| Author | Message | ||
     Hangontight |
Add one more to the kill count. My belt failed yesterday at 17,000 miles. I bought the bike a month ago and thought about replacing the belt but figured I'd ride the rest of the season on it....bad idea. shifting from 1st to 2nd the belt snapped and left me stranded surrounded by corn fields. I pushed the bike about 1.5 miles to a fire station where I hung out with the firefighters while my wife came to pick me up. Good place to break down I guess! I was gettin' on the throttle pretty good when it broke...plus it was only about 50 degrees outside too so that didn't help. I can't justify the cost of upgrading to the 04 belt or a chain so I'm just going to buy another 03 belt. | ||
| Greg_e |
I thought they were supposed to be replaced every 10,000 miles on the 03? If I'm wrong then I have a bunch more miles before I need to deal with the belt issue on my 9R. | ||
| Hangontight |
I don't know, maybe this is not the original belt. I never asked the po when I bought the bike. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Might want to check out Saintly's chain conversion. He is a Bad Webber, and his conversion doesn't cost much more than a new belt. I had a belt fail on me under hard acceleration. Wasn't a great feeling. I was doing something kind of stupid at the time.  | ||
| Hangontight |
Gentleman_jon, have you a link to the specific thread about Saintly's conversion? I couldn't find it doing a search. | ||
| Midknyte |
I thought the replace rec' was up around 15,000 or 18,000 miles... At any rate - there is an upgraded ['04?] belt that does not require new pulleys. | ||
| Greg_e |
Not for an 03 bike, they use a smaller width belt and different tooth pitch than the 04+. I'll have to check my service manual when I get home to see what the suggested replacement interval is for the 03 9R. | ||
| Andymnelson |
I believe that they did update the belt with a better one. Parts numbers should be superceded and I can not imagine any dealer having the original on the shelf if this is the case. SM says replace belt and idler pulley @ 15,000 mile intervals. | ||
| Not_purple_s2 |
hmm.... I'm past my replace-by-date then.. Might be time to order a new one. | ||
| Froggy |
If you are not interested in a chain, get another used 03 belt cheap to hold you over. The 03 belts and idler pulley have a service interval of 15k miles. Here is some pictures of Saintly's chain. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/327 77/485674.html Send him a PM, I don't know if he still offers kits for sale or not. | ||
| Boltrider |
I just noticed my '08 has a small tear dead smack in the middle of the belt. The tear hasn't expanded yet, but with only 12,000 miles I think this belt won't last much longer. | ||
| Chessm |
how much is the idler pulley? I think i'm due to replace it. | ||
| Greg_e |
What really goes bad on the pulley? Seems like it should live a nice long life with maybe a bearing replacement here or there. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
All you need to do is a search by author for Saintly. Anyway, here is his Profile, you can email him from there. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/cgibin/discus/boar d-profile.cgi?action=view_profile&profile=saintly- users | ||
| Mr2shim |
Why not buy the parts off ebay? It's what I did. Will save you a ton. Nothing I bought had over 5k miles. Just need to buy a new belt. I have the chain conversion, btw. I don't want it anymore. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
The worrisome part about buying used belts (like off ebay) is that you don't know if they've been misused. I remember reading about how NOT to handle belts... like not twisting them or rolling them too tight or whatnot. If you're just looking to hold yourself over till spring then I wouldn't worry about it. | ||
| Moonrunrs |
I have an 03 and they came out with a belt upgrade from the first stock. I believe the part # for the upgraded belt is G0500.02A8R I put about 19K miles on my first belt before I changed it. Didn't want to taek the risk of snapping it while riding. | ||
| Runinnin |
Same thing happened to me today, accelerating hard into 2nd front started coming up then wham!!! rev limiter!! Now I have bike home and also looking for solution this saintlys chain conversion sounds sweet but looks like hes a Duke rider now,sent a him pm. | ||
| Buelet |
My wife's '03 XB9S has over 20K miles on the stock belt / pulley. I replaced the belt on my '03 XB9S at approx 20K. That belt has over 20K on it now and it still looks good. I'll just let it tell me when it's time to replace it!  At the last tire change I did notice the pulley wasn't spinning that well. I picked the seals out; cleaned the old grease / gunk / rust out & re-greased it. I was going to just replace it, but it seems like a new pulley was almost $100 - so I decided to just see how much longer I could nurse mine. The same technique seems to be working fine on my '06 Uly... YMMV. | ||
| Greg_e |
What size bearings does the pulley take? Seems like a new set from someplace like Boca would be cheap enough, and I can't imagine that anything else could go wrong with the tension pulley. | ||
| Buelet |
Not sure. I half-heartedly messed with trying to get the bearing out, but I didnt' pick out the clip holding it in. If & when it comes time to replace that pulley, I'll definitely be looking for a replacement bearing first. The running surface of the pulley looks fine. I'd be curious to hear if anyone else has replaced the bearing in the pulley yet... | ||
| Jcbikes |
Here is the bearing replacements numbers for the idler pulley. 6203-2RS sealed ball bearing 17X40mm. You need two of them. | ||
| Greg_e |
The most expensive 6203-RS at Boca is $30 each. I would probably check the 17x40 selections before I bought something. And I don't think I would go with the cheaper bearing offered, the higher speed bearings are almost always better. Might be a good idea to buy their high speed lubes too. Works well in my milling machine. | ||
| Greg_e |
Check that. 17x40x12 have some nice $60 ceramic bearings, probably not the correct application for ceramic bearings though. |
