How many miles should i get on a belt in a 2006 650 V-Twin motor? I keep hearing people say the kawi's tranny sucks. I bought a 650V2 AC and love it, mainly because of the power the kawi motor has. But now i keep hearin of all these beltd frying after short periods of time! (700 miles or so) Can a kawi owner fill me in please? And is there any tips i should know about this particular tranny that would help?

 

I have a 2002 Prairie 650 with just over 2400 miles and have never even looked at my belt. Do most of my riding in low gear. Top speed in low gear is 43 mphs. On gravel or fire roads will run in high.

 

On the V Force the light comes on at 100 hours. That is apprently a suggestion to either check it or get it checked. I will oprobably hit that number some time this year and have a mechanic friend check it.

I would imagine it's going to be the same for the utilities as they have the same drivetrain, although the V has no low range.

Most of the people who say the belts suck say so because they ran the tranny incorrectly (for example used low range when they should ahve used high or vice versa). As long as you follow your owner's manual you should be fine.

 

Belt life depends on several things. Here are some factors.
1). Belt deflection amount.
2). Drive converter clutch spring constant K.
3). Sheave surface condition.
4). Load you are applying (such as pullling, towing, etc).
5). Tire size.
6). Hi/Lo gear usage.
7). How you ride - the most important factor IMO.
The very worst thing you can do to the belt is giving lots of gas when your driving wheels are stuck (in mud or between logs/rocks, etc.), causing the belt to slip between the drive sheaves. Slipping belt causes extraordinary amount of heat which can easily burn the belt. That's why the fixed sheave on the drive converter has fins (sucking in air to cool down). Think of the belt as the weakest link, as a fuse, in your drivetrain. It can be replaced relatively easily and inexpensively compared to other components in the drivetrain. When your belt failes, you should be thankful that no other more expensive part didn't break. Your belt can last less than just 100 miles or as high as 5000 miles. Its life mainly depends how you ride.

 

Thanks for the replies, i have about 40hrs on my V2, and was wondering if i should think about a belt yet or not. I dont mud with it, i just do alot of trail riding. I have about 640 miles on it and have only had it since January 1st!! I love Kawis V-Twin power!

 

I got 1500 miles out of my 650 belt.I did keep it adjusted properly.BEar in mind this was the orig style belt and not the 700 style you have now on you 650.I would check the deflection at about 1000 miles...just my opinion
02 650 camo

 

I suggest throwing a spring in the secondary. For $30 its a great investment that will help you belt. I really thought mine snapped alot better in my P650. I just put one in my BF750 too.

 

I got over 6500km on a belt... I strongly believe that the Kawi clutch system is now mantainable. You should get well over 4000km in worst case senerios today.

 

One thing though is that the amount of forced applied to the belt is based on the rpm that the engine is building i believe... So if you ease into the throttle it will be slipping far worse. A higher stall spring helps because the engine has built more rpm thus there is more force when the belt is engaged and also a stiffer spring will apply more pressure.

 

It ALL depends on how you ride. I've seen a guy on a 650 arctic cat destroy a brand new, I watched him put it on, belt in less than a minute in a mud hole. He was running 29.5 outlaws in high in some mud bog races. He said he wanted high for more wheel speed, I said OK what ever you want hope ya have another belt. Then again my dad has 4200 miles on his 300 prairie with the factory belt on it. I asked him who kept it in adjustment for him and he said " What adjustment, I thought they did that on their own.". I pulled the cover and the deflection was right under an inch and that was at about 4000 miles!