I removed the rear wheel from my 2005 Deuce and had the tire replaced. Everything went back together with no problems. Even used the permatex anti-seize compound that I read about on this forum. Couple of questions: How do I check the drive belt deflection without a tension gauge that the book recommends? Also, how can I be certain that the left and right side adjusters are set the same so that the wheel is straight?

thanks in advance!

 

Twist the belt with the bike on the lift and you should be able to twist it to a 45* angle. I amkr my adjsutr bolts with a sharpie before loosening them so i know how much to tighten them, but you can count the threads or measure with a ruler to see that they are at the same spot on both sides.

Drew

 

If you can lift the belt 1/2" ( and no more,) with 10 lbs of pressure equi-distant between the pulleys, your good to go,

 

It's tough to gauge the 10 lbs with your finger scale. The tool is only like $15.00 or so. I thought I thought I had mine pretty close or maybe a little loose. I found when checking it with the actual scale, I had it way too tight!

 

Seems like I get mine adjusted perfectly with the tension tool and then it loosens up over time. I looked the other day and it can move quite a bit and I just reset it less than 2,000 miles ago. I am thinking that since I am a hefty guy (250) that it will just loosen up again. I did notice when I sit on the bike it tightens up so I let it go.

 

Even with the tool, I adjusted it too tight and it broke on me. I'd heard of the 45 degree trick and manually checked the new belt to get a feel for it.

 

broke belt on my sporty a few yrs. ago. took broke belt with me to dealer & the mechanic said that most likely it broke because it wasn't tight enough. bought the $15 tension gauge. throw away the instructions that come with the tension gauge & use the specs. in your service manual!
ride safe!
bryan in tx.

 

I also have a 2005 Deuce and just finished doing a rear tire change, belt deflection and tracking alignment ten minutes ago. Belt adjustment for correct tightness acording to the book is to sit on the bike and press upward at the springiest spot on the belt with 10lbs of upward pressure while looking for 3/8 to 5/16 upward movement.

If you take a ruler and eyeball what 3/8 movement of your belt entails it is not a whole lot of movement. I can sit on my bike and feel what seems like about 3/8 movement when I reach down and squish the belt upwards. And just to be sure I also sit next to the belt and try to twist the belt and I get about 45 degrees of twist one handed. As I have read that more damage is done by belts that are too loose than those slightly too tight I would say that's good enough to go.

What you are trying to do is keep the belt solid on the sproket but not so damn tight you prematurely wear out the transmission bearings because you used Godzilla strength when you tightened it. Make sense? I figure if the belt has a slight amount of squish and can't be twisted too easily then I'm done and can go worry about something else.

All this belt tightening has to be complicated by the fact that you have to simultaneously check that the back wheel is tracking exactly the same direction as the front wheel. If it is off by even a hair your handling will feel crooked. And forget about feeling happy on the highway at 90.

For the last 45 years I have been getting both wheels to agree by using the "twine taped to the rear tire" method. I take a long piece of string and tape it around the back of the rear tire kindof low so that the string is sitting across the lower flat sides of the rear tire when I pull the slack out of the string from up front. I will lay on the ground by the front tire and first get the front tire to point at the center of the rear tire. Then I pull the string tight on each side of the rear wheel and as it just barely hits the front edge of the rear tire and is then "straight" I compare which side of the string is further away from the sides of my front tire. If one side has a bigger string gap than the other that means the rear tire is pointing crooked. So I adjust the axel adjusters until both strings are equally far away from the sides of my front tire.

It's simple geometry. If the string is pointing straight off the rear tire it will tell you if the tire is crooked in relationship to the front wheel. Other folks go to the Home Depot and buy two eight foot flourescent lightbulbs and lay them along the edge of the rear tire and look see if they can get the rear tire squared up with the front tire using the bulbs as a guide. Same idea, different straightedge.

Personally I would bust those bulbs in five minutes if I had them laying around my garage...thus I go for the slightly more involved but less breakable "string method."

So you keep going back and forth straightening the rear tire to the front one and continually checking to see that the belt drive tension is also perfect. It takes time but once you get the hang of the routine it is no more than an hour to get it absolutely perfect and double checked to boot.

The payoff is your bike is now completely 100% centered wheel-wise and on the road you should feel an amazing amount of stability in your bike's perfection of its tracking. Plus your belt is nice and snug and shouldn't hop off the sprocket.

Brand new my Deuce was delivered to me with the rear wheel completely crooked as set up by the factory. New my scoot tracked like crap. It felt like the bike wanted to fall over on one side. An hour later...bingo.

Oh by the way the same goes for adjusting the steering neck bearings to remove excessive looseness and "35 MPH wobble." Getting this adjustment so that the forks feel unable to flop over for the middle two inches of swing will really improve how confident you feel at 90. Again the factory delivered my new Deuce so loose that the forks were wobbling if I took my hands off the bars at 35-40 mph. And forget about how it felt at high speed.

Getting the neck, the wheel alignment and the belt tension set are three things any Harley rider should be able to do in their sleep. Your ride will depend on whether these thing are perfect...

Yeah it is work, but sooo worth doing perfectly. And only you will know it is perfect. You won't need the Harley shop to tell you "we did it right." You will KNOW it is right.

 

Well, this first post has to top all of them...quite an introduction!

Welcome, and without a doubt, thank you very much.

 

Hi Drew
is that done with all weight on the rear tire or with it off the ground?
Thanks

Rob