650 Belt Life

There are two reasons for belt squeak: too tight, or too loose. The 650 belt can be a high maintenance item if you or your dealer does not know how to maintain it correctly. People that perform proper belt maintenance and exercise proper driving habits can get VERY LONG life out of their 650 belt. Generally speaking, the 650 belt does not ever fail suddenly and will never leave you stranded. It will, however, gradually get looser and cause severly degraded performance (squealing, squeaking, squawking) if not properly cared for. The care is not difficult or time consuming, it just needs to be done in an intelligent manner. The amount of belt care the 650 needs , if cared for properly, is very minimal. People that can do this kind of simple maintenance themselves should not use belt life as a consideration when choosing between the 650 and another quad but are leary of the CVT system. It just is not a problem if you obey the belt life rules.

If your belt squeaks at takeoff, it is loose. This is bad. It not only wears faster because it is loose, but it is wearing grooves in the pulley sheaves very much faster. It either needs to be adjusted or replaced since it can develop a glazed surface.

Belt life rules:

  • Getting belt wet and trying to move forward while it slips ruins the belt (depends on how bad you do it). Get your thumb off the gas and get the machine to dry land. Rev the engine in neutral. If you have water in the crankcase. Drain it and change it before riding again. If the water is 99% out of the crankcase but some may be left in, leaving the quad in the garage a long time may ruin it, but driving it a lot and getting the motor hot may cause the rest of the water to evaporate.
  • Driving with the belt loose wears belt and pulleys really fast. Adjust it to the low end of the spec. See the tech tip on belt adjustment.
  • Neglecting to install the black spring is bad. The black spring mainly decreases belt wear (and slippage), but may also reduce the gear ratio slightly to help turn big tires. Get it from EPI or get the Dalton secondary spring (similar).
  • Riding a lot in really dust conditions, sucking in a lot of dust (it is proven that dust plays a huge factor on belt and pulley life). You may not be able to do anything about this. Try not to follow too close behind the dust cloud makers. Look for aftermarket filtration systems when they are available.
  • Big tires wear belts out faster. You may need big tires for mud, so make this is your only violation of this list.
  • Riding slow in high is a needless cause of belt wear. Shifting to low whenever driving slow, climbing or mudbogging will help save the belt.

    If you have big tires you can still get relatively long belt life by cautiously observing the rest of the belt rules. Overall belt wear also depends on the driving habits of the rider. Some people can ride their machine in high range constantly without their belt wearing very fast. However, if you violate very many of the above listed belt wear reasons, you may find yourself working on the belt a lot earlier than you wanted to. If it only lasts 400 miles, you probably violated plenty of these belt wear rules (or rode mostly in the mud). If it goes over 2000 miles, you probably kept the rules fairly well.

    If your belt squeaks at idle, it may just be a little tight. This is not neccessarily bad. It may be a good thing since it means the belt is a long way from being too loose.

  • A lot of people adjust their deflection to .87, the minimum deflection specified by the repair manual. Afterwards they notice squeaking when idling in gear and also a little pull from the belt even though the engine is at idle. However, this condition may be greatly reduced after the first ride of sufficient length. Afterwards the belt will still be a bit tight and squeal at idle somewhat. It could take hundreds of miles for the squeak to stop, but the belt lasts a very long time in this conditions. Although it does not appear to cause any problem being this tight, some people may want to loosen the belt up the next notch looser (whatever the next possible thicker shim combination there is). Note: do not leave the engine idling in gear for any significant length of time when the belt is this tight. Put it in neutral or shut the engine off.
  • The belt works a whole lot better tight than it does when it is loose. The machine will have a lower starting gear ratio and a snappier, more responsive takeoff. It will also not slip even in the worst mud bogs.
  • The belt will last longer.
  • Since there is less slippage, the tight belt is not wearing the pulley faces off as much either.

    It is up to you if you want to re-adjust it if it pulls hard and squeals at idle. If you can stand the squeal at idle, just leave it.

    It looks like the KFX700 uses all the same pulleys as the 650, except the belt is wider and stronger (and more $$). The 360 belt is also wider and includes the tapers at the top like the 650 belt. The 700 belt does not have the taper at the top, but this shouldnt matter. Some people have been using 700 and 360 belts on the 650 already, and they have been working well. The 700 belt reportedly adds approx 4-5mph to the top speed. The 360 belt appears to have no affect on top speed. Tracy's World of Cycle 1-800-860-0686 may have them for $64 or so.