I was wondering if i should be doing anything different to break in my new belt?

 

no heavy pulling. and med speed for least 10hrs.

 

Wash it first in hot soapy water to get the manufacturing and storage contaminates off the faces. Vary your speed to flex it through the clutch faces. Clean the clutch faces to get the old glaze off, a green scrubbie works well in a solvent that will not leave a residue. There are cleaners that do not leave residue. I have a no residue spray solvent but can't rem brand that does well.

 

Scotch brite the Clutch sheaves, and belt a bit, put belt on numbers out so you can read them, jack back end of ATV up, go through the rpm range like you normally would from start to top end, do that about 3 times, make sure belt does not clear the top of sheaves, put cover back on, and enjoy!!

 

wouldnt hurt to blow the clutches out w/ compressed air to clean them as well. very your speed to help break in to keep the heat onthe belt down.

 

You want get a couple of heat cycles in the belt. As mentioned above not hard/long pulls. Run the belt with lots of varying speeds then after 30 minutes or so of use let it cool down (back to ambient temp), if possible (no time or condition constraints). Do this a couple times will really extend the belt life.

 

I,m on snowmobile sites and they also say wash in soapy water to get factory oil off the new belt.

 

humm. in the last 10yrs driving a polaris and buy 2 new one in my life. i can say some of these comments iv never heard of. like taking the cover off and washing with soap, clean the faces. so on and so on. the instruction manuel dosent have this. i dont think a new atv owner is gona do this. i never have. im also not happy that polaris decided to remove alot of the grease fittings on my wheeler. but i can understand why. becuse alot of people dont do a regular check over. but reading thought this is alot of info iv never seen or heard of. i can see the varying of the speed, and rps. and no heave pulling. but any thing other than that. i see no need of it. but thats my thoughts anyways. iv put on 7000miles on a polaris belt and never did the wash the cluch parts, clean off the surface.

 

Chuck, Just sounds like good basic advice. If you've got the belt in hand, why not give it a quick go-over and clean everything up before installing it....which I didn't do and wish I had last time I had the belt off. Manufacturing processes change, suppliers change. Seems like a quick and easy thing you can do to possibly extend the life of a belt. The five minutes it takes might give you another 500 miles.......but who knows for sure unless somebody did some extensive study, which aint' gunna happen. It would take years to prove out in actual riding conditions. Everything has manufacturing "residue" of some kind; why not attempt to get rid of a slick substance when one's goal is total grip.

Good thread though. Like you, I've always just installed a new belt on my seld right from the factory and tried to go easy on it for a couple hours, which was hard to do.......that's about it.

 

The owners manual just outlines the bare minimum for the owner performed maintenance. If you notice some of the tasks are supposed to be performed by the dealer....but why pay someone to do it if you can do it yourself. The service manual covers cleaning and inspecting the clutches. Even if it didn't cleaning the clutches and belt housing ect just makes sense if you are already in there IMO...I've never gone as far as using a scratch pad,but I do clean them up with brake cleaner to remove dust/belt residue and grime from the moving clutch parts. I wipe the sheave faces down with alcohol to remove any type of residue. IMO It's kind of like brakes on a car..who replaces pad or shoes without cleaning everything up? Or rebuilding a engine ect ect. Anytime I have need to access an area that is normally unaccessible I clean that area good as I can. It didn't come from the factory dirty. The washing of the belt is not in the manual,but if releasing agents are used in the manufacturing process it is probably a good idea,I have done it and maybe it was my imagination but the belt seemed to be grippy right off the bat compared to just throwing a new belt on without washing it. I use Dawn it cuts oils well. Just make sure you rinse well and let it dry completely.
JMO