Drive Belt Replacement Question

[Vulcar]

Hello,
Has anyone replaced a belt on a VN900 classic LT?
I know the rear wheel would need removed.
My question is, can you replace it on the front pully without accessing the front pully? In other words do I need to remove the cover's etc., to get the belt around the front pully?
Thanks!

[SteveJB]

You'll need to remove the covers to access the pulley. But the real problem is that you have to remove the swing arm. The pulley covers should be a piece of cake after that.

Nice bike BTW.

[pacomutt]

What happened to the belt?

[crazyj]

When my belt (on my 2007 VN900 Custom) broke on Thanksgiving Day last year I found it to be a pretty straightforward job. It took about 3 hours (I had the bike only 1 week when the belt broke and had never worked on it before), and I didn't have to remove the swingarm completely; I just removed the main bolt, slipped the belt through the space, and re-bolted everything. Just use the manual and go slow. Good luck!

[Vulcar]

Thank you all for your reply. A little more involved than I want to tackle this weekend. The weather here in KY and into TN looks to good this weekend so I will ride instead. The current belt has around 70K miles on it and after heating up starts making noise rubbing on the rear pully. The adjustments are dead on, belt and tire aligned perfectly. I read that the belt can lose its adhesion properties over time with wear which I think is the problem. Plus after so many tire changes by service vendors who knows if they had bent the belt or something. I use a wax based lubricant which takes care of the noise for awhile. No big deal really but with 70K miles am afraid that the belt may decide to give someday so I purchased one and thought I would tackle the job myself. Looks like a winter job for sure.
Keep that shiny side up!

[Romans5.8]

Don't worry about that pulley cover it's a piece of cake. Like the others said, it's the back end that's a pain in the rear! (no pun intended) I took my belt off to do another repair (worst part was, I ended up not needing to, doy!) I didn't take the swingarm off either, I was able to wiggle the belt off. Just slid the wheel forward, took the belt off the front pulley (takes 3 minutes to get those covers off I promise) then slid the wheel back and wiggled the belt out. Just make sure your new belt is set to the correct tension and the rear wheel is properly aligned per the service manual.

[Vulcar]

Wow, thanks so much for the info. Knowing that, I think I can tackle it pretty quick. I have gained expertise in adjusting the rear wheel and belt for sure so that should not be a issue. I have never removed the rear wheel before but it looks pretty straight forward in the manual. The manual says remove the muffler. I assume because you need to tilt the bottom of wheel to the right to remove it? Correct or did you not remove the muffler? Thanks again Romans5.8

[Romans5.8]

I took the pipes off. Pretty easy. It's all one piece, just a few bolts. (I also replaced the nuts where it bolts to the motor with chrome ones, a little more flair!). Basically removing the pipes allows you to get a socket on the nut on the right side. You could use a box wrench and not remove the pipes though. But I do think removing the pipes will make your job easier.

[SWVA_08V2k]

I would assume the 900 rear fender comes off like the V2K's. When I do my rear tire changes I usually just pull the rear fender since it is held on by a few bolts and there is a plug in the wiring harness that disconnects the fender wiring from the rest of the bike. The only reason I do that is because I do not have a way to get the bike up high enough to get the tire out from under the bike with it on.

[Vulcar]

Thank you. Since the wheel bolt removes from the left I may try not taking the mufflers off at first. I have Cobras and they can be a pain, plus I would need to install new gaskets. I had to remove them once to install a new clutch kit. If it looks to a be issue, I sure will. Have a great weekend.