Belt Drives

["Zack, Joe" <joe.zack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The belt drives on the big twin Harleys are a bit more complicated to change than on the Sportsters and Buells.  The Big Twin drives are on the left side, behind the primary cases that house the primary drive and the clutch.  To replace a belt, broken or not the outer and inner primary must be removed along with the primary chain drive, the clutch pack and the alternator.  If you were very talented and had an impact wrench for removing the primary drive sprocket on the crankshaft you might be able to change these yourself.  You must also remove the swingarm on all the big Twins except for the Dynas.  You are probably looking at a minimum of $500 to have this done.  The Harley shops usually have belts in stock.

The Sportsters and Buells are a bit simpler as the drive belt is located on the right side of the bike.  There is usually only a cover over the drive sprocket.  I'm not sure of removing shocks or swing arms as I have never done this on this type of bike.  It is still much simpler then the Big Twins.

So, on the BMW it would depend which side would be the drive side.

Joe Zack

Atwater, Ca.

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