recently I let a buddy take my sporty for a ride and somehow the belt broke on it . New belt coming in mail this week but first I want to know if its easy to replace or should I let a shop do it
its a 02 sporty 883 custom XL
I have kinda looked at what i must do first is to take primary cover off and then loosen the tension and back wheel ... Looks as if I could undo the shock and then slip belt on pulley on back tire and then put on front pulley . then put everything back ... but rather ask questions first before attempting anything ..... only wish I had impact tools to do all this ....

 

Easy. Don't even need to mess with the primary side. Just a lift and some hand tools and you can get it done.

 

It's a whole lot easier than you were describing.

You don't need to mess with the primary. It's all in the right side and rear wheel.

Just be sure you got a good alignment when you are finishing up. It's easy, but critical.

 

Buy yourself the factory service manual, which will tell you what you need to know, as well as torque figures for fasteners etc. It's a straight-forward task with the appropriate tools and information.

 

I think the worst part of the job is taking off the front pulley cover on a solid mount motor sportster, with the brake line and cylinder in the way. That just takes some patience, not mechanically difficult. Still on in this picture.



I'd suggest, if the bike is on jacks, wheel off, and one shock already disconnected, to take the lower bolt out of the other shock, too, and check the swingarm bearings. They're unsealed spherical bearings and can accumulate a lot of crud; the ones on my 1200 were so gummed up it took an effort to push the swing arm up or down (shocks disconnected). The bearings weren't bad I found out, some WD40 and a scotchbrite pad wiped all the crud off easily and they spun nicely again, I didn't even need to pull them out like I did.

That's not galling on the bearing, just crud, no pitting or rust. There was no more free play than new bearings, with near 30,000 miles on them. They don't need any grease, either.

 

Thats what I was mainly concerned about that cover I know I have to remove exhaust and was thinking I could just take the two bolts out of the break cylinder out of the way .. I while back I wrapped my pipes and the front pipe is connected to that plate by a big self locking nut and that was a bi*** to remove ... I was hopping I dont have to disconnect the break line though . your pictures and everyones help has eased my mind I will upload pictures of mine. tomorrow . A few were saying I wouldnt have to remove that front plate but I can see there is a bolt that the belt needs to go above and below . Thanks all for input the more the merrier

 

You don't have to remove the brake line. Just (carefully) move, and support the master cylinder out of the way.

I use lengths of 12ga copper wire, stripped out of a 12/2 Romex cable, with the insulation intact and the ends taped with electrical tape, to hang parts up out of the way when I'm working on things. You can bend hooks in them, loop them over the sissybar or wherever to hold things out of the way. I have a bunch of these wires hanging next to my tool board to grab when I need them. Real handy.