Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 998 / 996 / 916 / 748 > Cam belts - cautionary tale

[bradders]

please, dont get me onto servicing costs or my complete lack of mechanical competence...

[Bill O]

Is it generally accepted that belts are OK for 2 years or 6000 miles, or is it thought that a bike with recently changed belts but stood for a given period of time will need its belts changed, and if so what would that time period be?

[AK]

I know the aircooled belts are 12,000 miles - or 2 years, whatever comes first.

AK picked up one of the engines (now in his 'monster special bike') which had new belts on but the engine hadnt been run in over 18 months, so he changed them as a matter of course.

note: they looked fine, the tension was fine... when he removed them, they were just like Henners ones rather out of shape

C


[Edited on 13-6-2005 by CK and AK]

[Herb]

Not quite sure what to make of this post. I worked for a company for 8 years designing belt drives for most modern cars. A modern timing belt in a vehicle is normally capable of 60 000 miles, and some of our drives were good for 150, even in highly stressed applications.

Even with the difference in loads, engine speed etc I am surprised these belts are only good for 6K. (I am not disagreeing by the way, just surprised)

Has anyone ever had a belt let go?

[beancounter]

You may want to check out the 851/888 forum for the sad tale of Robin's (Red SPS) 888 SPS, a very rare and expensive model which Robin spent a long time researching and tracking down and buying, only for a belt to let go, resulting in (probably) a 10k engine rebuild (no I'm not joking).

Is it worth 60 quid a year for peace of mind, if nothing else ?

In my book, yes it is.

[bradders]

I wonder about loadsa things like this with bikes, not being technical doesnt help! But how come a car can do 60k on belts, 20k between services etc

[beancounter]

Not many cars rev to 11000 rpm and make 120 bhp per litre. (SPS)

Or a lot more

[Henners]

Not had a belt go personally, however, the point is that on many Ducati engines, prior to the Testastretta, the pulley arrangements, in particular the extreme angle between the upper timing pulleys, put the belts through very high stress and if the engine was left unused for a length of time it could stretch the belt. The narrowness of the belt made matters worse.

[bradders]

but even these little jap cars, 600cc supercharged things, dont need servicing like a bike, surely they must have some extra stress? Is there a direct link between high revs = more servcing?

[Bill O]

So if I'm unable to run the bike regularly I should change the belts how often?
I agree with the bit about "if your unsure when they were last changed change them" but am now unclear about the recommended change frequency for a bike that sits does not run regularly. Clearly its not 2yrs or 12000 miles