Notes on Replacing Evo Drive Belt

[brscott73]

I have a 1992 Ultra Tour Glide with a top (head) breather engine. My belt recently ended its 75k miles of service while driving home from work and left me stuck on the side of the road. I did get it home thanks to a local towing service and HOG membership (and companionship from a fellow rider who saw me standing alone, waiting for a tow truck that may or may not arrive: that's another story).

Anyway, I replaced my belt myself after performing much research and wanted to part with a few experiences.

- The primary chain locking tool, shaped like steps, is indispensable for removing compensating sprocket and clutch basket (reverse Nut).
- The torque is VERY high, so make sure you have the EXACT size sockets (usually on a 1/2" or 3/4" drive), breaker bar, and a long piece of steel piping. This will allow the removal to be fairly simple.
- When reinstalling the primary chain nuts, make sure you have a good torque wrench that will hit 150 ft/lbs. I picked one up on sale at Sears (Craftsman) with an extra long handle.
- When you remove the rear swing-arm, the engine will drop about an inch or two. This makes re installation tricky. I had to prop a 1x2 piece of board under the transmission and use a pry bar to adjust the engine to the right while sliding the swing-arm back into place. This was the most difficult part of the job and took about two hours of patience (for a first timer).
- When re installing the primary case, use the hi-temp Harley-Davidson sealant around the stator o-ring surface of the inner primary case. Also add a little to the inner primary-to-transmission and primary-to-crank case bolt holes. This will prevent leakage as described to me by a Harley-Davidson mechanic.
- Replace the primary bearing if it hasn't been done. Mine turned out to have an after-market sealed bearing that did not turn quite right, so I had to install a new inner race and new bearing/oil seal. I was able to use an exact fit (outer diameter) socket to tap the bearing in/out.
- When installing the inner race on the transmission drive shaft, I used an over-sized steel pipe and lightly tapped it into place. I used a small washer of the right thickness to measure the spacing between the race and the transmission (see the manual for measurements).
- After about 200 miles on the new belt, I took the bike on a road trip, and discovered that when it rained and the belt got wet, there was a bizarre squeaking sound. I'm certain it is due to the belt being new and the coating/sealant getting wet while rubbing against the drive sprocket. Of course it would go away at highway speeds and whenever the roads cleared. (Any thoughts on this are welcome.)

Hopefully this information will be helpful to anyone else wanting to do this job him/her self. However, my notes here are no guarantee of success and if in doubt, find a reliable mechanic to do the work for you.

-Br-

[Len]

Too late to help you now that you have the job complete, but you would not have had to take the swingarm completely off of the bike. You can just take out the bolt on the left side, pry out the rubber isolator, and work out the old belt between the swingarm and frame by turning the beld sideways, then work the new one back in. My original belt went 75,000 miles and was still ok except that a rock had taken a ride around it and I got afraid of it breaking some where a long way from home, like yours. I just changed one on a electra glide classic that had 106,000 miles on it. The rear sprocket was shot and the belt only had 4 teeth left but I'd say that was good service life!