| Author | Message | ||
     Dblhaulxb9s |
Son of a _____. I just broke my 4th belt on my XB9S in 9000 miles. They have all been installed by dealerships. The most recent only had 500 miles on it and was installed by my dealer on Friday the 26th in Grand Junction. I am supposed to be leaving for the Southwest Torque Fest on Tuesday but my freaking bike is in Denver and I am in Gunnison. Can anyone get me the 04 belt set up by Tuesday or Monday if someone has it in Colorado. I am going to come over to Denver tomorrow so I can get it to a dealer. I am taking it to High Country Harley/Buell. I NEED HELP. PLEASE HELP. Morgan PS, I would take a 5th warranteed belt but I want the new assembly, screw this bull S&%T fragile belt. I don't care what the excuse is, I think they should give me the new set up, I am getting really tired of Hitch Hiking and pushing my bike. edited by dblhaulxb9s on September 29, 2003 | ||
| Reepicheep |
dblhaulxb9s.... this is probably stating the obvious, but somebody here ought to do it... Lets say, purely hypothetically, some number of the initial belt failures were related to running without a belt guard in place. I would presume that the only way to really kill one of these belts is to get a chunk of rock wedged between the pulley and the belt while under load. With the automatic tensioner pulley, there can't be much margin there at all. So if there was enough force to either punch a hole in the belt, or break the internal kevlar strands, I can't imagine it not being enough force to do some significant damage to a pulley, or maybe bend some tensioner part out of alignment. Especially if this happened a couple times. If the pulley is damaged, or the tensioner assembly is tweaked, I could easily imagine that causing belts to be consumed at an alarming rate, even though the hypothetical root problem (no belt guard) has been addressed. So have somebody in the know check both front and back pulleys, and check the tensioner assembly (if they have not already). Another possible common denominator is the person unpacking the belts, storing the belts, or putting the new belts on. If they are following the same (wrong) procedure, the outcome will be the same. See if they have the belts hanging on a nail on the back wall somewhere :0 | ||
| Newfie_buell |
My heart goes out to ya, After the second belt on my 98 S1 I went straight to a chain, almost 20,000km later the chain and sprockets still look great. I do not regret it for a second. Good Luck on the Belts | ||
| Bykergeek |
There have been some similar discussions on ATC about this lately. Given no other reasons, one possibly theory for belt breakage is if the rear swingarm brace was ever removed while the swingarm was still under belt tension, it can cause a critical bending of the swingarm which could lead to a belt/pulley misallignment and ultimately (in theory), belt tossing. Even if the dealer replaced them for you, if the bike was not disassembled correctly it could be the reason the XB is eating belts now. edited by bykergeek on September 29, 2003 | ||
| Dblhaulxb9s |
Well guys, Thanks for the info. I have good and bad news. The good news is that High Country Harley/Buell is getting me new pulleys and a new tensioner and belt under warrantee. The bad news is that there is no way to ge them in time for the torque fest so I am out of that unfortunately. I am bummed but will recover. That is all of the info I have. I will let you know how it goes after I get the new set up. I hope that fixes it and it doesn't involve the swing arm. The bike has never been down and the belt guards are on and have been. Oh well, we'll see. | ||
| Kcbill |
Morgan, Was your rear tire off recently? I will say the dealers are taking your belt on and off wrong. Sam Minnich has over 20k on his and he runs the piss out of his. Burns tires up all the time. Buell didn't put a bad belt on these bikes. If the dealer is rolling the belt over the pulley they are ruining it. One time is all it takes. That's right from Eric's mouth. They worked with Gates on making the belt where it could take being rolled over the pulley and not damage it. Eric said it was such a good belt that the engineers felt there was no reason to change it. His reason's were to protect the bike owner, you know an after market shop puts new tires on for you and doesn't do it as the manual tells you, they don't have a manual nor do they know any thing about your bike. It was changed for our protection. | ||
| Dynarider |
They worked with Gates on making the belt where it could take being rolled over the pulley and not damage it I believe the new belt is actually from goodyear. | ||
| Dblhaulxb9s |
thanks for all of the info, I had heard most of it before. I think the most recent breakage was due to the belt being wadded up in a box for shipment. I saw it come out of the box and knew there might be a problem but let the "techs" use their judgment. I just wish that Buell would certify me as a tech so that I could work on the bike myself and still have it under waranty, I don't trust anyone working on my bikes. I asked if I took an MMI course if they would let me work on it, they told me I had to work at a dealer to have it be covered. Whatever, soon it will be out of waranty and I will just do everything myself anyway. I will also be working on developing a chain drive for the XB's, I don't like belts on fast bikes, they just don't cut it. I have a few ideas, now I need some money. | ||
| Mikej |
