SOME THOUGHTS ON QuickDrive® BELT ISSUES

dragrace1933 · Jan 27, 2013

polaris quickdrive junk

Also i would like to post this belt break in is BS i bought a mountain sled to ride not a MOUNTIN Sled to F##Kn trail ride . Any information would be appreciated thanks

dragrace1933 · Jan 27, 2013

No i havnt put an indicator on it, i put a superclamp on it at 100 miles turboed it at 200 miles , i have 415 miles on it now and striped 3 belts since, 2 with a tensioner. ive looked at the drive shaft to see if theres and evidence of the end cap moving and there is none, I think polaris went cheap on the belt material, but heavy on the price. haha

dragrace1933 · Jan 27, 2013

Thanks ill check those places out and get a gates belt.. They run them on tree saws with a shock load every 30 seconds all day with no issue im just pissed R and D musta ben on the trail, not in the steep and deep!!!!!!

akmclean · Jan 28, 2013

What about slight variations in the actual plate that houses the bearings a bolts to the bulkhead? I know nothing of how it's made, but if there was any variation in that it could in turn result in a different center to center for the pulleys.

I have 250 miles and my QD belt is banjo tight. I felt another sled's QD belt that had 150 on it and it felt noticeably more slack. This was just by feel so its basically witchcraft haha.

nuggetau · Jan 28, 2013

dragrace1933 said:
No i havnt put an indicator on it, i put a superclamp on it at 100 miles turboed it at 200 miles , i have 415 miles on it now and striped 3 belts since, 2 with a tensioner. ive looked at the drive shaft to see if theres and evidence of the end cap moving and there is none, I think polaris went cheap on the belt material, but heavy on the price. haha

Every turbo I have seen this winter is destroying the QD belt, there is too much heat transfer into the metal pulleys. I have seen as much as 200 degrees more heat in the pulleys than stock.

You will have to build a heat shield(between exhaust and pulleys) if you want the stock QD setup to work with a turbo.

Ken Climb · Jan 28, 2013

The guy's that have been blowing Q/D belts. What is your track tension like?
I've been hearing that by keeping your track within polaris speck is a must for a long lasting QD belt life. Keep'm tight!

m8matt · Jan 28, 2013

Ken Climb said:
The guy's that have been blowing Q/D belts. What is your track tension like?
I've been hearing that by keeping your track within polaris speck is a must for a long lasting QD belt life. Keep'm tight!

I just blew my belt on the weekend. Track was adjusted to spec before leaving for the weekend. It's really disappointed that it went with the kind of riding I was doing. I posted a video of it on here, I'm confident Polaris will come up with a something to help us out.

Drifter · Jan 28, 2013

867 miles no quick drive belt failures. Belt is tight when you press on it with your finger. There has to be a reason why some guys like my self have had no issues and some guys have blown them.

When I first got this sled I put all most 80 miles on the machine before beating on it. Stopped lots of times to let it cool the first 20 miles.

I have done lots of air to landings using full throttle.

I think if you are blowing belts you haven't broken the belt in properly or your pulleys are not aligned or the pulleys do not have the shaft hole perfectly in the middle of the pulley.

If you are turboed and blowing belts tough ****. I am pretty sure Polaris didn't design any thing on the sled to handle 200 pluse horsepower. When you mod your sled that's the chance you take.

m8matt · Jan 28, 2013

I took my sled back to sask for the belt break in at Christmas time. I was real easy on it for exactly 100 miles. After that is different story.

snow_knight · Jan 28, 2013

So this guy i know rode with burandt three days couple weeks ago. All three days a blown quick drive belt.. 3 belts-3 days.. but polaris claims he isn't having a problem with them

AK IQ Pilot · Jan 28, 2013

Drifter said:
867 miles no quick drive belt failures. Belt is tight when you press on it with your finger. There has to be a reason why some guys like my self have had no issues and some guys have blown them.

When I first got this sled I put all most 80 miles on the machine before beating on it. Stopped lots of times to let it cool the first 20 miles.

I have done lots of air to landings using full throttle.

I think if you are blowing belts you haven't broken the belt in properly or your pulleys are not aligned or the pulleys do not have the shaft hole perfectly in the middle of the pulley.

If you are turboed and blowing belts tough ****. I am pretty sure Polaris didn't design any thing on the sled to handle 200 pluse horsepower. When you mod your sled that's the chance you take.

I bet I could break your drive belt within 5 miles.

Slick · Jan 28, 2013

AK IQ Pilot said:
I bet I could break your drive belt within 5 miles.

