Goldwing Maintenance question about Cam Belts?

[MartyA]

Any Goldwing owners out there? My buddy, who does all his own work, does not have a computer, so he does not belong to any wing ding forum or anything. He asked me to post this question for him.

His manual says to inspect the cam belts at 100,000 miles. He has 102,000 right now, and wonders what the owners do at this point? Do they replace them, or just verify their condition? Do they wear out? Can you tell by visual inspection if they need replaced? He doesn't want to open the thing up and put it back together, then find that owners routinely replace the belts since they never last much past 100K miles ven if they look good.

Anyone help here, tell me what to tell him? Thanks in advance.

 

[Fred W]

Any Goldwing owners out there? My buddy, who does all his own work, does not have a computer, so he does not belong to any wing ding forum or anything. He asked me to post this question for him.
His manual says to inspect the cam belts at 100,000 miles. He has 102,000 right now, and wonders what the owners do at this point? Do they replace them, or just verify their condition? Do they wear out? Can you tell by visual inspection if they need replaced? He doesn't want to open the thing up and put it back together, then find that owners routinely replace the belts since they never last much past 100K miles ven if they look good.

Anyone help here, tell me what to tell him? Thanks in advance.

Hey Marty,

I'm not a wing ding either, but I do know cam belts (from autos and other bikes) and if your friend has already gone 2k over the belt replacement (it's not a check, you just replace them) that is 2k too far. These are all "interference" engines, meaning on the day that the cam belt stretches too much and skips a few teeth (or breaks) that is the end of his top ends (both of them) as the pistons will whack, and bend the crap out of the valves.

Most people that have cam belts in any engine will opt to replace them early, rather than late. The cost of the belts is trivial. The labor not sio much, unless he can "do his own", but it sure beats rebuilding two of his heads, and you have to pay the piper sooner or later.

I'd encourage him to get his belts done soon.

FWIW, in my Ducati days we the manual called for 15k mile belts. I did mine at 10k intervals. Cheap insurance...

 

[MartyA]

I'd encourage him to get his belts done soon. Cheap insurance...

Thanks Fred! I'll call him.

 

[ctfjr]

While I agree that its cheap insurance I never changed mine. Had ~150K on my first Wing & 120 on the second.

 

[Bounce]

Timing belts are something Honda used to never give a specific mileage on. We used to swap them at 50k miles simply because once you had the cover off to inspect them it was cheap insurance just to swap them out. After all, like was said, if they break, you run a piston into a valve and spend much more money fixing things.

 

[k7lvo]

A few years ago I read that Honda had finally settled on replacement at 100,000 miles, but time is more of an enemy than mileage. If I were him, I'd change them fairly quickly. There are several aftermarket replacements, but it's been a few years since I've needed them, so I don't have part numbers at hand. I think Gates, among others, makes them.

 

[MotorToad]

Most people that have cam belts in any engine will opt to replace them early, rather than late.

This is anecdotal, of course, but I've never seen a single timing belt changed early in my entire existence. Never even heard of it. More often than not it's "I have 110k on this engine and I just found out I was supposed to change the timing belt at 60k, should I now or just wait?" Or alternatively, "it made some noise and stopped, did I hurt anything?" :blink:

 

[Bill]

I sold my GL1500 a few years ago after putting on 150,000 miles or so. I just looked up my maintenance records and found that the timing belt adjustment was checked at approximately 20,000, 60,000, 100,000, 140,000. They were replaced at 40,000, 80,000 and 120,000. Checking the adjustment and changing the belts was fairly easy.

 

[Fred W]

Most smart people that have cam belts in any engine will opt to replace them early, rather than late.

This is anecdotal, of course, but I've never seen a single timing belt changed early in my entire existence. Never even heard of it. More often than not it's "I have 110k on this engine and I just found out I was supposed to change the timing belt at 60k, should I now or just wait?" Or alternatively, "it made some noise and stopped, did I hurt anything?" :blink:

OK, I fixed it ^

I sold my GL1500 a few years ago after putting on 150,000 miles or so. I just looked up my maintenance records and found that the timing belt adjustment was checked at approximately 20,000, 60,000, 100,000, 140,000. They were replaced at 40,000, 80,000 and 120,000. Checking the adjustment and changing the belts was fairly easy.

That's interesting. So there is a mechanical adjustment for the Gold Wing timing belts? I know there is one on the Ducati 2-valve engines but they are replaced every 15k miles.

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

Many cog-belt cam-drive systems have a facility for adjusting tension (important on initial installation -- and, can keep the belt from being too loose, and skipping cogs, later in its service life). Adjusting/tensioning later in the service life doesn't prevent an old belt from breaking, tho (IME).

I don't know of any cam-belt automatic tensioning --altho, almost all (if not all) the popular/ubiquitous multi-V ancillary drive belts are automatically tensioned.

Many/most/maybe all? rubber belt cam-drive owners hate and resist cam belt replacement. It is important to know, tho, if your particular engine is an "interference" engine -- or not.

I've seen Ford Escort (non-interference) owners replace cam-belts along-side the highway. :blink:

A GW 1000, for instance, is an interference engine -- bad interference ..... :huh:

 

[Fred W]

Many cog-belt cam-drive systems have a facility for adjusting tension (important on initial installation -- and, can keep the belt from being too loose, and skipping cogs, later in its service life). Adjusting/tensioning later in the service life doesn't prevent an old belt from breaking, tho (IME). I don't know of any cam-belt automatic tensioning --altho, almost all (if not all) the popular/ubiquitous multi-V ancillary drive belts are automatically tensioned.

Many/most/maybe all? rubber belt cam-drive owners hate and resist cam belt replacement. It is important to know, tho, if your particular engine is an "interference" engine -- or not.

I've seen Ford Escort (non-interference) owners replace cam-belts along-side the highway. :blink:

A GW 1000, for instance, is an interference engine -- bad interference ..... :huh:

Yeah, as I think back I guess that's true, that all the cam belts have fixed mechanical tensioners. I wonder why they wouldn't want to use automatic tensioners like on the poly serpentine belts? On a car where it's buried under a bunch of other auxiliary stuff, checking/adjusting is a big PITA. Probably why folks just replace them