2012 RT Limited drive belt question

[Ken Kovas]

I am looking to the community for advice on this. I have a 2012 RT Limited which has around 39000 miles on the clock. When I ride the Spyder I hear a high pitched whine coming from the left side of the Spyder, near the belt. Inspection shows that the belt appears to be fine but it does whine. I tried lubricating the tensioner, no change. I then tried spraying a lite coating of WD40 on the back side of the belt. Took it out and no whine for a couple of weeks. When the whine came back I repeated the WD40 procedure and again it was gone for a week or two. Do I need to replace the belt? Or could it be something else?

[Peter Aawen]

First up, Do Not use WD-40 on your drive belt any more!! It's not the right sort of lubricant for belts, and the propellant used to make it spray is mildly 'corrosive' to the belt too!! Besides, it's only short acting and also likely to attract & cause dust & other lightweight debris to 'stick' onto anything you've sprayed it onto - do you really want to create a layer of what's effectively 'grinding paste' between your belt teeth & the sprocket?!

So while it may well stop the whine you're hearing, it's not a great way to 'fix' the problem long term, and may well make it worse over time, plus it'll probably damage the belt &/or the sprocket in the process! So if you don't actually want to hasten the destruction of your belt &/or drive sprocket, no more WD-40!

I believe that waaay back there was a TSB about applying one 'pea sized' dab of belt grease to the sprocket to stop this sort of whine, but I can't recall the specified grease - however, there is a wide variety of belt greases available, so it shouldn't be too hard to find something suitable... and I suspect that'll be the right way to go to lose that whine.

[SpyderJerry]

Tie the tensioner up off the belt first and drive it. the whine is ussualy the tensioner spinning on the belt. I am going to put a large pulley on mine to hopefully get rid of the whine.

[Snowbelt Spyder]

Hey Ken. So, you made reference to a belt tensioner in your post, so let's start there. As you can see, the outside of our belt is not smooth - it has rows of ribs. If your belt tensioner has a hard, plastic type roller, then as the roller rolls across those ribs, it creates a whine. The faster you go the louder it gets. A previous vendor on this site produced a roller that was coated with rubber O-rings. He is no longer in business. The rubber eliminated the whine. So again, if your roller is a hard plastic type, the only fix for the whine is ear plugs. A quick Go-No Go check - get under there and tie up the tensioner away from the belt and see if the whine is gone. You said that you sprayed the BACK SIDE of the belt. That's the side with the ribs. I'm leaning this direction right now.

Other things to consider though - your owners manual describes what proper belt alignment looks like. Check that. Another simple fact is that this is a cogged belt. So that means that the teeth themselves make noise as they enter and exit the grooves in the sprockets. I have used a WAXED based lube that works good for that, applied to the inside of the belt. Re-apply as required. Too high of a belt tension can exacerbate that. There is an abundance of info on here about both belt alignment and belt tension for the 2012 RT, so I'm not going to repeat it all here. Just use a forum or Google search of the forum. If you want to purchase the Kricket gauge, BajaRon can fix you up.

The issue that Peter is referring to is more of a squeal than a whine. But it was addressed in a bulletin. Here's a link to that.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lo4...ew?usp=sharing

And I now see that Jerry has also commented on the tensioner, too. But I'll post this anyway since I've come this far. Good Luck.

[pegasus1300]

My advice from personal experience is don't bother tieing up the tensioer, just take it off. I had one put on my 2012 at a ride in by the vendor. I have the ribbed belt. He put on the roller with the O rings. It still whined so between that and the potential for failure and resulting belt destruction, I removed it. Belt is fine, whine is gone, only occasional vibration, all is well as far as I am concerned. Except I have a farkle I don't use and paid a lot of money for. YMMV.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I am looking to the community for advice on this. I have a 2012 RT Limited which has around 39000 miles on the clock. When I ride the Spyder I hear a high pitched whine coming from the left side of the Spyder, near the belt. Inspection shows that the belt appears to be fine but it does whine. I tried lubricating the tensioner, no change. I then tried spraying a lite coating of WD40 on the back side of the belt. Took it out and no whine for a couple of weeks. When the whine came back I repeated the WD40 procedure and again it was gone for a week or two. Do I need to replace the belt? Or could it be something else?

with what others have already said .......... Sooooooooo what is the belt TENSION setting ???? , if it's been set by a Dealer it is probably too high ...... many, many folks here have lowered theirs using the KritKit gauge, to about 160lbs ( measured " with tire on the ground " ) .... and most of them don't use a belt tensioner ...... good luck ..... Mike

[Mikey]

X3 Good luck

[Ken Kovas]

The tension was indeed set by the dealer. As this dealer has screwed up my Spyder before I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't done correctly also. I will get the tool and at the same time check the tensioner and try the grease. Thanks for some great ideas!

[Curlytops]

Hi... I had the very same same problem on my 2012 RT, and a member on here gave me the advice i needed to cure it. It seems to be a problem that effects spyders from 2008 to 2012, I have a pic of the can am procedure , ive tried to upload it but its failed 4 times! What you need to do is first check your belt tension....if thats ok take a pea sized blob of grease and coat 3to 4 teeth in the centre of the back sprocket. Then rotate the wheel 180 degrees and apply another pea sized blob of grease to another 4 teeth. Yep i know it sounds mad thats what I thought but this is a can am technical fix and it cured my spyder belt noise instantly and up to now it has never returned.

[Mikey]

Hi... I had the very same same problem on my 2012 RT, and a member on here gave me the advice i needed to cure it. It seems to be a problem that effects spyders from 2008 to 2012, I have a pic of the can am procedure , ive tried to upload it but its failed 4 times! What you need to do is first check your belt tension....if thats ok take a pea sized blob of grease and coat 3to 4 teeth in the centre of the back sprocket. Then rotate the wheel 180 degrees and apply another pea sized blob of grease to another 4 teeth. Yep i know it sounds mad thats what I thought but this is a can am technical fix and it cured my spyder belt noise instantly and up to now it has never returned.

Really!!! going to do some research on this one!! very interesting

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

The TSB calls for a special grease, not readily available at retail I don't think. Don't use ordinary grease. Sorry, I don't know what the grease is but you may be able to get the dealer to give you a bit.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Here's a video that shows the TSB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytZqsw03GzQ. The grease is XPS synthetic.

[Ken Kovas]

Thanks all for the good advice. To date I checked and reset the tension, it was too high. Then I tied back the tensioner and applied the grease. THE NOISE IS GONE!!!! It is safe to remove the tensioner entirely?

[Snowbelt Spyder]

Ken. Tensioner is pretty much a misnomer, anyway. Belt vibration dampening is what they were developed for. All belt tension adjustments are done with the two adjusters on either side of the rear axle. If you don’t want it, and you can live with the belt vibration at various speeds - or you don’t have any vibration - then by all means, you can remove it.

[AlanSmith7]

I am looking to the community for advice on this. I have a 2012 RT Limited which has around 39000 miles on the clock. When I ride the Spyder I hear a high pitched whine coming from the left side of the Spyder, near the belt. Inspection shows that the belt appears to be fine but it does whine. I tried lubricating the tensioner, no change. I then tried spraying a lite coating of WD40 on the back side of the belt. Took it out and no whine for a couple of weeks. When the whine came back I repeated the WD40 procedure and again it was gone for a week or two. Do I need to replace the belt? Or could it be something else?

I think you should visit the motorcycle mechanic garage and I am sure he will fix it.
Good Luck!

[pegasus1300]

Thanks all for the good advice. To date I checked and reset the tension, it was too high. Then I tied back the tensioner and applied the grease. THE NOISE IS GONE!!!! It is safe to remove the tensioner entirely?

I removed mine as I stated in my previous post. My Spyder is also a 2012. I took the tensioner off about 12000 miles ago, no noise, minimal vibration, belt is wearing great. Only problem is an expensive devise I don't use any more.