Talked to the dealership today and told them the bearings didnt fix the problem. So the service writer made another date for next Friday.I told him the belt was real tight when I got home yesterday and loose this mournig his reply was it will tighting when it gets warmed up. That just dont sound good to me sounds like they have issues they need to work on. First he said the belt would stretch when it got warm if that was the case I would not have this problem. I told him I believe the pulleys are the problem getting bigger as the get warmed up causing the belt to get tight. Then he was not saying nothing thought my phone dropped the call at first. Wonder if a new belt would help anything just a thought.Just my luck I guess every time I buy something new it has problems when nobody else stuff doesnt.Going to have to stop buying new and go with used.

 

Man, this is sounding like the "good old days" when we had chains.

 

I had the same problem with the obnoxious noise until I loosened the belt and then used Harley's "Poly Oil" which totally eliminated the noise. Just put a few daps on the belt and ride it a few miles to get it distributed on the belt and compensator sprocket. The description and part number below is from the Harley Accessory catolog page 769 (2009 catalog).

Poly-Oil

Recommended for the engine compensator sprocket on primary belt drive models.

99860-81
Hope that helps - worked for me.

 

PS on the Poly Oil, here is the webpage from the Harley site for the oil:

http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/g...bmLocale=en_US

 

Tennessee Streetglide,

I took my bike out Sunday morning, check the deflection at the belt inspection slot in the belt guard before I left which seemed to be within “spec”, took a leisurely ride about 15 miles up the road, never heard any abnormal noises, turned the bike around and got off and checked the deflection again, the belt was tighter but still had some deflection. On the way home I picked up the pace to about 70 mph and when I slowed down at for a red light I could hear the noise again, pulled the bike over and checked the belt deflection again, this time there was no deflection in the belt, it was tight as a banjo string.

My conclusion: (1)there is a definite correlation between the tightness of the belt and the abnormal noise I’m hearing and (2) the drive belt does get tighter when the bike gets hot, probably(??) as a result of the metal pulley’s expanding as they get hotter.

Solution: Loosen the belt, even if amount of deflection is a tad outside of “spec”, at least this will solve my obnoxious noise problem.

Concerns: (1)What will be the long term effects of loosening a belt outside factory specs. (2)Is there anything other the normal expansion that is causing the belt to get so tight. (3) If I don’t do anything what will the effect of the abnormally tight belt be on other components in the drive line.

Strategy: I plan on riding the bike to the dealership on Friday, have the service rider or tech ride the bike while the belt is tight and making this obnoxious noise, get their opinion and discuss my concerns. If they tell me this is normal and have any reservations about the adjusting the belt, I’m just gonna say fk’em, buy the tools necessary to adjust the belt myself using Iclicks method and never spend another dime with this dealership.

Harleyman1340 (old evo guy, and still love the sound a shovel head makes)

 

Well at least for the second of your concerns, mine does the same thing. So I don't think it's a problem unique to you. It seems like a lot of us see the same phenomenon. To be honest, I had a belt drive bike before (yamaha road star) and I never worried about belt tension. Never even checked it (my bad) but I'm leaving my HD belt a bit looser than spec and I'm really not going to worry about it. I'll check the belt for damage to the teeth from time to time and as long as I'm not skipping teeth when riding and tearing them up, I don't see how it will be a problem. Just from what I know about mechanical things, it would seem to be a bigger problem to be too tight. Adding stress to the bearings on both the ids and the engine output shaft.

 

In theory I tend to agree. But I am adjusting mine per the service manual and am not having any of these noise/whine problems.

 

GUYS, I did not read all the posts, We had the same problem with the noise when it got hot, and like everyone else it drove me nuts, My belt was out of line and to tight, , I bought the Harley wrench for the axles, raised it up with the weight off the wheels, adjusted to 3/8 cold, and then fought with it for about an hour to get the belt perfectely centered on the pulley so it did not touch anywhere on the edge of the belt, then I used a torque wrench on the axle nut, Ive since ran about 3000 or so miles with no more noise, I dont know if it was an alignment problem or if the torque wrench made the difference, but it worked. TIM

 

I may be missing something but centering it on the pulley will mean it is centered until the bike moves forward again, at which time it will proceed to ride where it wants to ride. I can't see how moving it while stationary will change anything while riding the bike since it's movement is only restricted by the rear pulley and is free to move left and right on the front sprocket. This is all assuming you have a late-model bike, but maybe I misunderstood what you did. Newer bikes (at least as far back as '06) have cam-type adjusters that don't allow alignment of the rear wheel. Older bikes can be aligned.

FWIW since I don't recall this being mentioned on this thread, the specs for SG's and RKS's (12" shocks) are different than FLH's with 13" shocks:

SG/RKS: 1/4-5/16"
Other: 3/8-7/16"

 

My two '07 manuals (owner's and service) are like yours, except they specify that no rider nor luggage should be on the bike. I always check my belt tension while on the kickstand.