Since air ride... I found that the belt tension seemed a little loose at normal riding height...

The lower the suspension the looser the belt and higher the belt get tighter.

I brought air ride up were I think I will ride.. I set the belt..

But yesterday I could hear the belt rubbing so I aired it up until it went away.

I should of just left it.. It would only make noise all the way down.. Not sure if I should tighten or loosen it right now....

How do you set it if you have no reference?... There are no marks to show if the wheel is running true with the front wheel..

So main question is How do you know your wheel is running true with the front one. It could be sitting tilted right to left.

 

I set mine with the wheel off the ground. I thought the belt got a little tighter as the wheel traveled up. You might say what bike you have also, unless I missed it.

 

Unless your cam adjusters are wore the wheel should stay square with the engine. You can fashion a wire to measure it. You measure from the swing arm pivot to the axle. Should be the same distance. To check total alignment with the front and rear tire is something altogether different and no bearing on belt adjustment.

 

when yo usay normal ride height are you saying same as stock or is your new normal diff? i ran my air ride at around stock when riding and i never had a problem. it shouldnt matter what suspension yo uhave is your riding at stock level or close.

 

Sorry for the odd questions there.
I understand it will get tighter and more loose as it goes up and down.

Im more worried it is not in there straight..You can move each cam themselves. So it could be in the off center.

I then read somewere you can spin the wheel and make sure belt is centered. I guess you can look at belt centered on rear pulley. Just wondered if Harley has a procedure on this.

 

Its a 2008 SG

 

I actually measured from the center of swing arm out to the axle center on both sides.... I hope thats right.

The cam on each side are at different locations on the cam rotation. Maybe shows how far off the frame and swing arm fabrication is on these bikes.

But the axle to the swing arm measurement bolt is perfect...

I also set the tension at ride height. all the way up actually starts to loosen the tension again...all the way down it loosens the tension... so I set the tension at the center of the arc.

 

we are talking drive belt tension?
belt adjustment is pretty straight forward. well explained in the service manual which you probably do not have along with the tension tool.
what procedure did you use to adjust belt, did you loosen and then torque the axle nut to 15-20ft lbs, or did you just turn the left nut.

so perhaps you can let us know what year & model bike you have. maybe add a picture.

 

Unless your new shocks have changed the UNladen height of the bike, the service manual described procedure should apply. I believe a service bulletin has loosened the setting on all touring bikes slightly.

I don't like the cam tension adjustment mechanism. I believe the "screw-jack" (don't know the proper term) is more accurate and flexible. The cam's rate of radius change with rotation appears fairly shallow making the slight play of the non welded cam pretty much irrelevant. If you still obsess about it (as I do) consider if you want to adjust belt tension form being too tight to correct direction or from being too loose to proper direction. That will slightly change the ending position of the following cam in relation to the welded cam. Then hope the following cam doesn't change again as you tighten the nut to spec. From a practical standpoint, I have seen very little change in belt tracking when trying both techniques and comparing.

 

My good setting is about 1 1/2 inch below stock so that is where I set my belt tension and yes it gets tighter up and looser down and also the adjustment cam on the left is welded to the axle and the right or nut side is keyed to the axle so they will work together otherwise 90 percent of the bikes on the road would be running sideways