Went for a ride the other day on my 650 cat. Drove 3 hours to ride on orv trail. I was 20 miles on a 34 mile loop and my belt went up in smoke till it shredded. So here i sit till my riding buddy came back to check on me. He had to pull me back to the parking lot with his quad a Polaris never heard the end of that. The bad thing was it was the new HP 2018 belt with only 25 miles on it. Drove back home and tore it down and it looks like it rubbed on the inside off cover till it failed. The only thing we can figure out was it was the wrong belt and to long. So I put the stock belt back on after I removed one shim and everything seems fine. Seems there's two belts for the cat one for early models and one for late models. I got the one for early models I guess. I also noticed my top speed with new belt was down about 10 mph.

 

I talked to the place i got my belt from and they are sending me another one. My question is of the people using the 2018 belt on the 650 cat what defletion did you have? My belt was really loose I dont have an exact measurement. But it was way over an inche. Also did you loose top speed? I lost about 10 mph. The dealer swears its the right belt. How much shorter is the 2017 then the 2018?

 

The spec call for .87" to 1.06" deflection. Any more, and the drive clutch engages too hard. It "Hits" the belt and with excessive deflection, its like starting in 2nd gear. Excessive slippage occurs and heats the belt. These rubber bands can't take heat well. When you open the cover, you'll see that the drive clutch has cooling fins on the back side. Actually, if you feel the belt cover exhaust , it blows pretty good to keep everything cool.

 

i noticed alot of the guys switching to the kimpex belt from what the say its very good, me myself im still on the stock belt with .75 belt deflection with 28 in tires but i acid wash the clutch faces every 100 miles to take the glaze off ,which causes the belt to slip i now have 525 miles on my orig belt but washing the primary and secondary faces i believe helped quite a bit,my friends who grass drag snowmobiles with over a 1000cc engs showed me this trick and it seems to be the best thing since sliced bread for the belt

 

how do you acid wash do you just wipe down clutch face's? what do you use? I put stock belt back on and the place I got my dayco belt sent me a new one free of charge. But still wondering the differences in the 2017 and 2018.

 

If you have to much deflection your dealer can get or should reshim so it has proper deflection. Also be careful using high range, if you are stuck or trying to pull a heavy load you can smoke the belt ( the motor has awesome torque ) use low range when possible.

 

when you acid wash the clutch faces use a brillo pad and muratic acid dip the brillo and wash in a crosshatch pattern like making a x on the faces once done wash down with water wipe dry and go, the belt grip is unreal, as far as the difference between the 2018-2017 it sounds to me like its one inch difference, i know dayco uses the last 2 numbers of the belt for inches on snowmobile belts, i assume they do the same for the atv belts as well if your not sure go onto there web site and look at the conv chart