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Old Apr 27, 2013 | 04:04 AM
  #11  
goats's Avatar
goats
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Joined: Oct 2011
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From: kingston ontario
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i have seen my pulleys lined up perfectly only to have the belt move to one side or the other going forward and reverse.... the belt just needed help getting centered between the 2 before it would stay centered
ive worked/walked the front of the belt over by hand or used a block of wood while spinning the wheel to get it to a position where it can stay centered.

what i am trying to say is they dont always self center themselves

mine squeaks if its a little off and its annoying as hell
 

Last edited by goats; Apr 27, 2013 at 04:08 AM.
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Old Apr 27, 2013 | 04:54 PM
  #12  
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cwsharp
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From: Utah
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Originally Posted by redmosquito1
Just to update, had a fun night with a trip to the hospital for a couple stitches tonight.

Ordered an 1/8" spacer online the other day and it won't be here till next week, wanted to ease my mind and get the belt off the outter flange of the pulley. So went to my local indy and picked up a 1/16" rotor spacer.

Didn't fit over the hub flange to took my flap wheel and made it fit. The pulley bolts were to big to go through the holes so I was drilling them out to fit and the bit caught and sliced a 2cm gash in my middle finger, 5 stitches later I was on my way. Don't drill and hold metal with out either gloves or with the part in a vice, good lesson learned the hard way today.

Finally get it home, get everything installed and align the rear wheel off the adjuster bolts to be even, spin the wheel and the belt walked to the outside again. I'm little pissed since what I just went through was apparently in vain.

I reset the right side adjuster back to where it was before I started this whole process (1/32 difference) ran it and belt centered on the puller pretty nicely.

I'll ride a bunch tomorrow and keep an eye on it and see what happens. If it ends up walking to the outside again I'm going to take the spacer out and say F it.
You pulleys need to be in perfect alignment... your wheel does not have to be perfectly centered in the swingarm. It needs to be square to the swingarm. Depending upon the year and model, there will be different amounts of offset between the front and rear wheel. This is so HD doesn't have to make a whole bunch of different parts to fit different wheels in the same frame.

The spacers have to be correct to hold the wheel bearings in place against the inner spacer and your pulleys in alignment... nothing more, nothing less.
 
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Old Apr 29, 2013 | 10:51 PM
  #13  
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redmosquito1
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From: Clarkston
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Well after some riding this past weekend the belt moved back to the outside of the pulley, that's with a 1/16" spacer.

My 1/8" spacer showed up today, pulled the wheel and installed it. I measured with a straight edge across the pulleys to the inner bearing race of both stock wheel/pulley and DNA wheel/pulley and came up with a difference of 9/32". Well can't find a spacer that size so I ordered 1/4" and 5/16" spacers to see which works best.

My logic is that bearing races are set the same on both wheels (stock wheel spacers) and thickness of pulleys are the same, so my measuring should be accurate. We shall see.
 
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Old Apr 30, 2013 | 06:18 AM
  #14  
Motown Strag's Avatar
Motown Strag
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From: Detroit
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I dont know if you are thinking about this in the right way. The front pulley has no lip and is wide so the belt has the flexibilty to be to the right or left depending on build variation and model set up. What sets the side to side position of the belt is the rear pulley. You add a spacer to the rear pulley just to get the belt outward away from the inner primary, splash guard..etc so that there is clearance all the way around the belt in its normal operating range.

What makes the belt track right and left is the alignment of the rear wheel to the front pulley. this is adjusted by the axle adjustment bolts in the swing arm. back off one side a 1/4 turn and tighten the other side a 1/4 turn and the track of the belt changes. Play with it until you get it centered on the rear pulley and make sure it stays when you tighten the axle nut, sometimes that will change the track so you have to play with it a little to get it just right.

Your rear wheel and front wheel offset is dependant on your wheel spacers anyway..the pulley spacer is just for belt clearance.

You might totaly understand all this but I thought I would throw it out here anyway just for info.
 
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Old Apr 30, 2013 | 08:51 AM
  #15  
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cwsharp
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From: Utah
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Originally Posted by Motown Strag
I dont know if you are thinking about this in the right way. The front pulley has no lip and is wide so the belt has the flexibilty to be to the right or left depending on build variation and model set up. What sets the side to side position of the belt is the rear pulley. You add a spacer to the rear pulley just to get the belt outward away from the inner primary, splash guard..etc so that there is clearance all the way around the belt in its normal operating range.

What makes the belt track right and left is the alignment of the rear wheel to the front pulley. this is adjusted by the axle adjustment bolts in the swing arm. back off one side a 1/4 turn and tighten the other side a 1/4 turn and the track of the belt changes. Play with it until you get it centered on the rear pulley and make sure it stays when you tighten the axle nut, sometimes that will change the track so you have to play with it a little to get it just right.

Your rear wheel and front wheel offset is dependant on your wheel spacers anyway..the pulley spacer is just for belt clearance.

You might totaly understand all this but I thought I would throw it out here anyway just for info.
That's a thumbs up plus what I said... the spacers have to add the correct width to the wheel hub that matches your swingarm. (They need to total the correct amount and you add and subtract to each side as required). Unless you are putting a spacer behind the rear pulley (which I have never seen done but anything is possible in HD Land)?

As mowtown points out... you have some flexibility in the offset of the centerlines of the pulleys... but some custom installations put the belt too close to the edge of the pulley at the transmission (or the tire, or the belt guard, or all of them). And we aren't there looking at it with you so just want you to understand all that we are trying to suggest.

And as mowtown points out... patience is probably the correct tool to use in this situation.

C#
 
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