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General Topics/Tech TipsDiscussion on break in periods, rider comfort, seats and pad suggestions. Tech tips as they become available will be posted here.
Finished my cam install today and started her up (still winter here), sounds good. I still had my rear tire off the ground because of needing to bump the engine over for the cam change job. So while it was running, in neutral, my rear tire was turning because of the cold oil drag, and I noticed that my belt was still tracking on the right edge of the pulley. I had the rear wheel off in Dec. for a tire change and used my Motion Pro alignment tool when I aligned the rear wheel and adjusted the belt deflection. So today I figured I would give it another go, so I reset the belt deflection and realigned the rear wheel again. Belt is still up against the right side. I know I can shift it by playing with the left and right side adjusters but then my alignment would be off.
I know, I know, if my axle is evenly adjusted left and right, and my belt deflection is correct, don't worry about the tracking, but my last bike, 07 Eglide always tracked on the left/outside and Harley's in general usually ride on the left side. If the lip on the right edge of the pulley was as high as the left side, I probably wouldn't give it a second thought.
you never want the belt to track against the staked guard plate, if it has to ride let it be on the cast in flange. the cast in flange usually has a taper on the bottom to force the belt away so it does not radius climb. the staked side does not have this and also you can possible force that plate off, seen this a few times. if all is honky-dory the belt would ride center of the pulley. hd is not spec'd tight as a drum and a lot of things come into play from mfg, setup and owner maintenance. because of this it is a compromise, not a perfect world, you might get it all, you might get wheel alignment but not tracking and vise-versa. you might have to split the diff, tire tracking is not all it is cracked up to be, aka, not a spot on thing that is demanded or else. i worry about other things and after 63 years riding tire tracking wasn't one of them.
HD's are designed to track to the left due to a slight taper to the front pulley.
Roll bike forward and tracks to the left or the outside. , roll bike backwards belt tracks to the inside or right.
HD's are designed to track to the left due to a slight taper to the front pulley.
Roll bike forward and tracks to the left or the outside. , roll bike backwards belt tracks to the inside or right.
I know that, that's why I made the post, because it was tracking to the right.
My alignment is bang on, so now I'll have to turn my right side adjuster in and my left side adjuster out until the belt tracks correctly to the left.
Hopefully it won't take much, since the tire is currently centered in the swing arm and now I'm going to nudge it to the right.
Last edited by roussfam; Mar 17, 2026 at 06:14 PM.
Adjust the both sides rear adjusters until the belt tracks slightly to the left when the rear wheel is spun forward. If handling OK then be happy. If not then you need to mod spacers.
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Drive Belt Tracking
