RE: poly-v-belt

["John Dancoe" <jdan@xxxxxxxx>]

Wow, Tom, I had no idea the belts were that problematic.

FWIW, when I replaced original belt (in '95 at 27k miles "per schedule"), I
decided to keep it with me as a spare since I didn't want a simple belt
failure to inititate "pedestrian mode" on some Detroit side street (my BMWs
have always had a knack for leading me to good restaurants and bad
neighborhoods).

I disconnect the airbox sensor, place the belt on top of the airbox (wedged
part-way up under the tank), then reconnect the sensor. YMMV, but this fits
quite nicely on my '93 R11RS. Also stashed in this space is a small roll of
duct tape--never go to the Moon without duct tape--inside of which is stuffed
a rag and some electrical tape which in turn pads a spare turn signal bulb.

However, I had no idea that a belt failure would cause such a cascade of
catastrophic damage. It's nice to know I don't have to tension it
periodically, but you can bet I'll make visual inspection a more frequent
practice. In fact I think I'll look at it before I go to lunch.

I noted that my second belt was just beginning to de-laminate on one such
V.I.

Which brings me to the subject of interchangeability of the belts/pulleys: the
third belt is the 2nd* type, the only one available at that time, but Joe Katz
told me such a horror story about replacing his pulley that I decided to take
a gamble and put the new belt on the original pulley. So far, a few years and
many thousands of miles later, no apparent problems.

What do you make of that?

*Is the "Elast" belt actually version 3, and my current v2?

I found an old copy of my maintenance log here on my work PC, but it stops in
'99 and I was still on the second belt then (@ 50k miles). I'm thinking that
the 3rd belt was installed not long after that, as it must have been coming up
on "replacement per schedule" and, as I mentioned, it was found to be damaged
when I inspected it. The first belt was in excellent condition when I replaced
it and remains my spare.

John D

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