Please Look.....and fix it before it happens to you!

[ShootToThrill]

I say the blown belt hit the deflector and bent it up atfer. Not being the intial cause. Yamaha definately helped you out on this one.

X2 And 800 miles is not brand new. Not the sleds fault, yamahas, or the small aluminum plates fault. Who does that leave?

Ahh man come on...first off it's a poor design leaving a piece of aluminum unfastened in this area. Second off, it's all about keeping the customer happy or have we gotten away from this whole concept. I totally disagree with you about Yamaha helping me out with this....you spend this much money on a sled and of course they should take care of their customers.

The plate is not unfastened and should we all run our belts til they explode and then blame the manufacturer?

 

[lukesju]

I say the blown belt hit the deflector and bent it up atfer. Not being the intial cause. Yamaha definately helped you out on this one.

X2 And 800 miles is not brand new. Not the sleds fault, yamahas, or the small aluminum plates fault. Who does that leave?

Ahh man come on...first off it's a poor design leaving a piece of aluminum unfastened in this area. Second off, it's all about keeping the customer happy or have we gotten away from this whole concept. I totally disagree with you about Yamaha helping me out with this....you spend this much money on a sled and of course they should take care of their customers.

The plate is not unfastened and should we all run our belts til they explode and then blame the manufacturer?

The plate is unfastened on the front side and i expect belts to blow but when a blown belt starts ruining a clutch it's not right.

 

[AKrider]

I was kind of surprised to see this thread. In '08 all we did was piss and moan about the "Wet left foot syndrome". Thing is it was true. Read my early ride report in the FAQ's from '07. I write in the report that my left foot got wet and that I thought it was weird since it NEVER happened on my Vector.

In '09 they came out with this plate to combat the wet foot. Reports were mixed on whether it worked or not. I just installed mine so I can't say if it works one way or another. But what I can attest to (and to the point of this post) is that Yamaha belts are super tough. I think I have another post addressing it, but in one race I busted open the q bellypan/tub on my Nytro and filled both clutches up with snow. My belt slipped and squealed and was basically tortured for another 60+ miles in racing conditions and it NEVER BLEW. At the end of the race the belt was several MM narrower in width than a stock belt but it held together. I have never run a belt so hard in my 25 years of riding until that race and it held together and allowed me to finish. I started off the race with a properly broken in new belt.

So the point of my post is that I am skeptical of your claims of a blown belt. There had to be more to the story than you are letting on. I don't mean to come across like a dick, but 4-stoke Yamaha's have had the best belt life out of any sled I have ever owned in the past 25 years. Lots of things can effect belt life and I don't believe there is a problem with the "wet left boot plate" the factory installed on the '09-'10 models.

 

[lukesju]

I was kind of surprised to see this thread. In '08 all we did was piss and moan about the "Wet left foot syndrome". Thing is it was true. Read my early ride report in the FAQ's from '07. I write in the report that my left foot got wet and that I thought it was weird since it NEVER happened on my Vector.

In '09 they came out with this plate to combat the wet foot. Reports were mixed on whether it worked or not. I just installed mine so I can't say if it works one way or another. But what I can attest to (and to the point of this post) is that Yamaha belts are super tough. I think I have another post addressing it, but in one race I busted open the q bellypan/tub on my Nytro and filled both clutches up with snow. My belt slipped and squealed and was basically tortured for another 60+ miles in racing conditions and it NEVER BLEW. At the end of the race the belt was several MM narrower in width than a stock belt but it held together. I have never run a belt so hard in my 25 years of riding until that race and it held together and allowed me to finish. I started off the race with a properly broken in new belt.

So the point of my post is that I am skeptical of your claims of a blown belt. There had to be more to the story than you are letting on. I don't mean to come across like a dick, but 4-stoke Yamaha's have had the best belt life out of any sled I have ever owned in the past 25 years. Lots of things can effect belt life and I don't believe there is a problem with the "wet left boot plate" the factory installed on the '09-'10 models.

I was going across the lake about 90mph for around a minute or two across lake gogebic, the belt must have got hot and blew up and when it let go it ripped up the aluminum piece. That's the best I can tell you.

 

[BooBoo]

2009 RTX SE with 800 miles and this WAS the stock belt. Blew up going across the lake and caught the aluminum piece under the secondary clutch and ruined the secondary sheeves. Brought it to the dealership wanting the YES warranty to cover it and so far Yamaha has told me no because it is a wear item that caused the damage and basically it was my fault because I didn't do the proper maintance! I brought it to the dealer for the 500 mile oil change and check up and always give my sled a good check over prior to riding. There is no way that this belt blew because of the lack of maintance, especially with only 800 miles on a stock belt! I have been in contact with Yamaha about this problem but I feel that all they hear is blown belt. I have no issues with paying for a belt because they are a wear item but a blown belt should not cause this amount of damage! So everyone take a few rivets and a spare piece of aluminum and fasten this piece down.

