Belt Quality By ellpee (Read 596 times)

[ellpee]

I ordered a spare belt on line and when it came, it was a Qinjiang. Yeah, I know, should've gone with Gates. But does anybody know about the Qinjiang products? Am I courting disaster if I install it? Still running with OEM belt at about 6500 miles, expect to replace that at next major service.

LATER: What, no opinions or experiences to share? Now that's a first for this forum.

[rks]

I don't think I'd chance it, especially when you can run a Gates for a few dollars more. (recently purchased a Gates Premium PL30705 835x20x30, for $20 on Amazon)

Have read some horror stories about the aftermath of a belt letting go. Most recently, a fella discovered his crankshaft seal destroyed, and inside the engine case, after the belt blew. Now he can't get a seal to stay in it's bore, has tried two new seals with the same results, they pop out shortly after starting engine.

While doing a bit of PM on my scoot this winter, I removed the Gates belt to inspect it...looked great, no cracks in the underside valleys, no fraying what so ever, but when measured, I found the width was down to 18.08mm. Figured it was time to replace because of the loss of nearly 2mm in width (20 to 18.08). Ordered the exact same belt (mentioned above) as I'd been running. Upon arrival, I measured the new belt at only 19.2mm wide. Thought I may have received a less than perfect belt.....posted about it on another forum, and someone took the time to measure a couple of new ones he had lying around....both were 19mm. So with only a 1mm loss in 4800 miles, and looking the way it does, I'm going to run the old belt another season.

That Qinjiang you mentioned, may be a great belt/company....I don't know. But I do know Gates has been around since 1911, and has built a reputation of quality.

[ellpee]

Funny thing about Gates, I couldn't find a 918-22.5-30 on their website. Various close, but no exact match. Whassup with that? Maybe just my deficient googling skills, links welcome.

[rks]

Here's one....Gotta believe the price listed is a misprint...doubt very seriously he'd have 30 sold at that price

link

Here's another with a decent price......

link

[ellpee]

Thanks. Yeah, that first one has to be a misprint. So now I have a Qinjiang belt sitting on my workbench; guess nobody has anything to share about them one way or the other, beyond the generic "Chinese quality sucks" vibes one sees here.

[rks]

Do you have a way of measuring that new belt?

I'm just wondering if all sizes/brands measure something less than advertised. (as in my case) The width is what I'm referring to. I think that a 10% loss in width would be a good wear limit....that is of course, if there are no cracks or fraying prior to that. But you have to know the actual new belt width first.

[ellpee]

Haven't measured it, but will do so. The numbers printed on it are the right ones, but "trust but verify," as the saying goes.