Belt Replacement on the VN900

[Polarbear]

Ok so after stalling for over a year on replacing the belt on my 2008 VN900 LT I finally did the job Aug.17/13, although it was a bit time consuming it is not all that difficult. You DO Not have to remove the swing arm to do this job as has been pointed out on previous posts, if you are mechanically inclined you can swap your belt out and be out on the road again in 3-5 hours depending on your sKill level. So I will list the steps I took in replacing the belt, I hope this helps some of you and helps keep some $$ in your pocket.

# 1... losen the 14mm bolts on the left side floor board and let it drop to allow access to the allen bolts at the bottom the engine cover, remove the cover, now remove the wires on the inner cover over the front drive pully out of your way, and remove the 4 allen bolts on the cover ( you will need a good set of metric allen sockets/ wrenches ).

#2... Remove the 3 X 8mm bolts that hold the black plastic cover to the right of the pully.

#3... Remove the seat from the bike

#4... Remove the Philips Screw for the left side cover and remove the side cover.

#5... Remove the chrome cover over the anti-freeze resivoir bottle, remove the 2 allen bolts that hold the bottle and once free remove the overflow hose from the bottle ( if you hold it horizontzly you will not lose your anti freeze and just set it aside in that position til you reinstall it).

#6... Remove saddle bags if so equipped..12mm & 10mm sockets required.

#7... Remove upper belt guard ( allen bolts ).

#8... Now back to the front pully, with a hammer and fine blade chissel or straight screw driver tap down the lock washer that is bent over the 27mm nut that holds the front pully in place ( be gentle because you will reuse the washer. Now with a 27mm socket and power bar place it over the nut on the pully, have a friend apply the rear brake on hard, this will allow you to break the nut free, do not remove the nut yet.

#9...Lossen the rear axle adjuster nuts (17mm & 14mm wrenches ) back the nuts off to the end on the adjusters.

#10.. Remove the cotter pin on rear axle nut and losen the rear axle nut ( 27mm wrench )

#11.. Place bike securely on bike lift and raise the bike just enough to have rear wheel touching the ground.

#12.. Now you may have to remove or losen your exhaust to allow access to the nut that is on the main swing arm bolt, on my bike I have aftermarket exhaust so I just had to losen the bolts on the rear cylinder header ( 12mm ) and the 2 bolts on the rear pipe mounting bracket , this gave me enough room to get a 22mm impact socket on the nut..this socket has a hole in it which allows you to place the shaft of a phillips screw driver in it to stop it from turning...now using your power bar and a 19mm socket, place it on the swing arm bolt on the left side of the bike and break it free while a friend hold the 22mm from turning. Do not remove yet!!

#13..Place the bike in neutral and and follow the proceedures for removing the rear brake, wheel and lower belt guard.

*Once the wheel and lower belt guard have been removed you now are ready to remove the front pully.

#14.. Now remove the 27mm nut and lock washer from the front pully and slide it off.

#15.. Now remove the main swing arm nut and bolt, the nut should be able to be remove by finger if you had losened it enough,if not just spin the bolt til it is free, the bolt should slide out of the swing arm fairly easy by wiggling the swing arm up and down back and forth. Once this bolt is removed the swing arm will drop free, remove the swing arm bushing, it will just pop out easily.

#16.. You are now ready to remove & install your belts..have a friend lift the swing arm up all the way, you will see now that by twisting the belt so that the belt teeth are straight up and down you now have enough room to slide the belt past the swing arm and frame, the trick to installing the new belt is to feed it in from front of the bike to the rear because of its stiffness, once you have slid it past the the swing arm your home free and can begin to to put your bike back together.

Couple points...grease the swing arm bolt and rear axle bolt before you reinstall them.

Do not rush, take your time when puttting everything back together in the order they were removed and securely tightened.

Belt alignment and tension, depending on whether or not you have after market pullys or stock you can get really close to what you need by doing a thread count on your adjusters, equal number to threads showing on each side and 1/2 inch of belt flex when you push down with your thumb. I have Baron Pullys on my bike and this worked perfect the first shot, you should only need to do one more adjustment after a break in period.

IMPORTANT !!! Remember to to pump up your rear brake once you have everything back together and before you head out, if you think you will forget make a tag and tie it on to your throttle grip as a reminder.

Ok so that is basically it in a nut shell, hope it helps...I know it looks like alot but it really is straight forward and not difficult...I would guess a shop would charge you upwards of $1000.00 to do this job that may or may not include the new belt.

Cheers !!