Belt issue, 2008 GS Manual (Silver)

[Warlock]

Yes, as soon as I got the tire off I could clearly see where the issue was. My friend has the same bike (2008, manual, Yellow) with like 45k miles and he has not changed any bearings on his yet. He did have a bearing in the engine for the front pulley go bad and that cost him like 2k for the dealer to fix. He is a much bigger guy than me and loves to paint black lines down the road (burn outs). You just never know when parts will go. Being handy and having the tools sure saves a lot of $$$ though. Between me and my friend there is not much we cant fix on these bikes.

My wife had a 08 and same thing happened with the bearing. Can Am would not take ownership, but the first year they had over tightened the belt tension causing failure on the bearing. I run mine around 160 to 180 tension so I will not mess up the front bearing. I'm getting ready to replace a piston and o rings on a 13 model RS SM5. She is losing clutch fluid. Just got a tool in today to do reverse bleeding on the brake fluid. Plan on using it to do my brakes also. I changed mine about 2 years ago the old way and never had to put BUDS on it. Been doing mechanic work for over 44 years and still like turning a wrench.
David

 

[dschaub]

Belt Issue Fixed

Hi Guys, checking back in now. I thought I was going to be able to fix the bearing in the rear pulley myself but ran into issues. When I dead blow'd hammered out the bad bearing all the ball bearings went flying. I could not get the outside bearing race out of the pulley hub (it was like welded in there), there is also a shim spacer piece that slides into that new bearing, that part again was like welded to the old inner race. The thing must have gotten really hot. I had the dealer put the new bearing in the bub and ordered all new parts for in there... total cost was right at $150.00. Save me lots of $$ taking it all apart myself.

Putting the wheel back on and adjusting the belt was a piece of cake, belt stays right where I like it, about 1/16" off the shoulder. Very little belt noise like that. used to be real noisy when it rode against that shoulder.


I have the same thought, do not keep the belt as tight as Can Am calls for (I think they have back off on that a little now) to save high pressure on that front inner pulley bearing.