this morning I dodged a bullet. I knew about the cam tensioners but what I didn't know about is a flaw with the crank in the twin cam 88s. The early ones 99-2002 had Timken bearings on both sides of the crank, 2003 on, including the later M8 engines, had a flat roller on the sprocket side. The Timkens provided better support than the flat roller. The later ones tended to slip on the crank pin causing the flywheels to become uneven eventually destroying the engine. Making them so damaged nothing can be salvaged for a rebuild. Mine is a 2000 with the Timken bearings. Much less likely to slip on the crank pin unless I go trying to get as much as I can out of it like a big bore etc... They used the flat roller through the twin cam models al the way until they stopped production up through the end of the M8 never correcting the problem. The flat Roller was done to simplify and speed up production that way they could just drop the case on the crank never owning up to the catastrophic engine failure issue just like the cam chain tensioners. Both should have been a recall. They sold a kit to change the flat roller back to a timkin like the early models. You could do that or buy an aftermarket crank from S&S or Andrews before you had an issue. Really crappy thing to do to your customer base. I really prefer my Triumphs. Never had catastrophic problems like that from the factory that I am aware of except maybe that starter boss issue but I know quite a few of those out there still going strong. mine and Wendys for 2. I have the safe start but never installed it.
Last edited by The_Dog33; 06/26/2025 8:02 PM.
