High pitched whine at 45 mph

[bcraig]

I have a new 2019 F3 base model. When I start to approach 45 mph in any gear I start getting a high pitch whine that continues until I approach 50 mph. Since it's speed specific, I presume it's associated with the drive belt. I've had the whine since I bought the bike and thought it was just a "Break in" thing. I have 1000 miles on the bike now, but the whine is still occurring. I'm new to Spyder, but have been riding since the late 60s. I've had all 3 kinds of final drives, but have never experienced this whine. Is this normal for the Spyder?

[ChicagoSpyder]

I have a new 2019 F3 base model. When I start to approach 45 mph in any gear I start getting a high pitch whine that continues until I approach 50 mph. Since it's speed specific, I presume it's associated with the drive belt. I've had the whine since I bought the bike and thought it was just a "Break in" thing. I have 1000 miles on the bike now, but the whine is still occurring. I'm new to Spyder, but have been riding since the late 60s. I've had all 3 kinds of final drives, but have never experienced this whine. Is this normal for the Spyder?

To answer your question, no.

I think you're right in assuming it's the belt.

[bcraig]

Here is a picture of the belt position in the rear sprocket. Is this alignment correct?

IMG_0340.jpg

[Freddy]

Yes, perfect.

[rdkarl]

I have a new 2019 F3 base model. When I start to approach 45 mph in any gear I start getting a high pitch whine that continues until I approach 50 mph. Since it's speed specific, I presume it's associated with the drive belt. I've had the whine since I bought the bike and thought it was just a "Break in" thing. I have 1000 miles on the bike now, but the whine is still occurring. I'm new to Spyder, but have been riding since the late 60s. I've had all 3 kinds of final drives, but have never experienced this whine. Is this normal for the Spyder?

I have the same whine, at the same speeds on my 2019 F3L. Had the dealer tech take my Spyder for a test ride this past Saturday, and he said the only thing he heard was some possible noise from the belt at the front sprocket. No solution was offered. Bike is running great, so I guess it is what it is. I have just under 6000 miles on the Spyder, and it has been doing it since day one. Kind of annoying though, it is pretty loud even with a full face helmet on. I have checked my belt tension with a Criket gauge, and it is at 200 with the rear wheel on the ground.

[als]

Can Am is blowing smoke where the sun doesn't shine !I am on my second F3 base model - first one was replaced after replacing everything that turned plus the transmission.
Finally gave me a new bike and when it started to whine I was told "they all do it! "
It now has 17000 miles and runs great - just that darned whine at certain times.
It has been checked by 2 different dealers that start out saying " that isn't normal " - played with belt tension and finally said
"that's all we can do "
Love my Spyder but will not get another one unless they come up with a better solution.
Tip

[Wildrice]

I have the same whine, at the same speeds on my 2019 F3L. Had the dealer tech take my Spyder for a test ride this past Saturday, and he said the only thing he heard was some possible noise from the belt at the front sprocket. No solution was offered. Bike is running great, so I guess it is what it is. I have just under 6000 miles on the Spyder, and it has been doing it since day one. Kind of annoying though, it is pretty loud even with a full face helmet on. I have checked my belt tension with a Criket gauge, and it is at 200 with the rear wheel on the ground.

My belt tension is at 130 on the Criket ;all wheels on the ground. I Believe high belt tension as in 200 will eventually cause a sprocket & gear shaft to fail . I have Q's as to why BRP suggest setting belt tension with the wheels off the ground---whenever I ride all wheels are on the ground & that's the method I use to set belt tension,

[JP58]

I think the belt is riding the pully causing the squeal. My dealer runs the belt out to Max specs. 6mm. No noise all all.

[jerpinoy]

it's really annoying noise.

[Rattlebars]

Biggest question is... how much does an idler arm change the tension number????

[Navydad]

The 1330 has straight cut gears in the transmission. Strong but noisy. Mine is terrible at 45 to just over 50 mph. Switch to full synthetic oil helped a bit, but still aggravating. I have 25,000 miles on my bike and nothing has went wrong so far. Noise hasn't got worse and just a tad better with the full synthetic oil. My Triumph SE has the same straight cut gears and the same aggravating noise in the 50 mph range.

