SuzukiSavage.com - adviceon chain drive

Steddy58

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adviceon chain drive
11/30/16 at 18:21:59

Hi all, due to spending the last hour of my ride listening to my belt squealing loud enough to wake the dead I'm seriously thinking of converting to a chain drive. I've tried doing a search but cant find anything ( must be putting the wrong thing in ) so could anyone give me an idea of how many teeth it should be for the front cog ( minimum and max ) and the same for the rear cog and what combination produces what result e.g. smallest allowable cog on the front and cog with the mean amount of teeth on the rear etc. Chain-wise what is a good chain to use, preferably not too expensive ( under $100 ). What opinions do you have on the choice between chain and belt (I hope this isn't another "which oil" question)

thanks in advance for any help

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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: adviceon chain drive Reply #1 - 11/30/16 at 18:41:22 What have you done to stop the squeak? How tight is the belt? Year model? Miles? Who adjusted the belt tension? Did they use the Official Suzuki tool that Guarantees a squeaky belt?
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verslagen1 YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Posts: 28886 L.A. California Gender:	Re: adviceon chain drive Reply #2 - 11/30/16 at 18:56:52 http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1335401723
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Kris01 Serious Thumper Offline Eat, sleep, RIDE! Posts: 3767 Tennessee Gender:	Re: adviceon chain drive Reply #3 - 11/30/16 at 20:25:34 http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1174239333 A lot of good info here!
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Dave

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Re: adviceon chain drive
Reply #4 - 12/01/16 at 03:41:40

It would be easier/cleaner/simpler/cheaper to fix your belt drive.

Is the belt centered on the pulleys? Does your rear hub wobble (if so....the chain drive won't be in alignment either).

Look at this thread and the other threads linked in it.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1480506578

And also Serowbots beveling the side of the belt.

Serowbot wrote on 06/01/10 at 11:36:49:

Anything you put on the belt, will quiet it 'till it wears off, (not long)...
Try scuffing the sides and teeth edges with a coarse sandpaper... Wink

...

... or use an angle grinder to bevel the belt teeth edges...

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Steddy58

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Re: adviceon chain drive
Reply #5 - 12/01/16 at 04:01:35

Hi JoG, I have done a few things, new pulleys, lubing it with soap, shoe wax etc, the thing is it only happens when its wet or damp conditions and unfortunately living in the UK that means a majority of the time, the belt is tight enough so that you can turn it through 90 degrees with thumb and fore finger without the veins sticking out from me neck. Do you mean make of belt? not sure to be honest. As to miles its fairly new in belt terms , about 7 or 8,000 miles, no official tools used in tensioning and its mostly been me who tightens, slackens, belt and quick thanks to Kris and Verslagen and Dave for their help, the bevelling looks like a good idea. I've just had the bike mot'd - about two months ago ( basically a government approved garage gives the bike a certificate of good health, and they realigned the front and rear wheels as the rear wheel was off a little bit ) I will try all ideas as I would like to keep the belt drive for all the reasons mentioned, cleanliness etc. cheers for all advice given.

p.s. just read replies and very pleased with the comprehensive help given - I will keep everyone informed as to actions taken and results achieved, thanks again

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1988 sav, mikuni vm36 carb (lancer),high comp piston, racing cam, raptor petcock, self-made exhaust, delkevic silencer (ryca header), K&N air filter, 48,000 miles

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Dave

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Re: adviceon chain drive
Reply #6 - 12/01/16 at 04:21:31

Wow.....that must be some thorough kind of an inspection if they are checking wheel alignment!

I suggest you do the rubber floor mat mod to the pulley hub first.....then work on aligning the rear wheel so that the belt runs in the center of the rear pulley. Also.....I believe it is better to run your belt a bit looser than tighter - so try making it just a little looser and see if it helps. And angling the belt teeth a little bit might help as well.

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Steddy58

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Re: adviceon chain drive
Reply #7 - 12/01/16 at 04:52:55

You're not wrong on that Dave , headlight alignment, all lights must be working, reg plate must be the correct and legal size, they put it on a rolling road check the brakes are at there optimum, forks must work properly i.e. rebound correctly and no pits or damage, they check that nothing is loose and theres no play in anything that shouldn't have play in it - thers quite a bit more as well it costs you $50 approx and if anything needs doing theres that cost on top and at $55 an hour approx its not cheap, if th bike fails the m.o.t. no riding until you get all the highlighted failures fixed and put through the test again never mind eh its only money Wink

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1988 sav, mikuni vm36 carb (lancer),high comp piston, racing cam, raptor petcock, self-made exhaust, delkevic silencer (ryca header), K&N air filter, 48,000 miles

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Brian G

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Re: adviceon chain drive
Reply #8 - 12/01/16 at 08:25:55

Hey Steddy,
I recently converted my belt drive to chain and am quite happy with the result. I used the info found on this forum to order the new front and rear sprocket and chain. This is really just a "bolt on" upgrade. Remove old belt pulleys, bolt on new sprockets, cut chain to length. I upgraded to chain drive for the simple reason that I wanted to raise the final drive ratio for better highway cruising. Raising the final drive ratio made a great improvement in highway cruising with only minor downside when pulling from a dead stop. I had already installed a simple bicycle speedo to the front wheel, so I did not have to mess with the stock speedo. ( and I wanted a trip odometer and the stock speedo was too far out of my sight line to be useful) After the upgrade the stock speedo reads 55mph when I am actually traveling at 70mph. The total cost of parts was about $85, and about 2 hours of my labor. Bottom line, this is an easy conversion, it is a cheap upgrade, it is totally reversible, and it opens up the realm of fine tuning your final drive ratio to the situation at hand. I say go for it!

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batman Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 3806 osceola new york Gender:	Re: adviceon chain drive Reply #9 - 12/01/16 at 15:25:11 Steddy, you said they did the alignment ,If they went by the marks on the bike it could be way off! you should raise the back wheel and rotate by hand ,don't go by the marks on the a frame or adjusters they are generally off.
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justin_o_guy2

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Re: adviceon chain drive
Reply #10 - 12/01/16 at 15:43:41

Try Serowbot s suggestion.
He only reshaped the right side of his belt, because he believes that the left side is perfect already.
You should do both sides,

Sounds like the tension is close, if not exactly right, but do check the pulley, as suggested.

To check tension,
First gear, roll backwards,
That puts the slack on the lower side.
The Secretary should be able to get 90* without complaining

Gulf canning wax is in the grocery, with the Mason jars.
It slings off and messes up the rim, but beats the squeak.

If yours is quiet when dry, noisy wet, and the wax doesn't suit you and different tensions won't solve it,,
Sounds like time for a chain.

Wouldn't get rid of the pulleys and belt and would mark direction of rotation on the belt.

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ohiomoto Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 2772	Re: adviceon chain drive Reply #11 - 12/01/16 at 17:20:38 I found that my belt rode the inside of the front pulley when I had it centered on the rear pulley and it still made noise. So I just just evened up the axle on the swingarm and the belt rides slightly on the opposite side of each pulley, but it's been perfectly quiet ever since. Not even a peep.
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Steddy58

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Re: adviceon chain drive
Reply #12 - 12/02/16 at 19:12:13

Back again , For the time being I've been rubbing the outer edge with hard soap which has stopped it completely ( and as has been said its only a quick fix ), so it seems like its this edge that is causing the trouble, I like the belt drive and I would like to keep it so I will try bevelling the belt with a grinder, there will obviously be a limit so I will take the pic that Dave posted and try taking that much off - would you say that that is the safe maximum to remove without compromising the belts integrity or perhaps a shaving more - would like to get a bit more info before trying it

, thanks. By the way Batman thats exactly what the garage told me 'cos I was using the marks to line up the rear wheel to tighten or slacken the belt but they used a laser to align them - will check back later.

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1988 sav, mikuni vm36 carb (lancer),high comp piston, racing cam, raptor petcock, self-made exhaust, delkevic silencer (ryca header), K&N air filter, 48,000 miles

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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: adviceon chain drive Reply #13 - 12/02/16 at 21:23:50 Don't try to grind the whole edge, just angle the part that engages the pulley cogs in a bit.
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Armen

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Re: adviceon chain drive
Reply #14 - 12/03/16 at 03:05:13

Have you checked the alignment of the pulleys with a straight edge? Yank the belt and shock and lay a straight edge along the outside edge of the rear pulley. See where it ends up in relation to the front one.
Years ago, the head wrench at a HD dealer showed me how he aligned the wheels on a belt drive bike. He got the rear wheel in the air (jack under bike) and spun the rear wheel. Slowly turning the adjusters, he first found the spot where the belt wanted to walk inboard while the wheel was turning. Then he turned the adjusters so that the belt wanted to move (very slowly) toward the outside edge of the pulley. The logic was that the outer edge of the pulley had the cast edge and was stronger than the inside edge, so the belt should want to very slightly favor the outer edge.
Of course, in there somewhere the belt tension was set.

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