Posted by Frank Moss on July 27, 2001 at 20:54:33:
Hello to the Forum;
I hear a lot about strings and straight edges for aligning the belt. I don't know from strings, but I used the straight edge and it does work, sort of. However, you can only use the very bottom edge of the rear pulley because of the belt guard mounting bracket being in the way, and you have to remove the front pulley guard and the bottom half of the belt guard to get access to the two pulleys. What is the reason for aligning the belt in the first place? Isn't it so that the belt runs in the pulley(s) evenly to prevent side rubbing and premature breakdown of the belt? Look at the rear end of your motorcycle, what do you see? The pulley and the belt inside it! What you really want is the belt to be centered in the pulley with equal space between the edge of the belt and the wall of the pulley on both sides.
Put a block under the motorcycle so that the rear wheel is off the floor, the machine is level and you can rotate the wheel by hand. The clearance is small but can be seen by looking down on the pulley and observing the light between the edges. Your eye is really very accurate at detecting even small differences. So, if for example the belt is crowded over to the left side of the pulley, that means the wheel is angled to the right, therefore slacken the right side adjuster allowing the wheel to move to the left. Of course you must release the rear axle locking nut first, and if the wheel sticks in place when slackening the adjuster, then bump the axle with a light hammer tap. I noticed in my own case, after re-tightening the axle, the belt alignment did change slightly, so you may have to repeat the procedure until the belt is still aligned after the wheel has been tightened. Once you have reasonably good alignment, the best way to keep it when adjusting belt tension is to count the number of flats on the adjusting screws. Turn each screw the same number of flats and the wheel will stay straight.
This method gets your belt centered in the pulley and you don't have to take anything off the bike and mess around with strings and straight edges. Try it, it's easy and simple. Frank M.