[Rattlebars]

Just a note for the Krikit. Get the Krikit TWO, with the range needed for this belt. There is a lighter duty one that won't work. Of course, I didn't know that and when there is a 50% 50% chance, invariably I will buy the wrong one. But now I have both so not a bad deal. $15 on amazon. Gates 91132 Belt Tension Tester (Krikit II) for Can Am application. The 91107 is for lighter duty.

krikit2.jpg

[bcraig]

Just a note for the Krikit. Get the Krikit TWO, with the range needed for this belt. There is a lighter duty one that won't work. Of course, I didn't know that and when there is a 50% 50% chance, invariably I will buy the wrong one. But now I have both so not a bad deal. $15 on amazon. Gates 91132 Belt Tension Tester (Krikit II) for Can Am application. The 91107 is for lighter duty.

krikit2.jpg

I downloaded the Gates Carbon Drive app for the smart phone. It measures the Hz frequency of the belt when the belt is plucked like a guitar string. However, I can't find any reference for the Hz the F3 belt should read or a conversion table for other standards. Anyone out there use the app?

[TerryTheSpyderRyder]

Can Am is blowing smoke where the sun doesn't shine !I am on my second F3 base model - first one was replaced after replacing everything that turned plus the transmission.
Finally gave me a new bike and when it started to whine I was told "they all do it! "
It now has 17000 miles and runs great - just that darned whine at certain times.
It has been checked by 2 different dealers that start out saying " that isn't normal " - played with belt tension and finally said
"that's all we can do "
Love my Spyder but will not get another one unless they come up with a better solution.
Tip

FWIW my F3-S whines at about 39-42 mph in any gear, and I've heard/read all kinds of different fixes which apparently don't really fix it. The thing I've found is if you hit the belt tension's "sweet spot" the whine will be a lot less. But between the "spot" and keeping proper belt alignment, you have to persevere and get lucky.

[Rattlebars]

I downloaded the Gates Carbon Drive app for the smart phone. It measures the Hz frequency of the belt when the belt is plucked like a guitar string. However, I can't find any reference for the Hz the F3 belt should read or a conversion table for other standards. Anyone out there use the app?

Here are the readings for the Spyder belt reader. What the scale is and what the manual says vs the app, I can't say.

belt.jpg

[monkeyboymorton]

One suggestion is lack of lubrication on the rear shaft. Mine has had this speed dependant whine all the time I've had it (approx 3.5 years) and exactly as you describe. I think it was also there above 50mph but wind noise was enough to drown it out. I also put it down to just the transmission or belt or whatever.

I recently came to change the rear tire which was the original - on from build date July 2014. I removed the rear wheel myself using the rear shock method following the online videos. I got stuck when I tried to remove the shaft as it wouldn't budge. All the videos show it coming out easily but I had to hammer mine out. When I eventually got it out it was rusted up and dry as a bone where the bearings sit.

After getting tire changed I put the shaft back and lubed it up with green water resistant grease. The difference was incredible. Whine is gone and take off/gear change is much smoother. The wheel also turns much more freely when off the ground - presumably there was loads of drag from the lack of lubrication before.

So if you'll pardon the expression - check your shaft and get it greased up if needed!! Might remove the problem.

For reference mine had not had the rear wheel removed from the factory and I bought it 6 months old complete with the whine. Also the whine has been consistent in my ownership up until new tire and now it's completely gone.

[Buggyman]

Better get used to the noise. I had the same noise issue on my 2019 F 3 basic, the machine was in the shop for 7 weeks, the shop was in constant contact with BRP engineering and performed many recommendations from BRP without success.
The final outcome was an agreement between the dealer and BRP to replace my unit with a new one, however the new unit makes the same noise.

[monkeyboymorton]

Better get used to the noise. I had the same noise issue on my 2019 F 3 basic, the machine was in the shop for 7 weeks, the shop was in constant contact with BRP engineering and performed many recommendations from BRP without success.
The final outcome was an agreement between the dealer and BRP to replace my unit with a new one, however the new unit makes the same noise.

As I said above - could be just lack of grease on the shaft? Your experience of having a new machine and it's still there is what I found when searching on here for info on the whine. i.e. - it's normal, get used to it.

I be interested in anyone else checking their shaft for grease who has the whine but it's not a 5min job. Took me most of a day to get it out.

[bcraig]

As I said above - could be just lack of grease on the shaft? Your experience of having a new machine and it's still there is what I found when searching on here for info on the whine. i.e. - it's normal, get used to it.

I be interested in anyone else checking their shaft for grease who has the whine but it's not a 5min job. Took me most of a day to get it out.

You referenced a video you used as a guide. Do you have a link to that video? Thanks

[bcraig]

One suggestion is lack of lubrication on the rear shaft. Mine has had this speed dependant whine all the time I've had it (approx 3.5 years) and exactly as you describe. I think it was also there above 50mph but wind noise was enough to drown it out. I also put it down to just the transmission or belt or whatever.

