Ive read where age of belt may determine its life span. My question is what is the age of the belt where replacing it would be considered preventive maintenance? I have 82,000 miles on my 2003 RKP

 

You are getting to a mileage that with all info and evidence, the belt is coming to the end of its use by date.... That being said,, if the belt is checked regularly and there is no major damage, there is a fair chance the belt has many more miles on it...

If the bike is a keeper ,, and for some reason in the next 10 or 20,000 miles you have to remove primary components, (compensator/clutch), my advice would be to throw a new belt on her .....

 

Yep that's the unfortunate part of Big Twin tourers, having to strip the engine down to change a belt ! Sporty's are much easier, in fact chain drive is much easier...b.

 

Exactly what part of the engine must be stripped down in order to change a drive belt??

 

Well put it this way...you aint changin it in half an hour ! Primary cases etc...b.

 

You will also be replacing the front sprocket at this mileage. By this time it is most likely squared off.

I replaced my friends at 100,000 it was about to fall off. However, he didn't baby it. A lot depends on how you treated it. Nonetheless, you are approaching a common mileage. Check the belt for cracks along the teeth or teeth that are lifted. You can do that easy enough.

 

Preventative maintenance IMHO is checking it regularly, both for condition and tension. When inspecting my own belt I found a sharp sliver of stone had penetrated it and dinged the rear pulley, so removed the stone and kept an eye on the wound. Your FSM explains what to look for. Eventually after around 4k miles the wound began to look as if it was spreading and I also had an annual vacation trip planned, so replaced it and the rear pulley.

 

I am doing mine right now on my 2008 FLHTC at 70k miles. Nearly half my teeth are "hinged" on one side. In other words, about half of them are not connected to the belt very well anymore.

 

Check your front pulley - if the teeth are square or sharp and not round (which I am sure they will be) you need to replace that too.

 

I am taking this opportunity to change both sprockets and improve my terrible gearing in this 2008 bike.