1999 Valk IS Timing Belts

[TPGause]

My bike is now 20 years old, 84,000 miles, and I am not sure the timing belts have ever been replaced. On the generic parts page some non-OEM belts are shown. Does anyone have experience with these generic belts?  Gates #275, NAPA #250275, Goodyear #40275

[Bighead]

Many here have used the Gates belts as I am sure the others too.

[John Schmidt]

Yes, guess who makes the OEM belts. I've used both Gates and NAPA(in name only) and they're fine for our application. Those belts are manufactured for a much more strenuous application than how they're used in our bikes. You'll do fine with any of them.  

[da prez]

Last set of Gates belts were from Rock auto for around $38.00 shipped. For the pair.

              da prez

     

[DGS65]

I too used Gates no problem

[6adan]

I use Gates on all of my Goldwing's GL1000, GL1100, GL1200, & GL1500. GL1500 are the same T275.

[old2soon]

           Simple-GATES!  RIDE SAFE.

[gordonv]

My bike is now 20 years old, 84,000 miles, and I am not sure the timing belts have ever been replaced.

FYI
Manual calls for inspection at 100K miles. But most have because of age (20 yrs) or miles (100K), and almost all have found nothing wrong with them. But due to their cost when bought from other than Honda, are inexpensive enough to just replace them when you inspect.

There's some tricks in doing the job. Search, read and ask.

My IS was done at 100K. My GW was done after 25 yrs with 66K. 

[TPGause]

Thanks to all for the info on timing belts. I just ordered two Gates T275s from Amazon. It seems the Gates p/n 275 was changed to T275.  Tom

[RWhitehouse]

I swapped the originals on my '98 with Gates T275's. Bike had about 40k miles.

One of the two had a noticeable crack between two of the lugs along with a couple frayed cords.  I don't think it was in immediate danger of breaking, but given you wouldn't trust 20 year old tires with cords sticking out of them, I elected to spend $30 and replace 20 year old timing belts on an interference engine.

What was a more immediate problem was one tensioner had clearly gone bad, was spitting grease out and had a lot of slop in the bearing. Could even see uneven wear on the smooth side of the belt since the pulley would angle up a little under load.  The other wasn't leaking, but still felt looser than I'd consider normal.

I elected to do the "rebuild" with the Gates pulley for a Kia four cylinder (write up in the tech section) rather than buy new ones from Honda. Drill out the rivet on the originals, use the Gates pulleys, and replace the riveted stud with a bolt. Have about 20k miles since all that and zero issues.

It's by far the easiest timing belt job I've ever done.