Missing Belt Guard rubs the belt - is this really okay?

[ruralgirl]

Thanks to everyone's recommendation in my newbie thread awhile back, I bought the Spyderpop Missing Belt Guard. Our weather was finally warm enough yesterday for my husband and me to install it (not without some frustrations - I'd like to supplement the directions, but I digress). In searching the subject beforehand (in here), I saw that it's not uncommon for the guard to end up rubbing either the tire or the belt. Now that we've installed it, I can see how difficult it is to center it within that tiny margin between belt and tire. And, alas, once we removed the cardboard spacer, the guard did indeed rest lightly against the belt. If we ever install another one, I'll remove the cardboard first, despite its deemed importance, because it prevented us from recognizing that it was slightly flexing the guard away from the belt.

The attachment glue was too immediately-setting for us to adjust the guard inward by the time we saw the flaw, milliseconds later, so we defied the mfr's caveat and applied a heat gun. It wasn't fully successful - we maybe got a mm of give - and we finally chickened out at the realization of just how warm we'd need to get this thing to make it cave to our demands - or cave in, period!

Soooo, even though the sentiments among the few in here who've got the rub seem to be that it's harmless, and despite my engineer husband trying to assure me that the belt is a helluva lot stronger than the polycarbonate, I'm not happy.

The contact is very slight, but I believe it's constant. Will it eventually file down the guard until it's out of its path? Will it overheat the edge of the belt? Can I just forget about the situation and keep on trykin'?

 

[OverHillAndDale]

My $0.02 worth - and it may not be worth that much.

The belt is quite tough - it rubs against both sprockets during each revolution, against a belt tensioner if you have one, and the rubbing from the belt guard (I suspect) is very light. I think the instructions would have had BOLD HIGHLIGHTED TEXT warning you to avoid this at all cost if it was a big deal.

I have two thoughts if you're going to haunted worrying about your belt.

• Try to heat up the blade of the guard with a hair-dryer and flex the guard (taking care not to put the tension on the mounting glue).
• Spray a little silicone lubricant on the side of the guard that contacts the belt.

The belt has a higher surface tension than the plastic guard, and if I had to guess I'd think that the guard would wear through before it damaged the belt.

 

[slick999]

I didn't have a problem with it until it set thru the cold weather.It started rubbing the tire.I even bent it back between the tire and belt but it went back againest the tire.Must have been affected by the cold enviorment.I took it off.

 

[ruralgirl]

My $0.02 worth - and it may not be worth that much.

The belt is quite tough - it rubs against both sprockets during each revolution, against a belt tensioner if you have one, and the rubbing from the belt guard (I suspect) is very light. I think the instructions would have had BOLD HIGHLIGHTED TEXT warning you to avoid this at all cost if it was a big deal.

I have two thoughts if you're going to haunted worrying about your belt.

• Try to heat up the blade of the guard with a hair-dryer and flex the guard (taking care not to put the tension on the mounting glue).
• Spray a little silicone lubricant on the side of the guard that contacts the belt.

The belt has a higher surface tension than the plastic guard, and if I had to guess I'd think that the guard would wear through before it damaged the belt.

Good point - there's no big caveat in the instructions. Technically, though, the belt shouldn't rub against anything, hence my concern. I guess I'll just keep an eye on it and hope it does wear through the guard. I would think lubricant would wear off quickly. We did try a heat gun, and basically got nowhere.

 

[ruralgirl]

I didn't have a problem with it until it set thru the cold weather.It started rubbing the tire.I even bent it back between the tire and belt but it went back againest the tire.Must have been affected by the cold enviorment.I took it off.

Strange! We have long term cold weather, too, so I'll have to check this thing every Spring. It'll either get worse, or maybe it'll warp away from the belt to where it should've been from the start!