Perhaps some of you cats out there can point me in the right direction. I recently replaced my inner primary seals, the seal was leaking for a while. Prior to replacing it I notice that there was a bothering noise coming from the left rear. I thought that it might be because of the oil falling on the belt. So after the R&R of the seals I cleaned and adjusted the rear belt and went for a ride. When the bike is cold you don't hear anything, but when it got hot the noise was still there. It sounds like something jiggling but more like a squeaking when is slowing down. The scoot is a 2001 fatboy with about 23K on the clock. Also at what point should the belt be replaced? I'm thinking that I should had replaced the belt when I dismantled the inner primary and be done with it. If I should replace the belt what would be the best one to go with? Any help would be appreciated... Thanks, Jazz

 

A squeaking melt usually means the belt is too tight.

Drew

 

well I'm no cat but here is some help.
1- what did you clean the belt with/ I hope alkahol
2- the belt is probably to tight, slightly loose is better than too tight.
3- the only reason to replace a belt is if it has any damage, other than that they don't wear out.

did you check your rear tire alignment?

 

Sons 07 Duece had a noise like some thing rubbing when slowing down.. We traced it down and though it was the belt rubbing the belt guard, Turned out it was just the belt itself. A wrench at our Dealership gave him a little tub of lube of some kind to put sparingly only on the edge (sides)of the belt.

Problem solved.

 

That squeeky noise is either the belt is to tight or the aligniment is slightly off. When you take the belt off look at the teeth of the belt and if it looks damaged replace it then look at your pulley to see if there is anything abrasive that could have cause the damage..i.e. rust or flaking chrome/metal. Good luck.

 

I tried adjusting the wheel along with the belt but still have that annoying noise. I'm going to look a lot closer to this issue and see if I can narrow it down. Thanks for the help CATS...
As a Jazz aficionado I use the word a religiously, in that sense is referring to a fellow musician. Just wanted to clarify that. After all, us Harley cats are just like musicians, the sweet sound of a V twin is like the sweet sound of a tenor sax and then some...

 

A belt that's too loose can also make a squealing/whistling sound. My 97 was doing it after I changed my rear pulley and brake disc. I had the belt a bit too loose after putting the wheel back on. The annoying sounds would only be heard anytime I down-shifted or decelerated.

I just gave the adjusters a 1/4 to 1/2 turn, took it for a ride, then another 1/4 to 1/2 turn, another test ride ... until I got it right. It worked for me. Best of luck on that!

 

A friend of mine has a late 90"s softail custom and was experiencing the same problem. We put the bike on a stand just enough to get the rear tire off of the ground. What I did was turn the rear tire by hand and listen for the noise. I noticed that the belt wasn't tracking in the center of the rear pully. When I turned the tire forward the belt would move to the outside of the pully and rub against the inside rail of the pully and make the squeeking noise, when I would turn the tire in the opposite direction, the belt would move to the other side of the pully. Since the belt wasn't tracking straight in the pully it led us to believe that the wheel wasn't aligned correctly. We adjusted the right side of the wheel slightly forward a little at a time while continueing to rotate the tire and check the tracking of the belt. We were able to get the belt to stay close to the center of the pully reguardless of which direction we turned the tire, it wasn't perfect and would move slightly but we were able to keep the belt from rubbing the inside lip of the pully which eliminated the noise.

 

Good point, I did just that on Sunday morning and I was able to eliminate the noise somewhat. I loosened the axle nut and backed off a hair on the left side. Then I tightened it and took it for a rip. My Bud said that he didn't hear the noise as bad as last week. I have to depend on other ears cause my hearing is a little shot. But now I have another issue, I just changed the inner seals on the primary a few weeks ago and I see oil coming from the same area, this really sucks. I have to dismantle the darn thing ones again. Perhaps I ended up with a defected main shaft seal.

Thanks for the pointer...