[DanB]

On the way back from my Texas Hill country trip last week my CVT belt broke 5 miles from home. I had logged about 1100 miles in all.

Trailered my 07 Executive with 94k over to Craigs's shop (aka Buffalo) and we started the tear down today. He said he had heard of a way to remove the transmission without pulling the engine. He had replaced his belt previously and pulled his engine. Essentially the frame is in the way and prevents removing the tranny to access the CVT belt.

So we removed the engine bolts to the frame and raised the frame above the engine. Worked real slick as we had the tranny out in 4 hours. Order parts in the morning and should be back on the road soon. Thank you Craig, you're a great mechanic and a good friend. BTW, this is the 3rd belt on this scooter.

 

[valkyrie]

I think you mean that this the first cvt belt that broke on your 650, And I have to say that Buffalo is the man!!

 

[Buffalo]

Actually it's the second belt. This is Robin's old bike. The primary pulley bearing in the CVT went out at around 50,000 miles. When the Suzuki shop rebuilt it she had them put a new belt in it even though the original belt appeared to still be in good shape. Unfortunately when they did the rebuild the extended maintenance folks would not authorize a new outer case half which the mechanic said it needed. He was right and it only went a few hundred miles before the primary pulley bearing failed again. They did another rebuild on the extended maintenance folks dime this time replacing the outer case half. They did not however replace the belt. They used the one they put in on the first build as it only had a few hundred miles. So the CVT was rebuilt twice in a few hundred miles but only one belt was put in it.

On the first ride after that rebuild a bearing in the transmission failed. We think they forgot to refill the transmission with oil when they did the CVT rebuild but we have no proof of that. Anyway they have to pull the engine again and split the crankcase to fix the transmission bearing. The CVT was removed when that was done but they did not open it up.

As for why the belt broke with only about 44,000 miles on it, I don't really know. Only thing I can surmise is the failure after the first rebuild and the failure of the bearing in the transmission both but stress on the belt early in it's life and that may have shortened it's life span. There does not appear to be anything else amiss in the CVT that would cause it. The one in my CVT went twice that mileage before it broke.

 

[DanB]

Actually it's the second belt.

You're right Craig; second replacement belt. I was counting the original as this will be the 3rd belt on the bike.

 

[Rustydust]

I too have a 2007 Executive and I am scared to death that something in my tranny will go belly up on me before I am ready to quit riding the machine. I do have quite a few tools for simple things such as basic maintenance and wheel removal, but the idea of yanking an engine out (or even partially out) of something that complex terrifies me. I swapped an engine on my RD400 Yamaha and it was cake. The Burgman? Yikes!

I just turned 9K on the bike two days ago but I just bought it in August of last year with only 3500 miles on it. And over two months that I owned it it never got out of the garage due to the weather. I hate the thought of someday owning something that I cant ride because it cost more to fix it than it's worth. But maybe I ought to ride my other bikes more and my Burgman less so that I can get a few more years out of it.

I know that there is no way of knowing when the tranny or something in the tranny is going to go south but just knowing that it probably will someday keeps a niggling fear in me that one day I will be looking at a beautiful red 650 Burgman in my garage and not being able to ride it ever again.

 

[Buffalo]

My comment would be that if you can pull the engine in the RD you can pull the CVT in the 650. Using the method Dan and I are using it would be a one workday job. Half a day to pull it apart and another half a day to put it back together when the parts come in. All you need is hand tools. A couple of "special tools" are called for but you can easily substitute readily available hand tools for those. Many folks fear it because they look at the bike and all they see is the body work. Once you remove the body work the bike is put together much like any other bike.

As for putting miles on it. The chances are you will be well north of 50,000 miles before you ever have to start worrying about the CVT and probably closer to 100,000. So ride the thing.

 

[miken6mz]

Did you have any noises or funnies before the belt failure? Or was is normal one minute and dead the next without any warning?

 

[DanB]

No warning. Was riding back from south Texas on a 1200 mile trip. Bike ran like a top all the way back home. Running about 75 and all of a sudden the rpm's spiked to 8000 and I backed off the throttle and lost all power to rear wheel.

 

[Paul 38Burg650 07]

On the way back from my Texas Hill country trip last week my CVT belt broke 5 miles from home. I had logged about 1100 miles in all.

Trailered my 07 Executive with 94k over to Craigs's shop (aka Buffalo) and we started the tear down today. He said he had heard of a way to remove the transmission without pulling the engine. He had replaced his belt previously and pulled his engine. Essentially the frame is in the way and prevents removing the tranny to access the CVT belt.

