Arctic Cat ATV Belt problems
I'm wondering if anyone has had similar issue to this? I have a 2010 Arctic Cat 450 H1, it is low mileage and barely driven the first 3-4 years since new, only the past 2 years has it started getting miles put on it. Anyways I've disintegrated 2 belts in it in the past year. The first OEM belt went out at 150 km on the odometer, which was last year and I figured ok, before I had it, the bike was used almost entirely for plowing and sat most of the warmer months, so I speculated that would be hard on a belt. OK so I replaced it with a Dayco belt, and about 8-9 months later after I put about 500 km on the bike this belt blew up. Now these belts haven't just worn out, they explode into dust. It's a job to get all the rubber chunks out of the intake and exhaust breathers, and I make sure it is clean as I know excess heat would do that, but the breathers aren't plugged. The second belt didn't have much plowing but some, and it was almost all flat road and trail riding miles. I've ordered a kevlar Gates belt now and am going to try that, the clutches look aligned, there is no creeping or anything else going on. I don't have an offset tool or anything to check it but just eyeballing it with the cover off and running on a stand seemed ok last time. Last time I also cleaned the sheaves with methyl hydrate, some say that's a bad idea as the aluminum can absorb solvent and release it back out softening the belt. This time I washed the clutches in hot soapy water and scrubbed them with fine steel wool to remove all the rubber residue and I always wash new belts before putting them on. The sheaves are smooth, but not shiny or glazed over and no ridges in them.
My brother took the bike out after I put the last belt on and rode it kinda hard so this time I'm going to make sure it gets an easy break in period of 75-100 km before it gets WOT.
Other than that what else can I do to fix this? Anyone had issues with Cats? I don't want to do new belts with every oil change, and one of these times it's going to leave me somewhere it won't be an easy tow home:sad:
