Belt Drive on Pan Heads?

[Steve Galli]

Hello all,
What the wisdom or non wisdom of going with a belt drive on a panhead?
Doing a restore on a 58 Fl and I am considering a belt drive....
Would love to hear about it...
thanks ! Steve

[41craig]

Steve; The good thing about a belt is it takes out a lot of vibration out of the bike. You will need to shut off the primary chain oiler. If your later model bike doesn't have the chain oiler adjustment screw on the oil pump ( I deal with older models ) then there is a great article on the riding vintage web site on how to route the oil from the breather to the drain on the inner primary. Hopefully some of the experts on here will give you the long term effects.
Craig

[T. Cotten]

Please be aware, Steve,...

A belt feels good if you ride all the time.

But it requires not only the oil feed shut off completely, it requires a modern seal upon the sprocket shaft;
That way, when it sumps from sitting for weeks, it can fill your cases all the way up.

If you thought you were avoiding a mess... It gets worse when there's nowhere for the oil to go.

....Cotten
PS: I thought "restore" meant 'going back to "as it left the factory"' or 'something'.

(Not that "restore" hasn't become a dirty word in itself.)

[exeric]

Steve, I like the smoothness, and quiet of belts, but I have never had a primary chain shed it's links when I'm accelerating on to a highway. Just my 2 cents; I'll never go back to a belt.

[Steve Galli]

Steve; The good thing about a belt is it takes out a lot of vibration out of the bike. You will need to shut off the primary chain oiler. If your later model bike doesn't have the chain oiler adjustment screw on the oil pump ( I deal with older models ) then there is a great article on the riding vintage web site on how to route the oil from the breather to the drain on the inner primary. Hopefully some of the experts on here will give you the long term effects.
Craig

Hi Craig,
Mine is a 58 so I believe I can turn off the primary Oiler...
thanks ,

[Steve Galli]

Steve, I like the smoothness, and quiet of belts, but I have never had a primary chain shed it's links when I'm accelerating on to a highway. Just my 2 cents; I'll never go back to a belt.

Not a good thing!
Thanks !

[Steve Galli]

Please be aware, Steve,...

A belt feels good if you ride all the time.

But it requires not only the oil feed shut off completely, it requires a modern seal upon the sprocket shaft;
That way, when it sumps from sitting for weeks, it can fill your cases all the way up.

If you thought you were avoiding a mess... It gets worse when there's nowhere for the oil to go.

....Cotten
PS: I thought "restore" meant 'going back to "as it left the factory"' or 'something'.

(Not that "restore" hasn't become a dirty word in itself.)

Hi Cotten,
Getting this bike back this weekend... it’s been sitting since 2001...
Will tear down have frame checked, motor and trans gone over and everything else... when I say restore I mean make it all FL... It’s got shovel heads on it and a bunch of super glide stuff... make it happy again with the pan heads put back on the motor... I’m 62 now and this was my first Harley... bought in 1975...
Quite the project!
Thank you!!

[pisten-bully]

Hi Cotten,
Getting this bike back this weekend... it’s been sitting since 2001...
Will tear down have frame checked, motor and trans gone over and everything else... when I say restore I mean make it all FL... It’s got shovel heads on it and a bunch of super glide stuff... make it happy again with the pan heads put back on the motor... I’m 62 now and this was my first Harley... bought in 1975...
Quite the project!

That’s a great project and a nice find! :-)

[ammorest]

Hi Steve, according to my math, and correct me if I'm wrong, you first bought this bike when you were 18 years old. What happened to it over the years, how did you get it back, etc. Sounds like a great story to share. Thanks.
Dave

[vph-d]

I've had belt drives on Panheads since the 70s, and like them. Belt alignment is critical to long belt life.
VPH-D

[Jerry Wieland]

On a regular rider I would not dream of running a chain. When you get a belt aligned right, it will run tens of thousands of miles without need for further adjustment. With a chain you will probably be adjusting it every 1000 miles. ….but yes you will not limp a bad belt home.

I can change out a belt on the road in 15 to 20 minutes so I do not worry about.

Jerry

[T. Cotten]

Like Jerry said:

"On a regular rider..."

Nearly every belt failure that came in my shop was oil-fouled.
(Other than open-primary chops that ate rocks!)

Sump monster got 'em.

....Cotten

[Jerry Wieland]

Don't know what to say Tom - maybe I take better care of my stuff than a lot of people but I expect 40,000+ miles out of a belt. I have had one that failed at 22,000 miles and I have never figured out why. Worn out pulleys can eat a belt also. To me it is a no-brainer - get the belt tracking perfect and go.

Jerry

Like Jerry said:

"On a regular rider..."

Nearly every belt failure that came in my shop was oil-fouled.
(Other than open-primary chops that ate rocks!)

Sump monster got 'em.

....Cotten

[T. Cotten]

I was agreeing with you, Jerry!

Its about riding them regular-ly.

Otherwise, there lurks the Sump Monster.

(Of course you take better care than most; That's a "given"!)

...Cotten
PS: Steve!

This is your thread.

Do you expect to ride regularly enough to purge the sump?
Like a good ride every coupla weeks at least?
(Otherwise, particularly with a belt, you should consider draining the oil tank into a jug.)

[Steve Galli]

Hi Steve, according to my math, and correct me if I'm wrong, you first bought this bike when you were 18 years old. What happened to it over the years, how did you get it back, etc. Sounds like a great story to share. Thanks.
Dave

Hi Dave,
Rode the bike all over from 1975 until the late 80’s... then life happened... Marriage and two kids...
bike was neglected.... got the itch to start fooling with it around 2001... didn’t have a lot of patience for it... so I sold it to a childhood buddy with the condition that I be notified if he was to sell it... but he never would get rid of it... we both had pan heads in the late seventies... bought. 2003 Electra glide and still have it... but you know I just really started thinking about the old panhead.... called him up and said remember that old bike I sold you? He started laughing and said it’s still here...
Picking it up on Saturday and can’t wait to start...