After replacing my rear tire on my rking, how much belt tension should there be? On the belt cover, I see several holes possibly for this reason?

 

Hey Mike
The service manual will tell you to use the HD deflection tool, at the proper place on the belt underside, to help you measure belt deflection when you apply 10 lbs of force. All that is great, but I just go by feel and try to twist the belt with my fingers (fairly strong fingers) and see if its pretty difficult to get it to twist 45 degrees. If its pretty difficult to twist it 45 degrees, its probably tight enough. The belt gets tighter as the bike warms up, so just don't over tighten the darn thing.

 

Get the tool (less than 20 bucks) and set it as directed. After you have done it with the tool a few hundred times, you'll get a feel for it and can do it without using the tool. You really should do it the right way to start with, then you can wing it by hand...

 

I just replaced my rear wheel and found a discrepancy in the Harley information.

The service manual tells you to jack the bike up until the wheel is off the ground. Then using the tool apply 10 lbs of force and set the belt deflection to the required amount for your model.

the instructions that came with the tool tell you to have the bike on the ground with a person sitting on the bike and then adjust the beslt.

What gives here?

I adjusted it with the wheel off the ground as per the manual. When I sit the bike back down the tension is tighter than with the wheel hanging.

I marked the belt deflection on the window before removing the wheel so I had a reference. The belt was previously adjusted by the dealer and has about 50K miles on it. When I adjusted it as per the manual it is noticeably tighter than the dealer had set it.

Not sure if it is rocket science or not but I do not want to have issues with bearings or belt wear.

 

I think I would do it with the bike on the ground at least. When you hang the wheel it is as close to the front sprocket as possible. As the wheel moves up in the frame it will move away from the front sprocket and tighten the belt. I personally run mine quite a bit looser than spec.

 

IMHO, a little loose is way much better than over-tight. I've never run my HD belts as tight as the specs say. IF you go to the HD dealership and feel a couple of the belts on the new bikes, you will see that most of them are not as tight either.

My 2010 manual, in the list of steps for checking deflection, states:
-With transmission in neutral
-At loosest spot on belt
-With motorcycle at room temperature
-With motorcycle upright with rear wheel off the ground OR on jiffy stand without rider or luggage

It's the last point I listed that has always made me scratch my head a little. There has to be a difference in tension with the wheel off the ground versus the tension with the bike on the jiffy. Then as stated when you get the tool, it says to do it a different way. I may use the tool to measure this difference next time I have it up on the jack.

So it's because of all of this confusion and various different ways to set the tension that, although I have the deflection tool, I don't use it because using the manual specs, I believe it tends to over-tighten that belt in my opinion.

There are lots of ideas and opinions on this single subject and no doubt it has been discussed hundreds of times.

 

Two things I'd like to add, one is that the belt tool is cheap enough and so easy to use it really is well worth getting one - probably the only 'special' tool the home mechanic needs. Second, having owned belt drive Harleys for over 20 years, I have always set my tension with the bike on the ground, nobody sitting on it. The slightest movement of the swingarm alters tension. Thirdly (I know, I can't count!), my Buells have no means of changing tension, which leaves me to believe there is something we should know about belts!

 

GR

Don't Buells have an idler tensioner on the bottom run of the belt?

 

Yes, they do, but it isn't adjustable. The rear wheel axle is also fixed in place, unlike the Harley range.

 

Thanks