"The bad news is that there is no way to ge them in time for the torque fest so I am out of that unfortunately." This is a prime case for the "bike down - expedite" scenario. Call Buell Customer Service now and see if they can help. And call the shop and request them to check if they put it down as a "bike down" status. You have a deadline to get to a factory sponsored event. At the very least they should loan you a bike. It's a thought anyway. | ||
| Dblhaulxb9s |
Mikej, Thanks for the info, but they did but the bike down status on it. The real problem is that They are on the wrong side of the mountains from me and I am leaving this afternoon. I could wait but my wife would be driving by herself and there is no way to be sure I could have it. It is OK, I will just make it next year. I might just swing by the dealership and see if I can borrow a bike from them. Thanks for all of the info everybody. Morgan | ||
| Tedk |
Lemon Law? I thought after 3 identical mechanical failures within a 1 year period and the lemon law applied? | ||
| Jim_witt |
Ted wrote: Lemon Law? It all depends on what state you live in. In Arizona he'd have them by the balls. -JW:>  | ||
| Dynarider |
It varies from state to state & obviously not all states even have such a law. In some states the bike simply needs to be out of service for 30 days in the first year of ownership to qualify. Doesnt need to be for the same problem either. | ||
| M1combat |
What if you buy a bike from Iowa and register it for the first time in Arizona? I don't mean to Hijack... | ||
| Dynarider |
Hmmm interesting scenario. I really dont know what the law would be in that situation. I would be willing to bet tho that the state you buy it in would have no effect. Any laws precluding such vehicle would come from the state in which it was titled. | ||
| Dblhaulxb9s |
I will check into all of that for sure but I did get interesting info the other day. High country called me and Gains (the belt manufacturer (sp?)) is going to have a meeting with me when I pick the bike up and do a bunch of tests and see if we can figure it out. I am in AZ now with out the bike and bumming. Oh well, I will just have to do some rock climbing instesd. I am also going to get things lined out for when I start my MMI course this winter. Thanks again for the info. Morgan | ||
| Turnagain |
Morgan, Too bad they haven't offered to do an upgrade.  Good luck w/ the course. Steve(2) | ||
| 99buellx1 |
Gates is the belt manufacturer for the '03 bikes. Good luck getting the problem resolved, it sounds like people are really trying hard to make sure it dosn't happen again. Craig  | ||
| Anonymous |
XB9 belt is from Gates, XB12 belt from Goodyear | ||
| Bykergeek |
Just curious, what % of XB owners have suffered a belt breaking. Of those, how many have had more than 1 subsequent break? 03 XB9r 8000 miles, no breakage so far on my end. | ||
| Prof_stack |
Will the '04 XB9's have the new Goodyear belt and revised pulleys? So far my XB9S has 4800 miles and no belt problem. | ||
| Boulderbiker |
From my understanding in publications so far about the '04 bikes including the 9's they also will have the new goodyear belts. Like I said though, thats just what I've read in the motorcycle publications, haven't looked into it past that. | ||
| Court |
>>>Will the '04 XB9's have the new Goodyear belt and revised pulleys? Yes | ||
| Chainsaw |
03 XB9R 9400 miles Belt still intact | ||
| Aussie_buell |
Can someone please briefly describe or post an extract from the service manual about correct rear wheel removal. I am due for a tyre change and was going to take the rear wheel off myself, now I am concerned about the procedure. Is it just a matter off removing the tentioner first, then un bolt the swing arm removable piece, then remove the rear axel? | ||
| Bykergeek |
"Is it just a matter off removing the tentioner first, then un bolt the swing arm removable piece, then remove the rear axel? " You have to first relieve the tension on the belt by loosening the pinch bolt and then backing out the threaded rear axle (not all the way) . Since you cannot twist the belt, you would then need to remove the belt guard and front pulley cover, partially remove the belt w/o twisting it so you could remove the wheel. | ||
| Aussie_buell |
Thanks Bykergeek, So just to clarify, you dont need to touch the tensionor / idler pulley at all or were you adding that bit at the top of your post? And do you need to remove the piece of swing arm or is there enough room to move the belt out of the way. | ||
| Bykergeek |
You could remove it but there will be no tension on the belt after backing out the axle so you should not need to. Again.. You cannot flex the belt at all. If you need to remove anything because you would otherwise have to twist the belt, remove whatever gets in the way so you can get the belt away and the wheel off. | ||
| Aussie_buell |
Thanks again Bykergeek, I will be replacing my rear tyre very soon and will be just taking the wheel to the shop. I would rather do that then have someone screw up the belt. Thanks bud. | ||
| Anonymous |
Bykergeek is right on target about twisting killing these belts. HERE IS A MAJOR TIP! Step one...remove the belt guards. If you don't when you try to get the wheel out past the belt which is still trapped in the belt guards, you will wind up twisting/bending the belt enough to damage it. The majority of XB Gates belt failures are from this issue. You do not need to remove the tensioner, because when you unscrew the axle it drops down to a smaller diameter, reducing the tension. |
