Poly-Oil
HD part number 99860-81

 

And check your pulley runout. If your belt is walking from side to side as the wheel turns, you need a new pulley.

Belts and pulleys are wear items, and need replacing. Hopefully not often, but when it's time, it's time. What happens sometimes is the trans pulley starts to wear, and goes from rounded teeth, to sharp, squared off teeth. This will prematurely wear your belt. Inspect it carefully for wear lines in the valleys. If you start to see little bites out of the teeth, it needs replacing.

You hear of some pretty high mileage belts, but some of the ones (not all, though) I've seen that have gone 80K miles or more, I would have already replaced. Don't get yourself in a position where you HAVE to replace your belt because it broke in the middle of a road trip, outside Possum *****, Wy, and no dealer within 100 miles.

 

The pully does have some lateral play but it's rubber mounted so I don't see how that can be averted.

 

Vehicle alignment is critical for where the belt rides in the rear pulley, and usually the belt will track to the inside of the rear pulley when backing up. At 60kmi I would be considering a belt change, only because I have broke 2 around 45kmi

 

Right now the belt rides on the inside of the sprocket, and I think that's why it squeaks. I was thinking of giving the alignment adjusters on the front of the engine a tweak by eyeball to try to get that belt back in the middle. But then it snowed out, so the bike is sitting.

Probably over the winter I'll tear it down and replace those parts.

 

Alignment is a time consuming task. Basically you start with the rear belt properly tensioned and confirm the axle is the same distance from the swingarm pivot point on both sides. Once the rear is squared away the engine mounts need to be adjusted. Basically the front and center adjusts for for and aft alignment and under the tank is another heim joint that adjusts for perpendicularity. Unless you are familiar with this it is not recommended to adjust anything. If you want to check for and aft I would suggest the following

1 - Get the belt to the proper tension
2 - Pop the chrome buttons out of the swingarm pivot plates
3 - Bend a coat hanger with 1 leg long enough to go through the pivot holes you removed the chrome caps from and engage the drilled center point in the ends of the pivot shaft
4 - the other end needs to be long enough to reach past the centers drilled in each end of the axle.
5 - with the wire engaged in the swingarm pivot mark the center of the axle with a wax pencil on the coat hanger
6 - now gently remove the wire and go to the other side and see where your mark on the wire is. Should be in the center of the other end of the axle. This confirms the axle is square in the swingarm. The swingarm pivot shaft goes through the rear of the transmission casting so next you need to look for the front to rear alignment.
7 - With the bike on a stand, place a jackstand at each side of the front wheel out in front of the wheel
8 - Tie a string line to 1 stand as your anchor, take the string around the back tire and back to the front on the other side, tie the end to the other jack stand.
9 - The goal is to get the string as high as you can on the sides of the back tire giving you maximum distance between contact points. Keep raising the string side to side and adjusting the front as necessary to keep things aligned. Until your get so high your string is hitting obstacles
10 - now go to the front and move the jack standsout and back in with the goal of touching the back of the tire sidewall and just touching the front sidewall
11 - When you have your stringline properly sitauted, a good front heim joint adjustment will have the front tire perfectly centered between the 2 strings. If you have a gap on 1 side or the other and you are sure your stringline is not touching where it shouldn't be, the front heim joint needs adjusted.

A good winter project for you...Doesn't cost anything for some string and you get peace of mind if everything comes up square. Again if you suspect alignment is out and you have not done this before, may consider taking her in for the adjustment. Slight misadjustments will create belt and vibration issues.

 

It's a bit difficult to picture it. I'll have to try it in the garage. But thanks for the very detailed explanation.

I was thinking that I'd remove or loosen the front engine mount, then with the bike sitting up on a jack start the engine and put it in gear. The belt rides on the inside of the sprocket. So I was thinking of giving the heim joints each a half rotation or so to see if that brings the belt back to the center of the sprocket.

comments?

 

Use the string method, it is detailed in the H-D Service manualwith Pictures. Adjusting without your alignment string may get rid of the squeek but leave you out of alignment. Vehicle Alignment is CRITICAL to Safe Operation of Our Rubber Mounted V-Twins. Please Do Not Dabble in this Area if You Are Unsure.