drive belt rubs t/g's oil pan

hay Msocko3 and others. have you checked the drive belt. see att. pic.
this shows the drive belt rubbing the OEM oil pan lip and upper portion
of the case.the baker oil pan i have installed fits flush with the upper case;
therefore we have a problem. do you have any
"belt-to-housing clearance" thanks lb
?

What bike/what trike?

'09 tri-glide 18600 miles

I don't own a TG, but I surely know that is not normal. You should be able to "see" slight clearance between the belt and the pan...or anything else close that the belt may rub. Is the belt rubbing on the inside lip of the drive-pulley, or can you tell?

To me...looks like the rear end needs shifting over a tad. There should be a few thousands of clearance between the belt and the lips on both the drive and driven pulley's. Look at your rear pulley and see if the belt is riding flush with the lip or has a rub. If the pulley's get too "cocked"....it will eventually result in a broken belt.

A good way to check for rubs is to coat the outside edges of the belt with chalk and see if any of it rubs off, but in your case....since the belt is rubbing on the tranny-case, you can't really tell. I think you're going to have to get under the trike and "watch" the belt run across the pulleys to see what's going on. Just a SLIGHT adjustment of the rear-end will make a HUGE difference in how the belt runs over both pulleys.

great idea i showed the service guy at the dealer the pictures & they would look into it. my elt deflection is 5/8" and specs are 3/8 -7/16" . will look into seeing if there is any adj. to the rear pulley? the 20k mile ck will include the drive belt and compensator sproket.
the belt is definately rubbing the oil pan & upper case. i can't get any size feeler gage between the belt & case.
i will do the belt /chalk test today.

Belt deflection (within reason) is not likely going to be an issue here. There is no "pulley adjustment" as such, but the entire rear axle can be adjusted from side-to-side to get the pulleys to run-true, or it may be yawed bad enough. In any event....hope your service guy can figure it out. Since you can't move the motor/tranny in or out....there is no choice but a rear-end adjustment....unless the frame is bent or warped....etc.

Good Luck!

thanks for your thoughts on this. what gets me is expecially at the 1k insp, but the 5,10,15k., insp's as well how that the drive belt had NO clearance
was missed is beyound me. guess it took a retired acft. mech to find it. guess i should n't relyed on their "its ready" for a answer especially because this bike is new to the system og inspections that the dealers are use to.
i'd hate to think what this would cost if it was out of warrenty.
i will keep everyone updated on cause and # of hrs for the fit.

This picture kind of shows the belt and pan, I have plenty of clearance between the belt and pan on mine, no rubbing.

I just had something dawn on me, you might want to check the difference between the rear axle measurement on each side to see if its cocked which will make the belt run crooked. If you have a service manual you should find the procedure in the section for adjusting the belt. If I remember the spec is .062, when I adjusted my dads and my belt tension I got it within .008. Below is a picture of how I measured each side.

That's what I have been gettin' at Mike. If it's "yawed"....the belt will run crooked, or if the rear is out of adjustment too far left-or-right....it will cause misalignment. The drive and driven pulley have to be in perfect alignment (insofar as possible). The belt should not actually touch the lip on either pulley and it doesn't take much to be out. The belt may stay in the pulley and not climb it due to the lip, but it will still run crooked....until it snaps.

1550vt said:

That's what I have been gettin' at Mike. If it's "yawed"....the belt will run crooked, or if the rear is out of adjustment too far left-or-right....it will cause misalignment. The drive and driven pulley have to be in perfect alignment (insofar as possible). The belt should not actually touch the lip on either pulley and it doesn't take much to be out. The belt may stay in the pulley and not climb it due to the lip, but it will still run crooked....until it snaps.

Click to expand...

Thats what I get for getting in a rush and skimming:blush:, I caught that the second time around when I read the entire thread.

Mike.....ALL of us old people do stuff.....sometimes 3 or 4 times in the course of a day not remembering what we have said or done the last time we said or did it. Just ask your Dad!

extended warrenty won't cover adjustments . (not what i was told when i bought the t/g.) but i'm going to have it done wensday. follow-up comming

Didn't you change oil pans to a higher capacity pan??