[Buffalo]

One of my riding buddies had the belt in his CVT break and I volunteered to help him replace it. We used the short cut of removing the engine mount bolts and lifting the frame up high enough to slide the CVT off the engine. It is much faster. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to pull the CVT out and take it apart for inspection.

We pulled all the body work off from the seat forward and we also removed the seat just so that we could watch all the wires to make sure none of them we being drawn to tight. In addition to pulling the engine mount bolts we had to undo the rear shocks, remove the exhaust, take the connection from the air box to the throttle bodies loose, remove the bolts that connect the radiator to the frame, disconnect the wires that go from the engine to the frame, and take the rear caliper loose and move it forward. Once we did all that we used a bottle jack to lift the frame up until it was high enough to slide the CVT out.

 

[Buffalo]

When we inspected the insides all we found wrong was a broken belt. That makes it an inexpensive repair. I gave him the list of part numbers from when I replaced my belt and he is going to order them. When they com in he will come back over and we will put it back together. We don't expect it to take any longer to put together than it did to take apart.

 

[Desert Rat]

What year 650 is it & how many miles?

 

[Buffalo]

It's an 07 with 97,000 miles.

 

[MJR]

Executive/ABS based on the color? Did you pull the CVT motor (doing that gives more room) off?

 

[ashby102]

Thanks for this information Buffalo! Your the Man!! Keep us informed, Mark

 

[TheReaper]

Nice work !

TheReaper!

 

[Buffalo]

Executive/ABS based on the color? Did you pull the CVT motor (doing that gives more room) off?

Yes it's an Exec. And we did pulled the CVT motor off first as well as the PPS. .

 

[Buffalo]

Correction the bike has 94,000 miles on it. Well 93,946 but close enough.

The belt however only has about 44,000 miles on it. This is Robins old bike and the CVT was rebuilt at around 50,000 miles and a new belt was put in it at that time.

 

[Bakeisback]

Buffalo,

Asking for an opinion of sorts.... If a stranger walked into Buffalo's Burgman Garage and needed the CVT belt replaced. Using this method, what woud you charge or expect to pay? including any standard replacement parts.

 

[Buffalo]

Well I'm not in the business of working on bikes for pay so kind of hard to say. I just assist friends when they need help so I would probably say "I'll help you do it". Most pay I get is a free meal like the one Dan bought for me yesterday .

If your asking what a motorcycle repair shop would charge, it would depend on what their hourly labor rate is. Using this method you are looking at a day's labor at whatever their hourly rate is plus parts. Maybe less because they would have a better set up and better tools than I have so they might do it faster. If all you need to do is replace the belt then your looking at somewhere between $300 and $400 for the parts (belt and some seals, o-rings and a new primary adapter bolt). Kind of hard to say what the exact parts cost would be because it would depend on what kind of markup they get over their cost. If you order them online you can get them closer to $300. They will probably charge you closer to the Suzuki list price which would make it up around $400.

 

[MJR]

I've traded for roughly $600 in parts on one I worked on but I did all the work. Normally I would help like Buffalo if someone wanted assistance like I do with my Jeep buddies. I think the local dealer labor is in the range of $800-$900.

 

[ErikDK]

Is there any chance it could be done without taking the front tupperware off?

 

[MJR]

Is there any chance it could be done without taking the front tupperware off?

Some has to come off unless your going to drill holes to take bolts out, lol. Maybe Buffalo has a better idea of what exactly though.

 

[Buffalo]

You might be able to do it but I would recommend against it because you need to be able to watch the stuff around the front of the engine (the radiator and all it's attachments and hoses) to make sure they do not bind while you raise the frame up. It would be a pain to try to save a few minutes and end up having to replace a radiator or cooling fan because you damaged them.

 

[Buffalo]

To further expound on it. You are at least going to have to remove the floorboards. Getting them off without first removing the front box would be problematic. In turn removing the front box without first removing the leg shield would also be problematic. Not saying you couldn't do it but the likely hood of breaking something would be high.

 

[TheReaper]

In this pic (the Germans ?) left the front end on ? That said , who knows if any damage was done ?

Craig , did you have to disconnect any wiring ?

View attachment 24337

 

[Buffalo]

In this pic (the Germans ?) left the front end on ? That said , who knows if any damage was done ?

Craig , did you have to disconnect any wiring ?

View attachment 24337

The center stand switch, the O2 sensor and the wiring to the CVT. We also ended up disconnecting the fuel line from the throttle bodies. You could probably get by without doing that but the line gets into a bind that would be stressing it. Your at least going to have to remove the clips that secure it to the frame.

If they have not reconnected them I suspect they are running around with the throttle bodies not connected to the air box so they are getting unfiltered air. The first thing that happened when we started lifting the frame was that the rubber boots that connect the throttle bodies and the air box pulled off.

The next thing was that the engine caught on the cooling fan shroud. We undid the bolt and swung the radiator out. That cleared it for a little while then it caught again so we took the hinge bolts out and pulled the radiator forward. After that everything went OK until the fluid line to the rear caliper pulled tight so we unbolted the caliper and moved it forward.

I would rather be safe than sorry when doing this kind of stuff. To me it is preferable to take a few minutes to remove some bodywork so I can see what is going on than risk messing something up.

 

[MJR]

I would rather be safe than sorry when doing this kind of stuff. To me it is preferable to take a few minutes to remove some bodywork so I can see what is going on than risk messing something up.

Exactly because you might cause a problem down the road. I intend to try this on my '09 as an exploratory since my '03 is back together and the '09 has some belt noise/is near the mileage my '03 failed.

 

[NormanB]

Craig
It would be a real service to the forum if you could document all of the key steps and advice, to the point where the CVT is on the deck, with any pics as a bonus. :thumbup: