| Author | Message | ||
     Grand |
My 1st belt snapped at 10,000 miles when I had just bought the Uly. Fitted a new belt and free spirits tensioner. 2nd belt has snapped at 20,000. This has me thinking of selling the bike as the belts are pricey, and being stuck sucks. Shame as can't see any bikes I'd prefer at the moment. Both times its happened are similar. Cold bike, cold day (not close to freezing though). Bike was slightly pointing uphill too. Clunking from neutral to 1st. Searched on forum and have loosened primary chain a bit more although it was about 3/4" already. Levelled bike up accurately and took some oil out. Hoped these 2 would lessen the clunk but doesn't seem any different. For the past couple of years I have been turning bike round and rolling down hill before slicking it into gear when getting bike out of garage. This 2nd time it's snapped I was on a camping trip. I am now warming bike up, turning off and restarting with clutch pulled in. PITA Is the clunky 1st gear a general problem with XB's or just this one (2010 XB12XT)? I had a S1 for 10 years, had a lovely slick gearbox never needed a new belt. Is there a lighter gearbox oil that lets clutch disengage better? (Message edited by Grand on March 09, 2019) (Message edited by Grand on March 09, 2019) | ||
| Ourdee |
Belt breaking from all the down shifting and engine braking. Belt to make bike go. Brakes to make it slow. Engine braking puts a load on the belt where it bends backwards over the idler pulley. The loading at clunk time just finishes the tearing of the already damaged belt. | ||
| Grand |
Thinking of drilling out the belt tensioner mount holes to ease the strain on the belt a bit more. Anyone had problems from XB belt being too loose? | ||
| Ourdee |
I run mine loose enough that I can turn the idler pulley by hand. | ||
| Teeps |
Changed the belt on my '06 @ 28k miles because during a tire change I found a rock had poked a hole through it. I used light to moderate compression braking all the time. So much that people riding behind me would ask if the brake light was working... (Message edited by teeps on March 09, 2019) | ||
| Tootal |
Sorry to hear of your belt issues. I haven't had a belt break. I did replace it at around 20,000 miles but kept the old one as a spare and now have 30,000 on the new one. If you get a real jerk when shifting into first then your clutch is not disengaging. It sounds like my old dirt bikes that have sat for a while, they would take off or die with the clutch in until it finally would break free. What primary/trans fluid are you running? Could you put the bike in first, pull the clutch and then start it to see if there is drag? I'm thinking fluid or adjustment. | ||
| Smorris |
that is not normal. well the clunk into 1st is normal--but not to break a belt. since it is a 2010 should have the "F" , updated belt. take a look at both the front and rear pulley. the rear pulley has special coating on the mating surface ,IIRC, or are either nicked, leaving a ridge or sharp edge? also inspect the broken belts. frayed along the edges? missing teeth? punctures? also follow Tootals suggested area of inquiry. Correct adjustment is less clunky. | ||
| Ourdee |
Teeps, I doubt you shock loaded the belt consistently. My guess would be that you operate your clutch smoothly to keep the rear end from breaking traction. I broke belts after sessions of abuse. | ||
| Grand |
Using Formula+ gear fluid Bike starts with clutch pulled in ok, slight drag. Not heard of an "F" belt before, I assume thats what what was on it for 1st 10.000. "take a look at both the front and rear pulley. the rear pulley has special coating on the mating surface ,IIRC, or are either nicked, leaving a ridge or sharp edge? " Broken belt doesn't show any signs of wear to the teeth, but the rear pulley does have quite a bit of the black coating missing, could this make the belt weaker? | ||
| Smorris |
The "f" belt was an updated version. It is the designation as a part #, which is printed on the belt. I think the rear pulley had a Teflon type coating on the contact surface, strangely not on the front pulley. Do not know how beneficial the coating is.nicks, or damage to either pulley on contact surface will deteriorate the belt. I use same fluid and change every 10k | ||
| Ourdee |
Front is steel and wears well. Aluminum rear pulley likes some help for wear. | ||
| Teeps |
Ourdee Posted on Saturday, March 09, 2019 Teeps, I doubt you shock loaded the belt consistently. My guess would be that you operate your clutch smoothly to keep the rear end from breaking traction. I broke belts after sessions of abuse. You would be absolutely correct. While I didn't exactly baby the bike; the thought of belt breakage was always in my head. | ||
| Etennuly |
Two things to consider. 1 front engine isolator, 2 rear engine isolator. The engine/trans assembly literally hang from them. If they are bad enough the tight belt can suffer suspension limit max out. I learned this from feeling a vibration with the bike loaded too heavy while riding through a dip. Did a lot of study on this phenomenon trying to find the source of the vibration at full rear spring compression. Engine on, off, clutch in, out etc. Found it to be my load was about 100 lbs over the bikes gross load capacity. My thought for your situation is this. The front isolators have been good to about 10,000 miles for me. When they get real bad and you max out the suspension you are going beyond the rubber isolator it hits metal to metal. It could cause a shock to the belt going from rubber isolation to sudden metal stop. I have not babied my 06 much at all. I only wheelie on first gear throttle hammer, up shift hard and down shift hard. My first belt broke at 33,000 miles, rode up my driveway stopped for traffic, as I was taking off it squirted the rubber snake out the back. My second belt broke at about 63,000 miles. I was riding home from a 60 mile trip. I stopped at the cross over on the divided four lane just above my driveway. I took off, first gear no problem, shifted to second and revved but no acceleration. Squirted another rubber snake. Both times it was a coast back to my shop deal. Yep, living lucky there! This new upgraded belt has been so extremely tight it was making the output shaft bearings noisy with too much side pressure. Mine has the upgraded stronger bearings unit. I drilled the holes in the tensioner to relieve some pressure making the overload noise be much reduced. | ||
| Grand |
Bike has been treated carefully from new. No overloading or wheelies. No unusual vibration. Belt is very tight though, its hard to put tensioner back on even with rear wheel loosened. | ||
| Steveford |
There shouldn't be a clunk. I adjust the clutch, lube the cable and grease the pivot and barrel once every 5,000 miles. I'm on my 4th belt at 127,000 miles although one of them was used. Last new belt wasn't tight as a banjo string, either, so maybe they changed the design a bit. | ||
| Tempest766 |
2008 XT with 43000 miles and still on the original belt. Upon inspection it still looks really good too. The idler pulley can now be turned by hand as the belt has stretched a little bit. My Uly never really had the advertised torque though, and I'm not a wheely rider. It's sitting idle this winter, in need of its THIRD VR. The feejer is a much more reliable ride, especially for longer distance and hotter days. | ||
| Grand |
Is there any other gear fluid that is less sticky? Or could there be something wrong with the clutch plates? Could a flaking rear pulley affect belt strength? Checked belt that came off again, it looks unworn really. Could there be anything wrong inside clutch/gearbox that could be making it clunk? Maybe 10.000 miles of clunk, even though I've been doing my best to avoid one by rolling down hill at 1st start, had gradually made a weak spot in belt, again. Maybe I've just got a bad one although I think its great to ride. I'll probably keep it until it snaps again. All the alternative bikes I like are a more than I want to pay, or not yet released, so I'll wait a couple of years. | ||
| Ourdee |
Quite a few of us own a spare belt. I pack one every time the ride will be 100 miles out. Just saying. | ||
| Etennuly |
I think you are over thinking it. Formula + is the debated best for the primary juice. Hate buying from the HD steelers, but it makes it so smooth shifting. I think I'd drill the holes on the idler a bit. | ||
| Tootal |
He has the Free Spirits tensioner on it so you would think it would be okay. No Harley/Buell I've owned ever snicks into gear. Mine all clunk! If you're buying factory belts then I have no idea what could cause the problem unless you just got a couple of bad belts. I know my luck goes down that road occasionally! If the clunk is so bad then I'd try starting it in gear with the clutch in and see if that helps. | ||
| Grand |
