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Two year old cam belts-urgent to replace?

3K views 18 replies 15 participants last post by  bigiain 
#1 ·
I was in a Ducati store yesterday, heard the service manager telling a guy on the phone not to ride his bike until the cam belts were replaced, being that they're two years old. Mine's an 02, I've only got 3500 miles on it. There's nothing in the owner's manual regarding this. If it's true, what do you do if you buy a two year old leftover? My belts look fine, no fraying or anything to indicate anything's wrong with them.
 
#2 ·
Well about everyone I know replaces them at 12k or 2 years. The resulting mess that can occur is bad and expensive. Belts are cheap.

To cite an example: I work on Honda (cars) for a living. Ive seen many a broken timing belt that has looked fine but still broke. Yes cars are different than bike to an extent, but the theory is the same.
 
#4 ·
No trick, but getting the tension correct drives me up the walls. :-[

Ducatisuite has a real good instruction page on the subject. The only "special" tool I had to buy was a $5 6MM 3/8 drive allen socket to loosten the tensioner bolts. I almost stripped one on the vertical cylinder because I didn't get the 1/2" drive 6MM I had on the head straight. Very scary. I emptied the tank and raised it. Removed the belt covers (80% of the time goes into doing this!), Line up the timing marks, loosen the tensioners, remove the belts, replace the belts (and wrestle with the vertical cam struggling against the valve helper spring!), tension the belts, replace the covers, start her up, worry about the tension and every sound that was always there but you never heard :p, get over it ;D [thumbsup]
 
#7 ·
I bought a SEVEN-year-old leftover. Joined this site before the purchase, and the ppl on here said essentially the same thing they are saying to you: change 'em out, now.

The dealer agreed to foot the labor cost when I bought the bike, If I'd pay for the belts. Since he had none in stock, we agreed to to the change at the 600 mile service. The belts he took off were okay to the naked eye, but under a magnifying glass you could see they had some crazing of the surface of the rubber.

For about $125, it's cheap insurance.
 
#8 ·
desmo_drum said:
tension the belts, replace the covers, start her up, worry about the tension and every sound that was always there but you never heard :p, get over it ;D [thumbsup]
I love that line. [thumbsup]
 
#10 ·
The belts on a ducati have a smaller turing radius because of the size of the pullys.The belts also dry rot when not being used. so thats why we at ducati suggest doing so.plus the new belts have red writing on them.If you have white writing on your belts this means they are old and should be replaced.
 
#11 ·
If you order the parts tomorrow morning, you can get your bike in running condition a lot sooner than next saturday.

I'm not sure what bike you have, but if its a 2v changing the belts is a breeze. It's $44 and about an hour of your life.

I bet Chris can get the belts to your door by Monday if you order Friday am.

http://www.ca-cycleworks.com/shop/catalog/ducati/maint.html
 
#12 ·
i may be wrong, but, i was under the impression the bike had to be cold to tension the belts (old or new) because of the expansion that occurs when warmed up. :eek:
 
#13 ·
yep, tension cold. Thats what I did 4500 miles ago, zero problems.

white writing = bad Red writing = good; I see. My old belts looked really really good but had the white writing on them, the new ones had the red writing, I'm happy. :D
 
#14 ·
I changed out my belts this spring per the DucatiSuite directions. My belts were 3 years old. The process was straight forward and took less than an hour. But like desmo_drum stated I live in fear everyday. [laugh] Added the belts to my pre-ride check due to paranoia.
 
#15 ·
Last time I had a service, I discussed belts and aging with Jim Davis, the mechanic at Nichols Mfg in Milpitas, probably one of the best Ducati mechanics around. He said that the two year interval is more important if the bike isn't ridden regularly than if it gets ridden at least weekly. Where the belt sits bent around a pulley for long periods of time it tends to get brittle.

So on my ST2 I'll be at about the three year point when I get the belts changed and I'm not too worried about it, because it's rare for the bike to sit for even two weeks without being ridden.

My 888 only gets ridden about 1000 miles a year and can sit for a month or more between rides when the weather is less than perfect. I was hoping to go past two years with that bike too, but with only 2000 miles on the belts I'll probably get them changed right at the the two year point. I don't want to take a chance with that bike.

If you're willing to risk breaking a belt and having your piston come in contact with your valves, you can take your chances and go past two years. For peace of mind, get them changed.
 
#16 ·
Yes, the fear factor. I think I will run the bike without belt covers for a day, get it up to temp on a good ride, and then check to see if there is some slack in the belt. As long as there is some slack when hot, it should be O.K. no? As long as there is not too much.

slack = not a lot of stress on belt and bearings

I don't know why I go through bouts of obsession on this, I tensioned the belts 4500 miles ago with no problems, and I changed the belts 1000 miles ago and used the same procedure. There is a psycological component to maintainence eh?
 
#18 ·
Thank you for starting this thread. I read it yesterday and started to panic. I just bought my bike a little over a month ago, it is a 2000 and has 7000 miles on it. It had the 6000 mile service done and then it sat for over two years before I bought it. I am pretty sure that the belts on it were the originals.

After reading your post I did some research on just what could happen if a belt breaks. My findings brought up all kinds of unpleasant scenarios that went through my head as I rode from work to the dealership. Luckily the belts I needed were in stock, $28 apiece. It took me about 1.5 hours to change them. It would have been much faster, but I kept on rereading the instructions and making sure everything was perfect. Installation was simple, the hardest part was controlling the vertical cylinder's cam while putting on the belt. Now I am riding without covers so I can monitor the tension over the next week. I really don't want to put the covers back on because the bike looks so good without them. Does anyone have any suggestions on exposing them as much as possible, while still protecting them from debris?
 
#19 ·
Scott R. Nelson said:
Last time I had a service, I discussed belts and aging with Jim Davis, the mechanic at Nichols Mfg in Milpitas, probably one of the best Ducati mechanics around.  He said that the two year interval is more important if the bike isn't ridden regularly than if it gets ridden at least weekly.  Where the belt sits bent around a pulley for long periods of time it tends to get brittle.

So on my ST2 I'll be at about the three year point when I get the belts changed and I'm not too worried about it, because it's rare for the bike to sit for even two weeks without being ridden.
Heh, thing is, those of us who don't let our bikes sit more than a day or two without riding it end up replacing belts a couple of times a year due to mileage anyway...

Or is that just me? ;)

big (about 1200km overdue for belts right now, I changed tham last in November...)
 
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