Really dude? You have to be kidding me, 800 miles ( NOT NEW ) on your belt and your ripping acroosed the lake, WTF you thinks going to happen when your belt blows. check your belt once in a while and that sh#@ wont happen.

 

[mach9]

Belts are going to blow. When? Who cares!
Some guys will leave them in for too long and some check often and replace belts often.
I think you guys are missing the point...!!
When a belt blows that thin plate should be more secure, or thicker or removed.
Whatever it takes to keep alum. scrap from getting into your expensive clutch parts.
I'm glad to hear about this issue so I can better decide what I'm going to do before my belt blows. (if and when it blows).

 

[lukesju]

Really dude? You have to be kidding me, 800 miles ( NOT NEW ) on your belt and your ripping acroosed the lake, WTF you thinks going to happen when your belt blows. check your belt once in a while and that sh#@ wont happen.[/quote]

Yea really dude...I don't care about the belt blowing. I care that when a belt blows it takes out over $550 worth of clutch parts. As far as maintance and up keep on my snowmobile I take care of it better than most. Man you are unreal...everything looked just fine with my belt and clutches prior to this event and if something didn't look right that belt would have been replaced. Belts can blow up even if everything looks good.

 

[SledderSteve]

Belts are going to blow. When? Who cares!
Some guys will leave them in for too long and some check often and replace belts often.
I think you guys are missing the point...!!
When a belt blows that thin plate should be more secure, or thicker or removed.
Whatever it takes to keep alum. scrap from getting into your expensive clutch parts.
I'm glad to hear about this issue so I can better decide what I'm going to do before my belt blows. (if and when it blows).

Well said

lukesju,
Thank you for taking the time to post your experience and putting up with some less than constructive posts.

Unless there are some other informative things we can add to this thread we should probably move on to another subject. ~Thank you

 

[ShootToThrill]

Luke you have the best dealer in north america.

 

[lukesju]

Luke you have the best dealer in north america.

That's good to hear...I hope I don't need to use them too much....that's why I went with Yamaha. Reliability

 

[Super Sled]

Luke you have the best dealer in north america.

RJ Sport and Cycle in Duluth, MN is an excellent dealership. He does have the best dealership out there. I live 3 miles from them!!!!





Mike

 

[Super Sled]

Luke you have the best dealer in north america.

RJ Sport and Cycle (Luke's dealer) is the best dealer out there. They are are excellent.

 

[GT03235]

The problem here is with the belt construction. The 8DN belt is extremely hard and does have a tendency to come apart like that. A frequently observed issue with those belts is actually delamination -- the rubber on the outside of the cords will all flake off all the way around, and SUDDENLY. If it happens to catch on something, like this piece that is now bent, then I can see it shredding the belt and possibly causing damage to the sheaves. In most cases (but far from all), a belt that has delaminated can still be used, but I definitely wouldn't push one hard. I had a few of those belts delaminate on me before I switched to GATES belts -- bought two of them about 4 years ago, still running the first one.

This happened to me with 1500 miles on the belt after running some open water it disintergrated but only the outside lamination came off. made a mess under the sidecovers clutch area but limped home with what was left of the belt

 

[mytro]

I say the blown belt hit the deflector and bent it up atfer. Not being the intial cause. Yamaha definately helped you out on this one.

X2 And 800 miles is not brand new. Not the sleds fault, yamahas, or the small aluminum plates fault. Who does that leave?

Ahh man come on...first off it's a poor design leaving a piece of aluminum unfastened in this area. Second off, it's all about keeping the customer happy or have we gotten away from this whole concept. I totally disagree with you about Yamaha helping me out with this....you spend this much money on a sled and of course they should take care of their customers.

The plate is not unfastened and should we all run our belts til they explode and then blame the manufacturer?

I think Yamaha made their first attempt at a 3 year warranty in 1994? correct me if I'm wrong, My 600 VMax blew the belt and picked up the speedo cable, the primary spun about 30 feet of cable onto it. Yamaha covered zero.. No wait the dealer took a sander to the faces to clean them up and put 200 miles on the sled testing it!!!!!!!

 

[sleddingfarmer]

Probably good that this thread got woken back up... Let the new guys hear about the issue.

Immediately after I read about this I took that guard out of my sled. I've seen yamaha belts blow into a million pieces, and I don't need my clutches sucking any guards into them.