I strongly believe that knowledge is power. Especially when it comes to motorcycle maintenance. Why go to the stress and expense of having your local motorcycle shop perform your maintenance and upgrades when you can learn to do it yourself. And you know that if you do your own maintenance, that you will give the extra attention required to do a competant job. I doubt you can say the same for the underpaid and over-worked motorcycle service mechanic. The other benefit of doing your own motorcycle maintenance is that you learn more about your bike. This has many benefits. You will be able to tell when something is not running right. Also, you will have the skill set to get yourself out of any situation where you find yourself broken down miles away from town. Besides, just wrenching on your bike is a total Zen fun motorcycle event.
In this set of motorcycle knowledge base instructions, we focus on doing a motorcycle drive belt inspection, followed up by a drive belt tension adjustment and belt and wheel alignment.
With the majority of cruiser motorcycles now running with drive belts over chains, learning how to do your own belt adjustment is essential. Plus it is far less messy task than performing maintenance on a chain. This instruction assumes the reader has some natural basic motorcycle wrenching talent. I believe most people can learn these tasks but there are some that may be out of their league and have no mechanical talent. For these people, please step away from the tools and let your certified mechanic perform any maintenance and upgrades.
This instruction is performed on a Victory Kingpin motorcycle. This Victory Kingpin motorcycle, like the rest of the Victory motorcycle models, has a right-side belt drive. The major pain of the Victory design is that you have to remove the exhaust or Slip on cannisters to get at the right-side axle. This is only if you intend to remove the axle and wheel. This will be discussed in another maintenance instruction. Mainly used to remove the wheel and take it to the shop to mount new tires. The best way to save lots of money when replacing tires. Otherwise the motorcycle service shops will charge you their hourly rate to store the bike, remove the wheel and remount. Not cheap. Removing the wheels yourself makes it so you only pay for the mounting and balancing. another tip, buy your tires online to save even more money.
Are you ready, let get started. For the Drive Belt Inspection it is recommended that you inspect the drive belt annually, and replace at specified intervals regardless of belt condition.
1. Periodically inspect the drive belt for cuts, missing teeth and excessive wear.
2. Adjust the drive belt tension at intervals in accordance with your motorcycle owner's manual (M.O.M.)
To perform the actual belt tension inspection, perform the following:
1. Secure the motorcycle in an upright position. Shift the transmisison into neutral and be sure to elevate the rear wheel off of the ground. This is critical when checking belt deflection or adjusting the belt.
2. Now you need to finf the "tight spot" on the belt. do this by measuring the belt deflection at 4 different spots on the belt as you rotate the rear wheel.
3. Place a mark at the tightest point. Now adjust the belt deflection to specification.
4. Place a tape measure or ruler next to the drive belt to help you measure deflection. Note that some motorcycles, especially the Victory models, have grduations on the belt bracket for reference. Be sure to measure 1/2 way between the front and rear sprocket centers on the lower part of the belt.
5. Use a belt tension guage. These cost about $30.00 and are well worth the expense. Plus you get to add a new tool to your tool chest. Note that the belt tension guage must be kept at a 90 degree angle to the belt to get an accurate measurement.
6. Push up on the belt tension tool measuring the deflection distance with the amount of force required to be in tolerances. In the case of the Victory Kingpin, this is 10 pounds of force with a tolerance deflection of 9mm. 9mm @ 10lbs. force.
Before you do the Belt Tension Adjustment, you need to make sure the wheel alignment is correct. The following with give you instruction and tips on aligning the wheel and belt correctly.
Belt/wheel alignment method 1:
First measure from the center of the swingarm pivot to the center of the axle. Keep it the same on each side. I have Been doing this on dirt bikes for many years and has not failed yet. I use the Motion Pro belt tensioning tool.
Belt/wheel alignment method 2:
This is what I do if I change a tire or belt.
1] Loosen adjusters completly slide tire to front of adjustment slots.
2] run in both adjusters till they just touch
3] Count threads to make sure they are even
4] going 1/2 turn per side. Take the belt to just loose of adjustment
5] Tighten axle nut,and spin wheel about 10 times. To check belt tracking.
6] If belt is to far right loosen the axle tighten the left side an aditional 1/2turn. Opisete for belt to far left.Spin again. You will never get it centered only to where it has a gap on both sides.
7] tighten both sides equaly until you have 9mm of deflection at 10Lb force. At the tightest point
At this point I test ride. I have NEVER had to go back and readjust doing it this way,and I have done MANY without a tracking problem. No strings or tape necessary
Contributing author to Cycle Solutions
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