Red Dust & New Pulley

[Haze]

I'm nervous about Red Dust and Pulley issues.
My, new to me, F3T has 1600 miles on the clock.

I just ordered a new front pulley and bolt to be on hand, just in case.
Now I plan on several long tours this summer. If I hear clicking or see the dust
how long do I have before disaster?

I can carry enough tools (except the jack) to change the pulley, but a repair of this nature
could be uncomfortable on the road.

What say you. Has anyone been stranded by a pulley failure?:shocked:

 

[bikerchris1270]

I'm nervous about Red Dust and Pulley issues.
My, new to me, F3T has 1600 miles on the clock.

I just ordered a new front pulley and bolt to be on hand, just in case.
Now I plan on several long tours this summer. If I hear clicking or see the dust
how long do I have before disaster?

I can carry enough tools (except the jack) to change the pulley, but a repair of this nature
could be uncomfortable on the road.

What say you.

I Has anyone been stranded by a pulley failure?:shocked:

**** My thinking is similar to yours, I have long trips planned this year, a new(they are painted white) pulley on the bench. I’m gonna go ahead and replace it...... let the old pulley be the spare. The only negative here is that I could be wasting $130 dollars for peace of mind. Don’t forget the assembly paste.

 

[PMK]

I'm nervous about Red Dust and Pulley issues.
My, new to me, F3T has 1600 miles on the clock.

I just ordered a new front pulley and bolt to be on hand, just in case.
Now I plan on several long tours this summer. If I hear clicking or see the dust
how long do I have before disaster?

I can carry enough tools (except the jack) to change the pulley, but a repair of this nature
could be uncomfortable on the road.

What say you. Has anyone been stranded by a pulley failure?:shocked:

Honestly, my opinion is you are over thinking this and should approach it differently. Consider that correctly lubricating the pulley splines is routine maintenance, vs a run until failure occurs way of taking good care of your Spyder.

Worn pulley splines are a known concern. The maintenance to get long life is not difficult for many owners that accomplish there own work.

With such low milage now, I suggest preventing wear. Remove the existing pulley. Clean and inspect the splines of the pulley and gearbox shaft. Correctly lubricate the splines with moly paste and reassemble. Note the milage you accomplished the task at.

You did not share your intended traveling distances. Once done correctly, put the spline inspection and relube on a scheduled interval. If you follow the 9300 mile oil change interval, possibly this is an overly safe distance.

Continuing to ride as is, chances wear and corrosion of the gearbox shaft, which is certainly bad.

From a safety standpoint, several have made comments that they were essentially stuck in traffic with no means to move. Not good.

 

[PW2013STL]

2014 rt traded in at 84,000 miles with no pully issue
2015 F3 traded in at 56,000 miles with no pully issue
2018 F3 at 33,000 miles started nearing a noise pulled the pully cover and found red dust. Replaced it with the new white pully. Purchased Honda moly assembly paste (60% moly). Cleaned the shaft with brake cleaner and with a cheep paint brush that I cut down the bristles to make it stiff applied the moly past to the shaft and with a new bolt installed the new pully.
My take is that the pully issue is a hit or miss as to will it happen. Three bolts and a push pin is all that holds the cover on making it easy to check for the read dust. Even with the one issue in 173,000 miles I will not carry a spare pully, but will keep a eye on out for the red dust.
Of course you can be proactive as others have suggested and it may give you piece of mind which is priceless.

 

[Jdr00ejr]

What's this white pulley folks are talking about? I replaced mine at 18k miles on my 2015 F3S (last year). Anyone have a part number and/or picture of this "white" pulley? Thanks!

 

[blacklightning]

I had 28k on my 2014 RT with no issues (not a known issue with them), and now have 24k on my 2016 F3T with no issues. I check it occasionally and before doing a ride over 500 miles. But outside of that, I am not really concerned.

 

[bikerchris1270]

What's this white pulley folks are talking about? I replaced mine at 18k miles on my 2015 F3S (last year). Anyone have a part number and/or picture of this "white" pulley? Thanks!

 

[bikerchris1270]

View attachment 187904

 

[Haze]

Thanks for the responses.

 

[Haze]

Thanks for the responses. Tour distance will be 1000 - 2000 miles per trip.
I plan to pull the current pulley as a PM action.
Will put paste on the splines and reinstall per spec.
The new pulley goes on the shelf.
The Pulley I ordered from CheapCycleParts is:
Sprocket 28 Thooth
Can-Am
item: 705502134

 

[RosieriderKY]

newest pulley

Thanks for the responses. Tour distance will be 1000 - 2000 miles per trip.
I plan to pull the current pulley as a PM action.
Will put paste on the splines and reinstall per spec.
The new pulley goes on the shelf.
The Pulley I ordered from CheapCycleParts is:
Sprocket 28 Thooth
Can-Am
item: 705502134

So is the newest pulley 705503239? Does that mean it that 705502134 will be replaced? Does the white pulley have the new bolt that has the washer built into the bolt? It is time for me to order a pulley and I would like to get the newest version.
Thank you.

 

[askitee]

I just completed a long trip on my 17 RTL (around 2000km's over 8 days). I knew it had the red dust on the front sprocket before I went away. A little over 1/2 way into the trip I began to get a noticeable rattle (sound and vibration) - a Spyder rider mate and I blamed it on the belt tensioner I had fitted we fiddled with it and it sounded like the noise as it only appeared on deceleration at speeds below 60km/h. It seemed the tensioner bearing had begun to fail

As the trip went on, the noise and vibration got a bit worse but not major - if the tensioner failed I wasn't worried.

Back home I lifted the RTL and found the noise is coming from either the pulley now being fully loose on the spline or from what ever is behind the pulley in the gearbox casing. I haven't had the temperament to go back and dig further because it is 30 days out of warranty. If its the pulley it'll be my 3rd. One of the F3's on the trip is on his 3rd front sprocket, is 87 years young and not a hard rider. He's had 3 F3's since 2018 and all have had at least one pulley change under warranty.

Both of us wish BRP would get their **** together and sort this out. If I were with one of my previous employers where I was a mechanical fitter, there were two departments we would take a problem part like this to and have them assess it to have mods made to the manufacture of the new part before we fitted it (change in materials - metalurgists and/or change in dimensions - Engineering).

 

[Haze]

The old pulley is what shipped from CheapCycleParts.
I ordered from the 2017 section of there online service.
No automatic upgrade to the new pulley at shipping.