Hi all,

Last night I was remounting my rear wheelafter having the dealer repair a flat tire, when I noticed for the first time arock stuck through the middle of my drive belt. Holy craap ! The service manual mentions replacing a belt where a stone has punctured the belt on the edge, but doesn't say much about a stone in the middle. The rock sticks up through the top and bottom of the belt, and so splits the belt and makes it stand up some. I would estimate the hole or deflection in the belt is around 3/16".

I inspected the pulleys, and miraculously, they don't appear to have been damaged(yet). I want the rock out. I don't want to disassemble the primary and swing arm either, becauseI just finished some work on the chain tensioner, gaskets, etc.

A couple of questions:
[ul][*]Do any of you guys have a clever method of pushingthe rock out of the belt while on the bike w/o further damage or perhaps fracturing it so it comes out in smaller pieces? The belt has the rock tightly held, and pounding on the rock with a punch and hammer just bounces the whole belt.[*]If you could, would you trust a belt that has/had a hole in it like this?[/ul]
Thanks for the advise.

 

trade the bike in on a new one. just kidding. you have to either change the belt yourself or have the dealer do it. i would not drive it like that. could cause more damage.you can pull the rock out anyway you want because the belt is shot already.

 

If it is not a large rock and it is not on the edge of the belt, it should be okay to remove the rock and ride on it. Next time you're taking the inner primary off for any repairs/maintenance, I'd change the belt then. In the mean-time, just keep an eye on it.

 

I wouldn't take the chance.. my life is worth more then the price of installing a new belt...hate to be riding down the highway with a cager or 18 wheeler on my butt and have the belt come apart....I'd take the stone out so no more damage occurs.. then either fix it yourself or take it over to your local wrench.

 

Take the rear wheel off, take a socket just a little larger than the rock and put it under the belt on a hard surface, then use the punch and hammer from above. That should get it out, carefull not to cut the belt with the socket, if you really have to whail on it, spread out the surface like a piece of wood with a hole drilled in it or something like that.
After you put it back on, check it often, if the hole develops tares around the edges, start looking for a new belt.

 

push the rock out of the belt with a small screwdriver. don't take it off the bike. just push it out. if you take it off the bike you may as well put a new one on.i had a rock go through my belt when i was about 1400 miles from home. i pushed the rock out with a screwdriver and kept on traveling. i made it home ok and didn't have any more problems. i changed the belt 11 years later when the teeth started to peel off the belt. if the teeth didn't start to peel i would still be running it.

 

I didn't say to take it off the bike, I said take it off the wheel so you can get it down to a solid surface. To take it off the bike you have to remove the swingarm. The guy said he couldn't knock it out with a punch so he obviously needs more leverage. Try reading all the words.

 

what ever you say. i know what the procedure is to change the belt. if you read my post i said "I changed the belt".

 

There is a post somewhere on these forumsfrom a guy who had a similar problem and used JBWeld to patch the hole after removing the belt. He got full life out of the belt. Try finding it on "Search" if you're feeling bold.

 

Thanks guys,

Since I found the rock while putting the rear tire back on - and at the time the shocks were off the Dyna and so the swing arm was down, and the belt was real loose- the punch and hammer was ineffective. Today I finished installing the axle, and then elevated the rear wheel so the belt was somewhat tighter. I thenrotated the belt back nearly to the rear pulley and put a wood shim between the belt and pulley so there was only an inch between them. Then I used the punch and hammer again to carefullyknock the rock back out. I finished the install job and took it out for a test ride.

I think I'm not going to replace the belt. It shows no signs of edge wear or cracking. I will keep an eye out for it in general like we all should.