The belt on my Savage has started chirping rather loudly.  I have had a number of bikes with belt drives, and have never experienced this problem before.  After reading the postings, it seems to me that this is not uncommon on the Savage.  The general opinion is that I should put some bee's wax on the belt.  I will give it a try tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have a question for the more mechanically inclined on this site, which given my level of mechanical knowledge, means almost everyone. Why is it that the belt only chirps when the bike is in gear, the clutch is engaged, and the throttle is on? (The chirping goes away when I roll off the throttle, or pull in the clutch, or coast out of gear.)

Thanks

What have you done lately to the rear wheel?

Chirping is easily caused by an alignment problem.

I bought mine and it was adjusted fine.  I noticed that the belt was riding one side, so I made a small adjustment and she started chirping.  Another adjustment and it was worse.  Finally jacked up the rear adjusted it so when spun it pretty much was in the center.  That worked, locked it down and you'll have to twist my arm pretty hard to get me to play with it again.

This might help, and it definitely won't break the bank:

Cheap Rear Wheel Alignment Tool

In general, the wheel alignment index marks on the swingarm are not to be trusted.

IHTH!

I took a heavy string & pulled the front pulley cover off, stuck the string on top of the pulley & rolled the bike forward till the string was trapped under the belt & coming out from under the belt at the front edge of the pulley. Pulled the string tight & made it touch the rear edge of the pulley, then lined the rear pulley up to that, Next time, Ill leave the rear pulley pointed to th left a hair.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 01/28/09 at 22:15:09:

I read this tutorial countless times, but I cannot figure out what you're doing. I might get it if I could watch what you're doing.

Digger wrote on 01/29/09 at 19:25:17:


I have some moly-lube,.....
Wire up the electrodes,...I'm gonna' try it....

this chirping business has come up countless times over the years - and the myriad of solutions have been very helpful

for my 2 cents - I just bring out either a bar of soap and rub it along the inside and outside edges of the belt or I bring out a bit of dish washing liquid soap and do the same thing.

That stops the chirp until the next time it rains - then I have to reapply the soap

Not a big problem to solve really

Having done this twice on 2 different bikes, I have some confidence in that it works.

loosen the axle.
jack the rear wheel up.  
adjust the tensioners until the belt is the correct tension.
rotate the wheel by hand in the normal direction of travel.  
adjust the tensioners until the belt rides in the center of the pulley.
rotate the wheel by hand in the reverse direction of travel.  
re-adjust as neccessary.
repeat until you have a happy medium.

Now, of course both bikes came w/o squeaks so there weren't any alignment issues.  One began to squeak when I mis adjusted it, so it is capable of squeaking.