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Belt Noise

Sprchkn, Take the bike out and ride it until the sprockets have expanded to operating temperature (15-20 miles). Now, while it is hot, adjust the belt to 7/16" using you belt tensioner tool. Careful when torquing the axle nut that the adjustment doesn't move (you can mark the cams with a pencil). My 07 RK made the same noise as you have. I ran the bike with the belt adjusted as I described for 47,000 miles until a friend changed his primary ratio to 3.35 at 11,000 miles and had to get a new belt for the new pulley he installed. I swapped my squeeky belt for his belt and the noise was gone. When my bike was new I took it to the dealer twice to complain about the noise and each time they adjusted the belt loose and sent me on my way. I stopped and talked to the foreman, and he said the factory specs on belt adjustment is way too tight, and it leads to premature inner primary bearing wear or failure. He said the only way he would ever adjust the belt to factory specs is for constant drag racing. I believe he is saying what he knows, but I also suspect the old belt didn't run perfectly true. Unless the belt is broken you will play a hard game getting them to replace the belt. Like I said I ran that RK for 47k plus miles with no problems. I have adjusted the drive belt on my 2010 RK the same way. YMMY.

Thorns
 
My 07 RK made the same noise as you have. I ran the bike with the belt adjusted as I described for 47,000 miles until a friend changed his primary ratio to 3.35 at 11,000 miles and had to get a new belt for the new pulley he installed. I swapped my squeeky belt for his belt and the noise was gone.

Thorns

Help me understand. Your new bike had a squeaky belt. You adjusted it to 7/16" deflection and the noise went away.(?) You rode it like that for the next 47K miles. You swapped your belt for your friends used belt and the squeak went away again?
 
If I adjusted the belt to book specs it would squeek. I had always suspected the belt (why? everything else checked out), so I swapped belts...no noise. The next few weeks, I was in the dealer, and the wifey said we should see how much we can get for our 07 bike with 47k+ miles...that's all she had to say...I went into trade mode...rode out with a new bike. I had fun pulling the swing arm and inner primary on the 07 to change the belt, good experience. Someone got a better 07. I like my 2010.

Thorns
 
Well - it rained all last night and this morning, so no chance to test it yet, but I gave it a try:

Lateral run out on the rear pulley was around 4 thousands / Radial run out was around 3 thousands - I figure that's pretty good and probably eliminates that as the problem.

I adjusted the belt with 3/8 to 7/16 slack. The only problem I had was keeping the right side cam from coming away from the swingarm boss while torqueing to spec. I must have redone it a dozen times, pushing on the tire, wedging my foot against the tire - I even strapped the tire to my lift with a tie down to try and keep it forward. Thats kind of a circus trick trying to keep the wheel forward, while holding onto the axle on one side and trying to put 95 ft lbs of torque through a rigged up torque adapter on the other side. In the end I just kept ending up with the right side cam about 1/64th of an inch away from the boss, no-matter what I did. I guess thats where it wants to be.

In all my re-doing I noticed that the right side cam plate really torques up against the flat in the axle when you tighten it up. I don't know how it works, but it doesn't look very "precise."

My next questions are:

1. Any tips on keeping the cams against the bosses while tightening?
2. How to a make sure the wheel is aligned correctly?

Thanks
 
Clean the inner side of the right cam washer so it has friction against the swing arm and apply a small film of never seize on the backside of the axle nut, and use a wrench to hold the left side while tightening the right side to specs.

Checking the rear tire alignment to the front tire - I use two 8' flouresent bulbs lightly strapped on each side of the rear tire (be very careful handling the bulbs - they break!). I hold the bike upright with a rachet hold down strap from the ceiling, and slip another piece around each side of the handlebars to form a "A". Then measure the 4 points (left and right side of the front tire) to see if they are equal front to back on each side.

Thorns
 
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