Hi guys,

Here's my first tech question.

Father-in-law's '97 Savage squeals a lot when clutch is engaged, at least at low speed. Seems like it's coming from the belt, but I can't say for sure.

At the same speeds, no noise at all when clutch is disengaged (lever pulled in).

Previous owner thought it was the tire last summer, changed to a new tire "that wouldn't rub on the belt," and the noise stayed the same.

Ideas? Would a belt dressing help? The noise comes in dry weather, not just wet weather.

A belt too tight or misaligned will squeak.

Ah, I see, it's similar to the sprocket carrier bearing on all their duallies.

Ive had this exact issue, anyone that doesn't own or work regularly on one of these bikes always says its a bad bearing.  They are usually wrong.  Heres my recommendations:

1:  Remove all the belt covers and pulley cover, expose everything.

2:  Rub some canning wax on the belt and see if the noise reduces or stops- its probably the belt rubbing the pulley if it does. Wipe off the wax, don't keep a belt lubed.

3:  Check the pulley alignment on both front/back no matter what. Do it while having someone on the bike. I found having the belt closer to the interior of the rear pulley is better on my bikes.

4:  Check belt tension, use the video in the tech section.  A loose belt will yield more long term use than a tight one and its gotta be really really loose to skip teeth.

 Mess with the bearing last, it takes some work but the belt checks are really easy to do.

 The tire isn't rubbing the belt but too large of a tire can rub the swingarm.

 Yeah I cant imagine a tire somehow passes through the metal swingarm and touches the belt somehow.  

 A tire expands with speed so if its really close to the swingarm it will rub on the interior right side.  If you aren't sure just put some tape inside the swingarm, cruise up to top speed and see if there's any tape stripped.

Well I had 30 seconds to look at the bike tonight -- twisted the belt and it seemed like it was loose enough. Will inspect further over weekend.

Disagree on  aligning the belt and ignoring the marks on the swingarm.  Those marks are there for aligning the wheels/tires TO EACH OTHER.  Not aligning per marks properly will result in improper, even dangerous tracking!

Belt tension is most important as others have correctly mentioned above. Most people make it too tight.

Also great advice above is checking the pulleys to make sure that they are tight to their respective mountings.

Rather than using wax or belt dressing, use a silicon spray.  I use a can of food grade silicon spray - probably purchased from McMaster-Carr.  Use it lots in a plastics factory that make plastic food containers.   It will not harm anything, and it will quickly tell you that it is probably not bearings but dried rubber to pulley noise - that's what mine was.

An application lasts me approx. 500 miles or so.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 07/08/17 at 08:21:05:


The swingarm marks, again, are for wheel alignment, and not to be used for belt alignment.  I would think that Suzuki would have had better quality control and make these marks reliable for what they were intended for - has much to do with handling safety.

The brand of spray can of silicon I use was "Sprayon" and a quick Internet search it (along with other brands such as LPS) is sold at Grainger and even listed as a Wal-Mart product.  Using the NON-food grade version is even cheaper.  Around $6.00 per can and very easy to apply.  Spin the wheel and spray the belt as it goes by!