I have the same problem on an X-Bones... as me and plane among others have discussed before...

I've discussed it with moco but haven't had a chance to follow up as I had to do a shut down and then two days later a start up for Hurricane Gustov on the casino I work at here on the coast...

If I don't have to start doing the same thing over again for Ike I'll be contacting them again this Friday...

But its almost like the frame acts like its twisted... You can't keep the belt off one side of the pulley unless you go way out of specs and then everything else is screwed up...

Charlie D.

 

robzuc97, are you sure you don't mean 1/10th of a degree? I mean one degree is huge.

 

Hey Charlie D. Hope you get a solid answer on this one of these days. I'm living with what I've got but I like you don't care for it.

 

yes, one degree -is- huge, but it is the spec. Closer to perfection is better, but with all the tolerances stacked up... it gets big.

If your fighting to get your drive belt to stop riding up next to the outer lip of the pulley,
stop pulling your hair out.. they -all- really do - do that . It's normal. Focus on getting the chassis straight to the tires.

If you're wondering if the front end is straight, just drive straight down the road and then look at how perpendicular your upper tree is to your line of travel. If it's not perfectly parallel to the ideal horizon out there, then you have a twist in your front end.
if your handle bar is not parallel to the upper tree, fix that first. after all that, if the centerline of your butt crack isn't following the steering neck as you're going straight down the road, then your rear wheel horizontal angle could use some adjustment. That is alignment by perception... and how I do it for my customers. I've learned that no matter what the rulers and lazers and plumb bobs say, if the customer percieves a problem, then there is a problem. They're not asking me to fix the problem as much as they are asking me to fix their perception.

ps another way to check your front end for twist is to lay a plate of glass across your fork tubes.. if the glass lands on all four corners.. you're good... if it wobbles and rocks, something isn't straight, either a tube is bent or the tree is twisted.

Hogdoctor

 

Hog, I've got a digital level good to 1/10th of a degree. Just for grins I'm going to check out my vertical alignment.

BTW, I finally got everything straight and true. You nudged me back to the front end and I was able to do some heavy handed coaxing of the forks and got them right now. Everything is straight and true.

Since vertical alignment isn't adjustable I'm not going to sweat it.

 

Ok Hog, I'm between 4 and 5 tenths out. And as things would go it's out exactly as I thought it was. The top of rear tire is leaning to the left which makes the belt ride the left side of the pulley and when I back the bike up it rides the right side of the pulley.

Too bad Softails don't have a way to dial the lean out. If the swingarm axle hole was larger you could put top and bottom set screws or better yet a concentric washer of some sort that you could turn to move the tilt one way or the other. Wouldn't take much.

As I keep thinking about this when I tighten the rear axle I'm on the jiffy stand which makes the rear wheel tilt to the left. Maybe there is a bit of slop back there and I could jam a shim to make the rear wheel go where I want it to.

One shim on the left side on the bottom of the axle and one on the top on the right side. The shim could be made of anything. Plastic would be good...maybe a water bottle cut up into small strips.

I'll have to see if there's enough slop to do it.

 

It won't make any difference. The belt will still ride to the left when rolling forward, and to the right when rolling backwards. It's the nature of the belt, not the alignment.
They all do that. Honest. It's normal.

now quit looking at it and go ride it.

;^)

Hogdoc

 

Hmmm, maybe you're right. I should just be happy that I got everything else straight and enjoy the bike for what it was made to do. Still...it keeps buggin' me that it has any lean to it.

 

I use coat hanger and a zip tie, do you have a shop manual? That will explain how

 

If you're talking about the rear alignment I have a tool for that. Accurate as can be too. The service manual was ordered the same day I bought the bike.