Drive Belt Cleaning and Noise

dallen1059

I forgot what I put on my belt side walls, but it made the belt noise go away...

I’m not sure what is in the dielectric grease. I think I used silicone lube or tire shine, something safe on rubbers. I figured if the belt doesn’t jump teeth into max acceleration, then I’d be ok.

When I was at Maggie Valley for the rally in 2015 there was a Hermit the Frog color slingshot there that converted from belt drive to chain drive . I wonder if that solved all the whine and if it did that would sure prove it's a belt issue and not a Drive issue.

I hadn't heard about a chain conversion, that's pretty interesting. I'm curious if it's still going strong and what issues they would have run into along the way.

I was unlucky enough to have a pretty noisy angle drive... solved it though

Quote from dallen1059

This baffles me. I had a chance this week to REALLY scrub clean my drive belt. When I was done, the famous SS whine was louder than it usually is. I had it down to close to zero (I replaced my angle drive last winter).

So, just as an experiment, I put a thin coat of dielectric grease on the sides of the belt, and WOW. The whine went away!

I know that Polaris says to put nothing on the belt, but do you know, is it OK to let the dielectric grease on the belt? Will it do any harm to the belt? Shorten the life, deteriorate it, etc?

Dave

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I would suspect if you don't put the grease on anything other than the sides of the belt, it wouldn't hurt anything. Just careful you don't get any on the inside surface or you may have a bigger problem than the whine... 😉

I discovered some time back that if I keep my belt clean and wipe it down with Lucas interior detailer or Lucas tire shine it keeps it very quiet - - I buy the lucas products in a set of so I use which ever one I have more of

Also a long time ago I removed the belt guard - I did this at first because it made it easier to keep the belt clean but since removing it I also discovered it acts like a soundboard and amplifies belt noise - - - I also think the swingarm / belt area looks cleaner without the belt guard

with the guard permanently removed keeping the belt clean and maintained is much much easier then it would otherwise be

I use a spray-on moly lube. It won't hurt the belt and lasts quite awhile.

Quote from Edward Neal

I discovered some time back that if I keep my belt clean and wipe it down with Lucas interior detailer or Lucas tire shine it keeps it very quiet - - I buy the lucas products in a set of so I use which ever one I have more of

Also a long time ago I removed the belt guard - I did this at first because it made it easier to keep the belt clean but since removing it I also discovered it acts like a soundboard and amplifies belt noise - - - I also think the swingarm / belt area looks cleaner without the belt guard

with the guard permanently removed keeping the belt clean and maintained is much much easier then it would otherwise be

Ed, aren't you worried about excessive exposure of the belt to the sun's uv rays? That's why I haven't removed the guard and also why I covered the back tire with a fender. Your thoughts?

Edited: I know some folks replace their back tires long before the sun ever does anything to them because they're bald... lol 😄

Quote from Roadhawg

Ed, aren't you worried about excessive exposure of the belt to the sun's uv rays? That's why I haven't removed the guard and also why I covered the back tire with a fender. Your thoughts?

Edited: I know some folks replace their back tires long before the sun ever does anything to them because they're bald... lol 😄

to be honest I hadn't even thought about sun hurting the belt - the guard really doesnt shield that much of the belt even with the guard installed the back and bottom would still be exposed to the sun much of the time - - so no, I havn't worried about it in the least and even now after having the guard off since 2018 I dont see any signs of damage from the sun - - I also suspect if the sun were going to damage it that down here in the desert with my sling being driven daily as it is I would know by now

as a side note I do actually worry about the interior and black panels in the sun and I also dont have any stick on graphics - the sun down here is brutal and the entire sling inside and out is very exposed to it

Quote from Roadhawg

Ed, aren't you worried about excessive exposure of the belt to the sun's uv rays? That's why I haven't removed the guard and also why I covered the back tire with a fender. Your thoughts?

Edited: I know some folks replace their back tires long before the sun ever does anything to them because they're bald... lol 😄

No my (2015) first set of Kendra's I got 16,901 miles on the back tire....problems caused me get a new rear tire....I just put a whole new 2016 Slingshot in front of the new tire... On the 2016 I had a damaged rear tire at 8,000 miles and put a complete set of Nitto 555 on the Slingshot. That set got over 22,000 miles on the rear and I do

drive a little aggressive from time to time.

Quote from EjFord

No my (2015) first set of Kendra's I got 16,901 miles on the back tire....problems caused me get a new rear tire....I just put a whole new 2016 Slingshot in front of the new tire... On the 2016 I had a damaged rear tire at 8,000 miles and put a complete set of Nitto 555 on the Slingshot. That set got over 22,000 miles on the rear and I do

drive a little aggressive from time to time.

just put on my 4th back tire in 22,000 miles....I’m not burning rubber or skidding the brakes...

2 kendras.....one nitto 555 G2..... just put on hankook evo...all the tires were worn Down evenly...

Second set of kendras on the front......they are about half worn now.

putting any grease or oil On the belt probably wouldn’t be good With the amount of dirt we get on the back wheels.

Quote from Bigdog

putting any grease or oil On the belt probably wouldn’t be good With the amount of dirt we get on the back wheels.

I agree, I wouldn't want to use anything that dirt could stick to. I started using the Lucas interior detailer on it mostly because I had it and was already "in the area" using it on the back black body panels and one of the reasons I keep using it as it actually seems to repel dirt same with the lucas tire & trim shine - I even wipe down the inside of the rear wheel for the same reason

Like I said above I buy the lucas products in This Lucas three pack and despite trying a gazillion other products I keep coming back to these three - together they pretty much cover all of my slingshot cleaning needs including the belt - although I do use Honda plastic polish cleaner on my windshields

Put CRC Dielectric silicon grease on the sides of the belt a week ago. Went for a fifty mile ride yesterday.

No squeal. Now I hear the angle drive and the tranny.

Quote from openair

Put CRC Dielectric silicon grease on the sides of the belt a week ago. Went for a fifty mile ride yesterday.

No squeal. Now I hear the angle drive and the tranny.

hehehe - - its good to get the belt quiet, but there are still always going to be noises - its the price we pay to have a totally open vehicle with zero sound insulation

Quote from Edward Neal

hehehe - - its good to get the belt quiet, but there are still always going to be noises - its the price we pay to have a totally open vehicle with zero sound insulation

I've pretty much got mine down to only hearing the low rumble of the exhaust while I'm driving. I believe my "granny" Sunday afternoon driving style has a lot to do with that, but I've been contemplating covering all of the hard surfaces inside the cockpit with some type of stylish sound-absorbing acoustic material, just haven't found anything yet that I like. If you have the Polaris SlingShade, you know what I mean about noise bouncing around inside the cockpit. I'm a bit disappointed with all of the creaks, squeaks, rattles, and pops, the Slings make when you're cruising along, but all in all, at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade my Sling for anything else... except maybe the flying motorcycle ...lol

At least the shrill, skull shredding squeal is gone. The "box of rocks" stuff, I can shut out.

My first car was a '49 Chevy with 120000 miles on it. Drove it 2 years and never changed oil. It was "self changing". Add oil thru valve cover, it changed it to smoke out the tailpipe. I got used to shake, rattle and (hopefully) roll.

The RIDE is what matters, anyway. We were out of milk. There are 4 places in town, all within walking distance, that sell milk. We drove 50 miles for 3 gallon of milk and a bunch of bananas at a Kwik Star. Hell, we would have done it even if the belt STILL squealed!!!