Yeah I have been starting it in gear,until ridden awhile. Also started going into 1st instead of neutral when coming up to lights and holding clutch in. I have been carrying a spare belt in camping luggage for 3 years, for some reason I took the belt out the weekend it snapped. Had the belt hanging in my garage, got a breakdown to take me home, put belt on and went back to campsite same day, left tent up as only 2 hour ride away. I had a practice of changing the belt with the tools I carry, couldn’t undo tensioner so added another spanner to kit. I wouldn’t like to change belt without taking tensioner off as it’s so tight I think I would damage belt. Don’t expect belt would have broken if I hadn’t for some odd reason taken the spare out of my bag | ||
| Froggy |
The tensioner doesn't need to be touched to install or remove the belt, I've done it on the side of the road no problem. Remove belt guards, loosen footpeg mount, remove axle pinch bolt, loosen axle (about 15 turns will get it out most of the way without detaching it), remove swingarm brace, remove belt. Reverse to reassemble. Since you won't have a torque wrench to properly torque it, just do it good and snug and then redo the axle properly when you get home. | ||
| Grand |
I’ve read before that belt can be changed without removing tensioner, thought I would try it this way but belt was so tight that to just get a couple of mm of belt width on to a couple of rear sprocket teeth and wind wheel forward to get the rest on just seemed like it was going to damage belt or swing arm with strengthening removed, the angle and forces involved were a lot, like trying to get a tyre on a rim. I guess some belts or buells have more slack. Even with tensioner removed and wheel loosened the belt was hard to get on the two sprockets, and really tight to get tensioner back in. (Message edited by Grand on March 12, 2019) | ||
| Grand |
My S1 belt was run very loose as recommended, can the xb be run without tensioner? Or is the design not allow for it? Might be worth experimenting to see if clunk is from tight belt. | ||
| Steveford |
It is designed to be run with the idler wheel. | ||
| Grand |
Has anyone tried it? Just thinking what could go wrong, belt is not lasting long as it is. Is there a reason Buell changed from a slack to tight belts? Even without the tensioner wheel belt is probably tighter than my S1 was, it was "scary loose", as I have read it should be. Would really like to keep the bike but losing confidence in this one, I know most don't have a problem with the belt, I didn't with my old Buell. Don't think chain is way to go. Think I will sell and get something different if belt snaps in next 10,000. (Message edited by Grand on March 13, 2019) | ||
| Ourdee |
I think the manufacturer of the belts had something in their process that changed. | ||
| Steveford |
I think they changed the process again as my last new belt went on easily. The original on my 06 lasted over 50,000 miles and I'm sure it would have gone longer if the TPS hadn't developed slop which was making the bike buck and surge until I figured out the problem. I can relate to the frustration, though. The last one snapped on a really busy highway during rush hour, 40 miles from home, as a 12 hour torrential rain was moving in. I put both of my Buells up for sale, the X1W sold, I bought a 6th Triumph triple (yeah, I know...) and eventually cooled off and fixed the Useless. So far, so good but it's only been 1500 miles. | ||
| Arry |
I've never had a Free Spirits, but isn't the concept to provide constant belt tension throughout the suspension travel? Can you adjust the spring tension? Is it pivoting properly? I don't think my bike does a hard "clunk" into gear (a little when cold, but not severe). There are two adjustments for the clutch, the cable, and the adj screw on the center of the clutch. You are probably aware of this, but just checking. | ||
| Smorris |
the free spirits is adjustable for spring tension, The bearings in the tensioner wheel also have to be replaced about every 20-30K. I have a free spirits on #1 xb12x and it requires maintenance(very tiny needle grease zerts) also verify installed correctly as it can contact ? i forget what it can come in contact with but that is why is comes with shims and some people how found the need to grind some material off of it. i can scan the installation instructions if you need them, as i am sure i have them in my shop notes. It gets thoroughly serviced at least every tire change |
