So I'm looking at a 1986 FXRS with under 10k miles on it. It's nice, clean, has a little pealing chrome, but overall it's nice. It runs and rides great. My only concern is the primary. It has a belt conversion in the original primary cover. I'm not real familiar with them. Are the reliable?

 

I have not run a belt primary. I have seen a lot of people that have, back in the day, usually with issues. Most recently, about 2 years ago a guy with a shovelhead was broke down on the side of the road pulling bits of belt out of the inspection cover in his primary. I offered to get my truck, but he thought that if he got all the loose cogs out of there, it would last long enough to get him the mile or two home. I'm sure there are some that have reliably run them.

 

The only problem with a belt primary is they will fail without warning...A chain primary will usually give you a lot of warning of a problem in the form of noise.

If you have a enclosed belt you need to pop the cover off once a year and have a look...which is easy since there is no oil.

Changing it back to a chain is not a big deal.

 

 

From my observations of others, yeah, the belt fails. There was one kit out there that had an idle bearing. That failed too, which took out the belt. "Some say" that having the belt in an enclosed primary is not a good thing for the belt, as heat builds up and has no way to get out.

Yeah, should be pretty easy to change back. New sprocket and clutch hub (which are available), new chain, timing chain tensioner, throw some oil in there and that's about it. Otherwise, for your uses, shouldn't be a problem. You might want to inspect the inner primary pretty close. Why did someone put a belt on a bike with less than 10K miles on it?

 

 

I had a belt primary in my shovel head.....I ran a vented cover so the heat could escape an never had a problem but I didn't do a ton of miles on it.

 

I looked into a belt for my FXR years ago. I have heard nothing but bad things about them. The only guy I've met who liked his didn't mind replacing it preemptively regularly. I don't consider that a gain.

I would dump that belt ASAP replaced with a genuine Harley chain system, no Chicom.

 

Like said it has to be vented.
This is not a proper forum for asking about belt experiences.
Everyone I know is quite satisfied with them.

 

As long as the old belt is showing no signs of wear from misalignment ...just put a new belt on it...it will give you many years of bar hopping.