TIMING BELT?

[BIG--T]

Hi, I have a 98 Standard that I have recently purchased that had 8,000 miles. I have just put 1,000 miles and have rode it pretty hard at times, red lining her at times.

My question is should I change the timing belt because of the age? I know the manual says 100,000 miles but was wondering about the age factor considering it averaged 700 or less a year.

Thanks in advance

[Chrisj CMA]

Two things:

-Riding "hard" does not stress the timing belts any more than riding "easy"

-There are two timing belts and you should visually check them if you are concerned

Like any other belt......if they are hard, cracked, lobes missing, then they must go.....if they are in good shape physically, they should be fine for many more miles

[Disco]

My bike has just under 37,000 on the odometer, but almost 12 years on the clock.  They are probably fine, but I got 2 Gates T275 belts for $18.02 each from Amazon with free shipping.  I'm going to change them in the next few weeks.  Just 'cuz.

[Black Dog]

I'm with Disco on this one...  Less than $50, for a whole lotta peace of mind 

I did mine when the Beast was 10 years old, and at 65K.  They looked good, but now I rest easy.

Black Dog

[Joe Hummer]

I will be changing mine out this weekend...80k on my 99 IS.  Piece of mind is work the money in this case.  +1 on the Gates belts from Amazon. 

Joe

[Ferris Leets]

99 I/S Had 30k on it.  I got new belts and opened it up.  The originals looked fine but since I had new in hand I changed them.  Off of the bike it was obvious that they needed changeing.  Several teeth were separating from the belt and I suspect would have come of before long. 
   New belts cheap, broken on the road very expensive.  Change the belts.

[BIG--T]

Thanks ya'll, I believe I will for piece of mind. Are they hard to change? After a lifetime of twins and some inline 4s, this thing is like an alien craft! 

[Joe Hummer]

I will let you know Saturday Night or Sunday Morning...

[art]

Very easy to change.Can be done in less than an hour.
just remember do not rotate the cams or the crank with the belts off.Take them off an replace them without moving anything

[sandy]

After removing the cover, rotate the crank with a socket. Align the marks on the cam wheels. Check both wheels and the crank marks. I believe T-1 is where you want to align that mark. It'll be obvious when it's opened up. Remove the belt tensioners and the trigger wheel pickups. Clean it all and replace belts, pickups and tensioners. The springs are suppose to properly tension the belts but I added a VERY SLIGHT bit of extra tension before tightening the bolts.

[BIG--T]

After removing the cover, rotate the crank with a socket. Align the marks on the cam wheels. Check both wheels and the crank marks. I believe T-1 is where you want to align that mark. It'll be obvious when it's opened up. Remove the belt tensioners and the trigger wheel pickups. Clean it all and replace belts, pickups and tensioners. The springs are suppose to properly tension the belts but I added a VERY SLIGHT bit of extra tension before tightening the bolts.

With just 9k on her, you think I need to replace tentioners?
Thanks

[BIG--T]

I will let you know Saturday Night or Sunday Morning...

Thanks Joe, let me know!

[Ferris Leets]

After removing the cover, rotate the crank with a socket. Align the marks on the cam wheels. Check both wheels and the crank marks. I believe T-1 is where you want to align that mark. It'll be obvious when it's opened up. Remove the belt tensioners and the trigger wheel pickups. Clean it all and replace belts, pickups and tensioners. The springs are suppose to properly tension the belts but I added a VERY SLIGHT bit of extra tension before tightening the bolts.

With just 9k on her, you think I need to replace tentioners?
Thanks

When you see how it works you can decide about the tensioners.  You won't need to change them unless they are broken. 
   As to how long it will take.  Took me about 2 hours start to finish.  I really took my time looking and checking and understanding before I removed anything.  As I remember it looks like you could do the job without removing the sensors for the timing.  But they DO need to moved.  It is actually a very simple job if you follow the instructions Sandy gave.  As long as the marks are lined up when you get done everything is good.  After it is done you can forget about them for another 10 years or 100k miles which ever comes first.

[BIG--T]

After removing the cover, rotate the crank with a socket. Align the marks on the cam wheels. Check both wheels and the crank marks. I believe T-1 is where you want to align that mark. It'll be obvious when it's opened up. Remove the belt tensioners and the trigger wheel pickups. Clean it all and replace belts, pickups and tensioners. The springs are suppose to properly tension the belts but I added a VERY SLIGHT bit of extra tension before tightening the bolts.

With just 9k on her, you think I need to replace tentioners?
Thanks

When you see how it works you can decide about the tensioners.  You won't need to change them unless they are broken. 
   As to how long it will take.  Took me about 2 hours start to finish.  I really took my time looking and checking and understanding before I removed anything.  As I remember it looks like you could do the job without removing the sensors for the timing.  But they DO need to moved.  It is actually a very simple job if you follow the instructions Sandy gave.  As long as the marks are lined up when you get done everything is good.  After it is done you can forget about them for another 10 years or 100k miles which ever comes first.

Thanks Ferris for the info and I also take my time especially if it's something I've never done before

[RP#62]

When you're all done, before you fire it up, pull the plugs and turn it through a couple of times by hand (rotate the crank with a socket).  If you did something wrong, you'll want to know about it before you start it up.
-RP

[Ferris Leets]

When you're all done, before you fire it up, pull the plugs and turn it through a couple of times by hand (rotate the crank with a socket).  If you did something wrong, you'll want to know about it before you start it up.
-RP

Not a bad idea.  I did do that because i was confident enough that the marks were aligned correctly.  On the other hand I also wear a belt OR suspenders.

I also could see this job taking .5 hr. if you had all of the tools in hand and had done it a few times.  When I changed out the POG on the Nomad  to the Ferris SOG it took about 2.5 hours the first time.  By the 4th try I could do it in about 20 minutes.

[old2soon]

In the middle of this belt removal myself. Sounds like overkill-but i took my electronic sliding calipers and measured the length of all 10 bolts that came out of there and made a chart of where each one came from. You end up giving the stealer money on your screw up that was easily saved by doing this the first time-well actually not doing it-you become real cautious. Don't ask me how i know this. A little caution-your digital camera-and good directions can go a long way to a good outcome on doing the maintenence yourself. Good rule of thumb-you get pissed off confused or tired-back off and rethink it. It never goes smoothly the first time. Also a real wealth of information available on this board right here. Don't proceed til you have a pretty good understanding of what your getting in to. RIDE SAFE.

[Joe Hummer]

Ok...to put it simply...this was EASY!!!!  You do have to remove the pickups for the timing but they are indexed so you can put them on in the right place.  Right (as sitting on the bike) belt off first...then left one off.  Put them on in reverse.  The manual says to put the tensioners on before placing the belts on.  As I said...easy enough.  As for the bolts...you can tell easy enough which bolt goes where.  they will either reach or not. 

Joe