Final drive belt jumping

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04BDMastiff

Member
04 Mastiff that has a Carlisle RPP Panther belt with Ultra Cord. Under hard acceleration the belt jumps teeth. It has about 5,000 miles on the belt. It 'seems" to be tensioned although i can't find any info on what the tension spec is. I don't want to over tighten and blow out the bearings. Any ideas?
 
ksmike

ksmike

Active Member
I would bet your belt is not jumping teeth. More likely your transmission is popping out of gear. As the shift forks wear and flex its gets worse. 3rd gear seems to be the worst culprit. I just replaced the shifting forks in mine and 3rd gear fork was bent to the point it would jump in and out of gear on normal cruising. It is a pretty easy fix to put the forks in, just take off the pulley, pull the fork shaft out, and take off the top cover to get to the forks. Around $150 in total parts from baker for the 3 forks and fork rod. I believe the forks get bent from the pressure of the gears trying to force themselves apart under heavy power. Don't go crazy on tightening the belt,..it wont help.
 
ksmike

ksmike

Active Member
Maybe it is your belt, I looked again at your post and saw that you have an "04" . The shift fork problem I referred to my not apply to the earlier transmissions. I know on mine, my initial thought was that the belt was slipping also.
 
Wills67

Wills67

Well-Known Member
Check the teeth on the rear pulley. The earlier models had an issue with the coating wearing off which also causes the belt squeal issue. Best fix for this is Supermax.
 
Knuckles

Knuckles

Active Member
bigdogtech01 said:
You want belt tension to be 3/8" with 10lbs of upward force on top strand of belt.
Click to expand...
That seems really tight to me. I've searched a few other posts that say an inch to inch and a quarter. Reason I ask its mine seemed to slip once yesterday... not sure.
I respect your knowledge on these dogs... just don't want to stretch the belt. I did notice my girlfriend's nightster belt is significantly tighter than mine.... but that is apples to oranges.
 
B

bigdogtech01

Well-Known Member
Knuckles said:
That seems really tight to me. I've searched a few other posts that say an inch to inch and a quarter. Reason I ask its mine seemed to slip once yesterday... not sure.
I respect your knowledge on these dogs... just don't want to stretch the belt. I did notice my girlfriend's nightster belt is significantly tighter than mine.... but that is apples to oranges.
Click to expand...
Yes 3/8" with 10 lbs of upward force is the spec. on models up to 2004...2005 and up is 3/16"-1/4"... A loose belt will break during acceleration. 1-1.25" is WAY too loose.
 
Q

Que

Member
I have a 2007 Chopper and from day 1 the belt slipped. Bought a new belt w/ pulleys and during teardown I noticed the swingarm pivot bolts were snapped causing flex. Not saying that is your problem but worth looking into. I have also popped a belt due to it slipping so what they are telling you about it popping is true. Still can't get my belt to track right, thinking it might be the swingarm is bent due to the snapped bolt. When I bought it the top right side of the tire was rubbing the turnsignal bolt in the fender. That leads me to think something is out of wack. I have replaced the tires and adjusted the fender struts so that the new tire would not rub. This bike seems to be a basket case.
 
Slider

Slider

Active Member
I just do 3/8 to 1/2" preload tension for my bd and hd.

Bikes and women no good if too loose.
 
V

VT Chad

Member
When I got my pulley back from supermax they suggested running the belt as loose as you can without it ratcheting. I would take a good hard look at the teeth on your rear pulley, mine was toast by 14k miles and broke my belt.
 
330-DAN

330-DAN

Member
This is what mine feels like its doing as well!!! it all started after I had a new belt put on and it so happens to be a panther belt as well. I adjusted my belt up really tight and took it around the block last night and seems to have changed it some. so im in search of a different brand of belt! going to replace it and see if that fixes my issue. I thought my problem was a trans issue, so I had Andrew go through it thinking it would cure it, but I also had other trans issues that Andrew had to fix. Unfortunately the shudder on hard accell wasn't part of the trans problem.
 
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