Screeching sound

    Well I took my SS to the dealer to correct the seat belt recall and told them about this noise. They couldn't figure it out so they recorded the sound on video and said they would send it to Polaris. Once I hear back from them I will let you all know what I hear.

    Ok so who is next. Haters are gonna hate regardless

    Ok folks here is how I fixed the sound. One bucket of water with dish soap a brush and scrub away at the drive belt. Screeching is GONE and belt is nice and clean. Woooooo hooooooo. Anyone wants the recipe let me know muahahaha. Happy Rider here.

    Ok so who is next. Haters are gonna hate regardless

    Quote from frehleycomet

    Ok folks here is how I fixed the sound. One bucket of water with dish soap a brush and scrub away at the drive belt. Screeching is GONE and belt is nice and clean. Woooooo hooooooo. Anyone wants the recipe let me know muahahaha. Happy Rider here.

    Your Welcome........ :thumbsup:

    Some times a Cigar is just a Cigar.......

    So our SL (~16K miles) also makes the same "screeching" noise when under load (acceleration). Totally quiet during coasting or on the downhill slopes. So I gave the drive-belt an extreme cleaning (using a good de-greasing detergent soap and a wire brush, thoroughly scrubbing each of the "Teeth and Valleys" on the belt, as well as the belt's side-walls.


    First drive after cleaning: No more screeching! Yea, Success! :D


    HOWEVER ... within ~5 miles of driving (normal street driving, not on a dirty or dusty road) the screeching noise started coming back. :( low volume at first, but over time gradually increasing until it was the same as before the cleaning.


    So I am convinced the belt cleanliness is a contributing factor in the screeching noise, but it is not the only reason for the noise. ?( If cleanliness was the only reason, who has time to thoroughly clean the belt before each drive in hopes the noise wont come back again while riding?


    Note: for reference, because I'm a big guy, I had my belt tension adjusted by my dealer to a little looser than factory spec (~3/4" to 1" deflection at 10 lbs). And the belt alignment (while stopped) looks like it should be: to the left, I.E. nearer to the wheel side of the sprocket, but not actually touching the sprocket side wall.


    Anecdotally: it seems the screeching is more noticeable when there are two riders in the SS (more weight = more belt tension?). Also, I have not seen any correlation between noise level and the ambient temperature. During a recent 500 mile day trip that covered from ~45 degrees to 95 degrees I did not hear any significant variation in noise volume dependent on the temperature.


    My belt never made this noise when the SS was newer, and before the swing-arm replacement was done (at around 9K miles). I'm stymied as to what to do at this point, short of paying the dealer (again) to check/change the belt alignment. Even if its initially "fixed" by a re-alignment, I'm not convinced it wont come back again. I wish one of us with this issue, working with their Polaris service department could identify a conclusive fix for this screeching noise.


    For now, I'm just cranking up the radio volume so I don't have to hear it so much, but it sure is annoying to have to put up with this screeching noise (and a little embarrassing when folks hear it when I'm pulling away from them)

    I must be tone deaf or lucky. Over 36,000 miles on my SS, and never had screeching from my belt. No squeal, nothing. I don't even clean the SS as well as I likely should, many times it might go a couple thousand miles or more before I break down and clean it. As for the belt, hosing it off with a water hose is about the most it will get. I do run it more like 1 inch deflection at 10 pounds, looser than Polaris specs are.


    I do have the squeal sound of what might be a vacuum leak up front. I can hear it in 1st and 2nd. Almost sounds like a turbo spooling. It never affected the way it ran, so I've not really looked hard for it.

    Quote from Goats_Hogs

    I must be tone deaf or lucky. Over 36,000 miles on my SS, and never had screeching from my belt. No squeal, nothing. I don't even clean the SS as well as I likely should, many times it might go a couple thousand miles or more before I break down and clean it. As for the belt, hosing it off with a water hose is about the most it will get. I do run it more like 1 inch deflection at 10 pounds, looser than Polaris specs are.


    I do have the squeal sound of what might be a vacuum leak up front. I can hear it in 1st and 2nd. Almost sounds like a turbo spooling. It never affected the way it ran, so I've not really looked hard for it.

    I have never had belt squeal either. Never really thought about the sound up front until I ran alongside Patti to see what the sound was she was complaining about. It’s really loud at times.

    wjfyfe thanks for the suggestion & the link to: Drive Belt, FYI, What it should not do back there!




    After reviewing the thread, (please correct me if I am mistaken) my take-away is:


    • A normal drive belt should not “walk” around (move excessively left and right) on the sprocket during driving, (as shown by video evidence). Also, I assume that that when the belt is clean and also does not walk around, it should not generate the screeching noise?
    • A drive belt that does walk around (as seen in another video) may be related to an angle drive that is “cocked in the cradle”, and perhaps this is a contributing factor to the screeching noise? ?(

    questions:

    • How does one confirm if their SS drive belt walks around on the sprocket, other than mounting a camera and getting video evidence?
    • If the drive belt does walk around during driving, is this proof that the angle drive is “cocked in the cradle”?
    • Does the Polaris service manual talk about what a correctly adjusted belt should do during driving? ("walk about" or remain in a fixed alignment position)? Does it mention an angle drive can be "cocked" or miss-aligned?
    • Airoutlaw posted his angle drive was cocked in the cradle, “… but that got straightened out”. How do you adjust the angle drive to ensure it is not "cocked"? I don’t own a service manual but in all the forum postings & videos I’ve seen, they only talk about how to adjust two things: belt tension and alignment

    I'd like to talk with my Polaris service tech about this cocked in the cradle being a possible contributor to my SS screeching noise, but I'd first like a little more knowledge on this "potentially cocked angle drive" before I bring it up and they give me the "don't believe everything you read on the internet" response ...


    All: any feedback would be welcome, thanks :)