I recently came to change the rear tire which was the original - on from build date July 2014. I removed the rear wheel myself using the rear shock method following the online videos. I got stuck when I tried to remove the shaft as it wouldn't budge. All the videos show it coming out easily but I had to hammer mine out. When I eventually got it out it was rusted up and dry as a bone where the bearings sit.

After getting tire changed I put the shaft back and lubed it up with green water resistant grease. The difference was incredible. Whine is gone and take off/gear change is much smoother. The wheel also turns much more freely when off the ground - presumably there was loads of drag from the lack of lubrication before.

So if you'll pardon the expression - check your shaft and get it greased up if needed!! Might remove the problem.

For reference mine had not had the rear wheel removed from the factory and I bought it 6 months old complete with the whine. Also the whine has been consistent in my ownership up until new tire and now it's completely gone.

Not to discount the end results of your fix by using grease, but just an observation:

The wheel bearing isn't meant to rotate on the axle/shaft. It rotates on itself. The inner race/ring is stationary, while the outer race/ring rotates around the ball or tapered bearings captured between the 2 races/rings. So it's possible the use of grease actually lubricated the wheel bearings themselves as a result of excess grease from the shaft ending up on the bearings. The same results might have been obtained by applying grease to the wheel bearings themselves. Just a thought.

[Buggyman]

The shop mechanics had disassembled the rear wheel to examine all components including shaft, bearings and belt adjusters, no issue there. Lack of grease not an issue.

[Rattlebars]

I recently came to change the rear tire which was the original - on from build date July 2014. I removed the rear wheel myself using the rear shock method following the online videos. I got stuck when I tried to remove the shaft as it wouldn't budge. All the videos show it coming out easily but I had to hammer mine out. When I eventually got it out it was rusted up and dry as a bone where the bearings sit.

So if you'll pardon the expression - check your shaft and get it greased up if needed!! Might remove the problem.

For reference mine had not had the rear wheel removed from the factory and I bought it 6 months old complete with the whine. Also the whine has been consistent in my ownership up until new tire and now it's completely gone.

It is possible that the rust/corrosion on the shaft (not shown) can become attached to the wheel bearings (oval 33) and/or the inner spacer (square 32) and need a bit of persuasion to remove after a long time. However, nothing on the shaft rotates because the inner races of the bearings are locked to the spacer by tightening the axle nut and the outer races are locked to the wheel by press fit. Adding a bit of grease will facilitate the removal of the axle next time around because the corrosion is ameliorated. The bearings are sealed so accidental lubrication is not going to be an issue. It's quite possible that in moving all the stuff that is involved with wheel removal you may have hit the sweet spot which reset the belt tension and location to eliminate a whine when you put it back on. Mine is the opposite. When installing the rear wheel after a tire change, I got a little bit of whine which I did not have before. I just got the necessary tools to check (Krikit 2) the tension and will re-align my belt which was once within 1 mm of the rear sprocket inner edge and is now 3.2mm away from same but remains within spec. I will report on the whine cure after that work.
bearings.jpg
A note on the videos. I did not need to remove the hub (shown in video 1) to get the tire mounted. I took it to an >independant powersports shop< for mounting hub and all and that was that.

[monkeyboymorton]

Thanks for the replies and yeah all possible. There was definitely a lot less drag on the rear wheel after I put the shaft back in so maybe it greased the bearings themselves. I only saw the 2 that fit in at either end and didn't remove the ones in the middle of the wheel. It was really quite tight to rotate before.

I don't think the belt tension has changed as I didn't alter anythinig, but I haven't checked it. Vibration/harmonic is the same at about 80mph but I've never found it a particular issue. Perhaps it helps having a prosthetic left foot so Ionly feel the vibes through right hand peg!!

The only other option then is the tire itself as I fitted a Yokohama rather than another Kenda. Could the whine be from the rear tire itself? Seems a bit of a random possibility.

Whatever - mine disappeared overnight so whatever I did it fixed it I'm just glad it's gone - I kept expecting the gearbox to give up the ghost.

[monkeyboymorton]

You referenced a video you used as a guide. Do you have a link to that video? Thanks

The one rattlebars posted is the one but he does skip a bit when he's removing the shaft. There's a cut and then he's pulling the shaft out I think.

[Rattlebars]

As promised. My whine is gone for the most part. It was more of a whistle. My belt tension was about 110 (low) and my belt was 3.2 mm from the inner rim of the sprocket measured with a digital caliper. My new belt tension is roughly 150 and the distance from the inner sprocket rim has been adjusted to 1mm (too narrow to measure with a caliper).

beltright.jpg