Odd noise from belt area

Hello,

Have 13,500 miles on my swing. Lately, Ive been hearling an odd noise coming from my belt area, only on take off, and only until about 10-15 mph. Could this be an indication that my belt needs changed soon? Or what? V light hasnt came on once yet.

Thanks,
Chas

Is it shuddering on take off? If it is you can just hold in your brake and rev it up to 4,000 rpm's for a few seconds. This will take care of that.

JeffR

Yes, only on take off. Its like a mid-pitching groan. Goes away after about 15 mph.

Ill try what you suggested, tyvm. What causes this?

Thanks,
Chas

It is usually the clutch getting glazed which is usually caused by riding very slow i.e. bumper to bumper traffic. Once you do this, and it solves the problem, you could take off a bit faster from stop signs to avoid this as well.

Put both brakes full on( full power against brakes) 10-15 seconds or so----go on your way.

Age of your bike? Old, change belt soon---new go to Honda recommended miles, 16,000 replace belt with OEM

JeffR_ wrote:

Is it shuddering on take off?  If it is you can just hold in your brake and rev it up to 4,000 rpm's for a few seconds.  This will take care of that.  

Wouldnt that potentially burn a notch in the belt. I stayed at my brothers cabin overnight last winter with my snowmobile. Next morning after a night of -1000° the snowmobile track mechanism was frozen solid, tried to break it free by throttling up but ended up burning a notch in the drive belt at a cost of $80 to replace. The swing clutch/belt works on the same principle as the snowmobile.

hotwings,

I did this for 7 years with my SWing and never had any trouble. I didn't have to do it a lot but sometimes riding on streets/interstates where I couldn't filter traffic, sometimes I would get that shudder. I didn't do what John said but would only hold the brake and go up to about 4,000 rpm's for 4-5 seconds. Some people say you should remove everything and deglaze the clutch pads but that takes 2 hours and you may need to do it again later. But I never had any problem with doing this.

Not long after I got my first Silverwing I had to do the "hold the brake thing". I now have put over 50,000 miles on it and I have not had to do it again. I think as long as you give a lot of throttle when taking off to let the clutch grab then adjust the throttle to the speed you want to go you will keep your clutch from glazing. At Least it seems to have worked that way for me.

If deg-lazing the clutch shoes does not take care of the noise you may have a dry needle bearing in the clutch assembly,this is also a fairly common concern.
Not a difficult job (page 10-13 of the shop manual) and now would be the time for a through cleaning of the belt area. Howard