Okay, my husband and I are ready to align my belt, but Bill would like some clarifications first, so he's written the following:
With Wendy’s Spyder, the belt tension seems really high according to my intuition. The Kriket says 260# with the rear wheel on the ground, which I think is now considered to be high by a factor of two. However, it seems that belt tension is not really too critical within reason, as it mainly determines at what speed ranges a belt resonance might occur. Nothing else. In our case, the belt is commonly (but not always) hard pressed against the rear wheel inner flange and I see wear marks from the belt cogs onto the pulley.
I’ve read through all of the posts on belt tensioning and alignment, but still have questions:
- Do the left and right axle nuts both need to be loosened? I think yes, but this depends upon how the wheel is supported upon the axle via its bearings. I am thinking that the left and right are tightened/loosened independently. Right? The rear axle is one piece, the left side is the head and the right side loosens to allow adjustments.
- I understand that the belt tensioners work by pulling the axle to the rear, left and right. Hence when tightening these nuts, one would want to orient the wrench so that the force on the wrench handle will push the axle forward on that side against the tensioner mechanism. This would mean for the left side upon tightening, the wrench handle will be below the axle (assuming that this is a right-hand thread). Opposite for the right side. There is a post that describes this process, but in the opposite direction, and hence my concern the tensioners are only to give lateral movement to the wheel. With the axle loose adjust the right side to allow the tire to move towards the left in the swingarm. Do this in eighth to quarter turn adjustments. Then rotate the tire forward for at least 10 rotations, and the same number in a reverse direction. This should let you see where the belt is going to track while under power. When you have the belt tracking properly; then you can check the tension with the cricket gauge. When it is adjusted to the tension that you desire (somewhere around 200 is about right, but check the forum by searching for belt tension) Then comes the tightening of the axle bolt to it's torque specks which will be in your owners manual (around 177 sticks in my mind as being the magic number). recheck your belt tension and tracking then lower to ground and take cricket readings on the ground. this will allow you to adjust in the future if you want on the ground.
- For my specific situation, I think that loosening the tensioner on the left a bit, will both loosen the tension AND cause the belt to track more to the outside. That would be my first step, and other adjustments that follow might be different. Any comments? yes if you adjust the left first this will reduce the over all tension; you will also need to loosen the right an equal amount to keep the wheel square in the swing arm.
- Apparently belt tension is adjusted to a specification with the rear wheel off of the ground and the swing arm fully in the down position. This requires that the Spyder be jacked from the frame rather than from the rear shock mount which would not allow the swing arm to be fully down. Correct? Yes that is correct, the shock bolt is not intended to be used as a lift point and to do so runs the risk of bending the bolt. See # 2 above for adjustments of belt tracking
- Hope this is helpful. When you get it all done and it consistently tracks where you want it, then you need to look around for where you can go to get it Laser aligned so it will go straight where you point it. It will make a noticeable difference in both cornering and straight line driving; money well invested in my opinion.
hyea::thumbup::chat:
