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[Puzzled]

Your on to something there. :)At one time I tested a small amount of belt dressing on it for experimental purposes. The noise was gone! That is what led me to the belt and trans pulley. Now it is why?

[arcticdude]

Any chance the tranny pulley is slightly bent or out of whack?  On the opposite end, I had Bubba tell me he was told that "too much heat from the exhaust will egg shape the rear pulley and that will cause a squeal."  My local guy told Bubba to really check the alignment of the bike.  That can cause all sorts of squeals/shakes/shimmies.  Since the tranny was out, has the alignment been rechecked?  And rechecked again?  I always have to "check" mine a couple of times before I get it where I want. [smiley=huepfenlol2.gif]

[Puzzled]

I didn't have the trans out. I replaced the gear set only. I will not dispute the alignment though. The rear pulley was new at 10k in September (now 21K). I haven't looked into it recently. I went to the Smoke Out in North Carolina which was a nice 1300 mile ride. I'll have to get back out there and start poking around.

[Ed Ramberger - One_Screamin_Eagle]

Please re-read my post about the belt.  I believe that is your concern

[Puzzled]

Please re-read my post about the belt.  I believe that is your concern

Check for a loose belt.  They squeek on decel when they are loose.  A good test is to wet the belt with a hose and drive it.  Without getting into book specs, if you have more than 1/2 inch deflection on the sidestand with finger pressure (spec is 10#) it's too loose.  You said they changed the tranny, that means the belt was off.

I'll give it a try. What does this tell me though? It's a loose belt or a belt issue in general? It is definitely belt related.

This dam noise has been hit and miss. Some days it is there other days it's not. I ordered one of those lasers for belts/chains to check alignment. I'm just waiting for it to arrive.

[Ed Ramberger - One_Screamin_Eagle]

it's just loose

[Puzzled]

Cool, I'll give it a shot later as the bike needs a bath anyways.

[Puzzled]

I had to look at this thread again to see what was what. :-? I checked the belt again for alignment and tension. I picked up one of those Cat laser pointers to do this. The laser is not all that! All of the ads show a beam of light not a pin point, very misleading. Moving on, from the best that I can tell trying to use this thing I'm .030 out. To me that doesn't seem like a lot. The belt seemed a little on the tight side. The manual says to have 5/16 to 3/8 of deflection with the bike on the ground and the rider on the bike. Since I can't check the belt while I'm on the bike I did it without. I'll go test it here shortly.

[Puzzled]

Losening the belt made the noise worse. OK it appears it is loose as posted above.  I needed to check belt tension with me on the bike so I pulled it off of the lift and did my best to grab ahold of the belt. Yep it was indeed loose, too loose. So I tightened it to the suggested specs. I test drove it in and out of my driveway and it didn't make any noise. Tomorrow I'll put the bags back on and take it for a ride.

Just to restate what I wrote above. The CAT laser pointer sucks! Don't waste your money. Pick up a .99$ pointer from Wal-Mart and it will do the same thing.

[Ed Ramberger - One_Screamin_Eagle]

The tire is not aligned to the powertrain, the rear axle centers must be equidistant back from the 1/8' holes in the swingarm when the belt tension is correct.  trying to align the tire to the powertrain and ignoring these holes is a mistake.  The swingarm is mounted to the powertrain by the bushings etc.  If the swingarm is not parallel to the powertrain, that is a separate issue which must be addressed.  

[Puzzled]

I checked that earlier in the thread but thanks for the heads up. This is more of an annoyance than anything else.

[Ed Ramberger - One_Screamin_Eagle]

If your belt breaks on a bagger because it ws too loose, it will be one hell of an expensive annoyance.

[Puzzled]

It's less than $200 for a belt and a couple of hours of my labor.  8-)

[Puzzled]

OK here it is several months later and I've still been chasing that noise. There is nothing in this thread that I haven't tried or checked. I've had that belt hanging to guitar string tight. No difference, still there. blah blah blah.

In another thread I mentioned the Sta-Bo bushings and the fact I picked up a set. Well they have been sitting on the shelf for some time now awaiting installation. While the bike was on the lift a few weeks ago I noticed I had a nail in my nice new rear tire. So I ordered a set of tires for the front and rear as the front is looking a little feathered.

This morning I decided today was the day I was going to work on the bike. Up on the lift it went and off came the rear wheel and swing arm. I changed the tire from a 140 to a 150 and thoroughly cleaned the wheel while it was off of the bike. I pressed the bushings out of the arm and installed the new Sta-Bo's.

Now at this point I'm not far from removing the belt. BUT what if I change the belt and bushings, how will I know where my noise is was? Well it will really suck to have to pull the arm back off but I WANT no NEED to know where this noise is coming from. So I installed everything and set it up as per the manual. Off the lift and out for a ride it goes.

Initial thought is NO NOISE. I'm jump on and off the throttle hard enough that I'm pulling the front wheel. NO NOISE. Big smile here. SO now I decide to see how the Sta-Bo's feel. I started flopping the bike left to right looking like the Police parade bikes. Solid. I'll give it a good road test tomorrow while the sun is up.

While I had the bike on the lift I swapped out exposed rear antenna for the hidden one. I figured I'd try it again. This time I was able to get it along the side of the fairing away from any metal. Tough task to accomplish with all of that metal in there. I pulled the giant OEM 01 turn signals off in favor of a pair of late model bullet signals. Looks much better now. I removed all of the rear stuff for Kuryakyn stuff. I didn't care for their lens covers so I sourced a set of OEM covers. Next is a OEM rear plate holder (the U shape hoop) as I'm going to cut it and machine a couple of end plugs for the tube.

After my test ride to insure all is good with the bushings and wheel I'm going to change the front motor mount just for the sake of changing it. I have it here, I just need to machine a little off of the center sleeve first.

The old girl will be fresh for this season when I'm done.

[SilvrBulet]

Sounds like you have a "better than new" bike with all the adjustments and improvements.  I had an annoying squeak on my SERG and pointed it out to the dealer who took a can of wd40 and sprayed the rubber bushings for the rear attachment of the mufflers and wha-la no squeak.  I still have to do this trick every couple of months but it works.  This squeak was hard to get a fix on too.  Enjoy your new and improved ride.