I bet i could break both skis off your sled in 1/2 mile.

AK IQ Pilot · Jan 28, 2013

Slick said:
I bet i could break both skis off your sled in 1/2 mile.

Im sure you could but i am talking shearing teeth from the QD belt without abusing the sled. :face-icon-small-coo

I'm talking about getting the belt and pulley hot, and then subjecting the belt to what is normally not considered excessive load.

I have proven that the belt and pulley get very hot (+150f) even under moderate loads.

Cascade Addiction · Jan 28, 2013

belt temps being the issue???

I got my belt to 195 degrees this weekend, I have 260 miles on this belt boosted with no problems yet....I stripped 6" of cogs off my first belt in a powder meadow 10 miles into being boosted. There were a total of 330 miles on that belt when it stripped. And yes the belts were broke in per manual on both. I am not convinced it is a heat issue....yet. I know more belts being stripped on stock sleds than modified, and there does not seem to be any ryhme or reason to the failures, same as the driveshaft, some are breaking, some aren't. Hope Polaris comes up with a solution, I'm switching to a C3 drive just for piece of mind.

Drifter · Jan 28, 2013

AK IQ Pilot said:
Im sure you could but i am talking shearing teeth from the QD belt without abusing the sled. :face-icon-small-coo

I'm talking about getting the belt and pulley hot, and then subjecting the belt to what is normally not considered excessive load.

I have proven that the belt and pulley get very hot (+150f) even under moderate loads.

Haha you can try but I get to blow your drive belt! Quick drive belt has been fine. But on my third drive belt in 850 plus miles. I can get the clutches smoking hot really quick.

How exactly would you go about breakIng the quick drive belt?

dragrace1933 · Jan 28, 2013

nuggetau said:
Every turbo I have seen this winter is destroying the QD belt, there is too much heat transfer into the metal pulleys. I have seen as much as 200 degrees more heat in the pulleys than stock.

You will have to build a heat shield(between exhaust and pulleys) if you want the stock QD setup to work with a turbo.

ken climb i got a sliber kit and the turbos not even close , the heat i think its getting most of is the brake the top pulley is hotter than hell and the bottom is cool, m Cmx use's a gates belt that doesnt break, im gonna try and get some pulleys for my aplication.

AK IQ Pilot · Jan 28, 2013

Drifter said:
Haha you can try but I get to blow your drive belt! Quick drive belt has been fine. But on my third drive belt in 850 plus miles. I can get the clutches smoking hot really quick.

How exactly would you go about breakIng the quick drive belt?

I think we are all still trying to figure out the real cause of the tooth shear on these QD belts. At first I was sure it wasn't heat because heat was not listed as a probably cause on the Gates failure mechanism chart. But after a weekend of testing temperatures I can see how the belt and top sprocket could get super hot if the drive train is heavily loaded.

There is still no definitive proof that temperature is an issue but I am starting to believe that when the belt and pulley get 190+ then something begins to degrade.

This does not answer why the CMX drive and the C3 drive don't seem to be having issues but has anyone really measured belt and pulley temp on those types of drives?

If I wanted to make one fail I would get it super hot by loading the motor and drivetrain in heavy snow and then i would deliberately spin the track hard until i found some solid base to grab traction.

I'm generally easy on my equipment but I think with a little effort I can get one of these belts to break.

AK IQ Pilot · Jan 28, 2013

dragrace1933 said:
ken climb i got a sliber kit and the turbos not even close , the heat i think its getting most of is the brake the top pulley is hotter than hell and the bottom is cool, m Cmx use's a gates belt that doesnt break, im gonna try and get some pulleys for my aplication.

Heat from the brake is virtually irrelevant. I tested it over and over last weekend on multiple sleds. The top pulley adds heat to the brake rotor under most riding conditions not the other way around.

LoudHandle · Jan 28, 2013

AK IQ Pilot said:
Heat from the brake is virtually irrelevant. I tested it over and over last weekend on multiple sleds. The top pulley adds heat to the brake rotor under most riding conditions not the other way around.

Just playing devils advocate for a minute; the sleds you have taken measurements from all have not blown or stripped a belt, correct or not? Those that are suffering continual belt failure may also be having brake drag issues and not know it? Or may be riding like the stereotypical blonde and riding the brake? Just because you and your test crew are smart enough not to, does not mean everyone is and you can catagorically rule that out as a plausible cause.

Z-Man · Jan 28, 2013

Fastrax has an updated drive shaft that should help keep things lined up.

SOME THOUGHTS ON QuickDrive® BELT ISSUES

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