Checked mine a little while ago, it has 1 inch defection cold
Drive belt wear and other tidbits about the belt
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Do you have the stock shocks?
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Do you have the stock shocks?
No, QA1s.
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Sounds/looks like a chunk of debris got caught between the belt and rear pulley.
Drive on any crappy roads lately? -
Stick to the service manual spec 16mm. A belt that is too tight will put to much tension on the rear axle bearings and the angle drive. This is where a lot of the driveline noise comes from. The belt will track just off the left of the sprocket when going forward and/or at rest. While backing up it will move to the right, this is normal. We run the belts closer to 19mm and have good success and a lot less driveline noise. Our personal Sling is turbo'd and we run the belt at 19-20mm deflection with no problems.
Oh yeah remember to clean your belt. A lot. This also helps with noise and longevity. While you're cleaning it inspect for damage from rocks.debris.
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After 2.5 years of ownership here are our personal observations. Changing the lube in the angle drive made very little to no difference in sound level. Very early on it became obvious that the warmer the belt became, the longer the SlingShot was ridden, the quieter that it would became. When driven on a dirt road the tone would change and it would become louder, back on pavement it would quiet down, scrub the belt and it would become quieter still. Riding in the rain makes it quieter. Every time it was returned from the dealer's shop where the belt had been manipulated the tone would be different. I spent several days playing adjusting the position of the belt on the sprockets and found that even as little as an 1/8th of a turn of adjustment can affect the tone of the belt.
Our conclusion is that we leave the tension near factory specs where .60 inches is easy to measure. Belt cleanliness is the easiest way to keep the SlingShot quieter. Otherwise, as far as adjusting the position of the belt, each SlingShot appears to have it's own personality that needs to be sought out depending on the individual owner's priorities.
Bill
