Is venting required for Belt-Drive primary?

Hi

I have HTD belt from Maney Norvil Newby NEB QPD
I have AT10 belt from RGM Hayward
Run in sealed cases, run with the inner seal plates removed from the inner case, run with no inner case, run with open alloy cover, run in Dommies Commandos Daytonas Bonnies Tridents.
Just keep them loose, if used on the road with venting they will fill up with muck. Bit like venting Triumph cotton reel hubs with big holes looks good but fill with water & grit. If you like ease of maintenance don't vent the covers.
I would run a chain set up if I had one to hand but I would never buy a replacement for it when it wore out.

Chris

Since it appears as though you have about tried them all, what
finally put the nail in the belts coffin? Certainly seems that
you tried hard to stay with them.
why?

The structures that hold a belt or chain expand the distances between centers and only takes one over tight event to candy cane shafts. Max cold belt tension allows full 90' twist w/o hurting fingers and no tools or change of tension to work belt on or off. If grit gets to fraying the belt edges it will unravel way too soon unexpectedly. Chain drive is forgiving to the clutch wobble but not belts.

Torontonian said:

Installed the R.G.M. belt drive on Crazy Combat and went for her first ride. Got about a mile then turned back with clutch problems.Aluminum bits in the basket and in plates and no where else. Took out clutch to observe that the clutch center had been wearing at the basket piece right behind it. This clutch center as we all know is held in by a large circlip to the back and is fully home and non-adjustable ,not a shim situation.Sun well on the sealed bearing before and after this event so I cleaned out the bits and re-assembled for a short ride,seemed O.K. Has this happened to others, heat expansion ?

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I can't tell from your description if your basket is wearing at the same place as mine. When I put in a new center the parts went together ok but I got a screeching noise when I let out the clutch after everything was warmed up. The Hayward basket has seen three centers over 40k miles and the other two didn't cause any problems. When I took it apart I found this. The clips were in place and it didn't look as if the center or the basket shifted on the bearing in the small space behind the clips. The basket didn't bottom out in the center. The radius at the corner of the hub was too big, or not deep enough, and the walls themselves aren't parallel either, they have a slight taper too. The basket has a lot of material where the corner made contact, so I cleaned it up and got a little clearance there. I chucked the hub in a lathe and spun it up while I went at the radius with a Dremel with a small round stone to clean it up. Between them I got the necessary room, no more problems.



The Hayward Syncroflex Gen III belts supposedly can be run wet or dry, sealed or vented. The Gen III polyurethane belt is rated up to 100C. For me it boils down to wanting to run dry Barnett plates and a sealed dirt-free primary. Everything looks fine after 5k miles.