So we removed the engine bolts to the frame and raised the frame above the engine. Worked real slick as we had the tranny out in 4 hours. Order parts in the morning and should be back on the road soon. Thank you Craig, you're a great mechanic and a good friend. BTW, this is the 3rd belt on this scooter.

Hey. Mine still sits in the basement after determining the clutch looked OK (not likely causing my lost of power to the rear wheel). All that is documented on this site. I sort of gave up - not willing to get into removing the drive train from the frame.

Would love to see inside my CVT before junking the thing. Very interested in the Engine Bolt removal and Lifting the frame.

Could you give more info on exactly what bolts were removed (how to do it). I see the jack to raise the frame up. But, no idea at present what bolts you are talking about. So we removed the engine bolts to the frame and raised the frame above the engine.

 

[Buffalo]

The engine is held in with three engine mount points. A single bolt passes through each of those mount points. They would be items 47. 48. and 49 on this fiche. http://www.partshark.com/fiche_sect...ory=Scooters&make=SUZUKI&year=2006&fveh=10159

It's pretty easy to spot them once you remove the floorboard/tunnel cover. The hardest one to spot is the one on the lower back down near the center stand.

 

[Buffalo]

If you look at Dan's second picture right at the top edge above and slightly left of the where the radiator hose connects to the thermostat housing you will see the hole where the top mount bolt goes through the frame.

If you look at the engine down under the thermostat housing below the frame you will see where the bottom front bolt goes through the engine mount. The hole in the frame is above it hidden in the picture by the floorboard bracket and radiator hose.

 

[Buffalo]

As for removing them. You hold the bolt on one side of the engine with a wrench and screw the nut off the end on the other side of the engine. Once the nut is off just pull the bolt out. Be sure to support the engine from underneath before you do that though. The back will be supported by the center stand but you will need something under the front. That is what the floor jack in the picture is for.

 

[Paul 38Burg650 07]

Good Stuff Buffalo -- as usual. Thanks

Maybe, I will get up the energy, nerve, and desire to attempt this in my limited basement and facility. I would like to see inside my CVT.

 

[DanB]

Craig is the man as we (mostly he) finished the cvt belt replacement today on my scooter. As you may recall it broke about 3 weeks ago on a trip back from the Texas Hillcountry.

We thought we'd try the alternative to removing the engine by unbolting it from the frame and raising the frame so the transmission could clear the frame upon removal. Worked like a charm. The only things that seemed to slow us down was the transmission to engine spline alignment when re-installing tranny and the air box didn't want to seat on the engine. The last snafu was the fuel retainer clip on the fuel line which popped off never to be found. Paid 40.00 to have the 6.00 retainer overnight shipped. Today Craig and I got it buttoned up and went out for a little ride and all is well. Trailered it back home from Craigs and rode it another 75 miles and runs perfect. Craig has a big heart and this repair on my Executive is most appreciated good friend. Another Burgman saved from the Bone Yard. Today it turned over 94k.

Here's a pic of Craig in his element.

 

[TheReaper]

Congrats to both of you , good job .

TheReaper!

 

[Buffalo]

You'll notice in the picture I work best with my tongue sticking out a little

As Dan said, putting the bike back together went mostly good. Getting the splines aligned when stabbing the CVT was a little harder than with the unit sitting out in the open. Took us three or four tries to get it right then it slid right in.

When we lowered the frame back down the rubber boots between the air box and the top of the throttle bodies got rolled under and we could not get them straightened back out because of the tight fit between the top of the air box and the ABS unit. In retrospect it probably would have been better to remove the air box before lowering the frame down. On a standard model it would not be a problem but on the Exec with the ABS module just barely clearing the top of the air box it gets in a bind. I ended up taking the whole filter box/air box assembly off to get it straightened out.

 

[DanB]

Sorry about the tongue Craig, it was the only one I took with you in it. It's ok, you're a cool dude anyway you slice it.

 

[Ken]

Great job. Any estimate as to the total time to make the repair?

 

[Buffalo]

I would guess that most folks could accomplish it in no more than 8 to 10 man hours. Of course I had the advantage of already having the set of special tools I made when I pulled my CVT. Someone doing it for the first time would have to spend a little time cobbling those together.

 

[DanB]

Craig and I worked about 6.5 hours together and he worked I think 2-3 hours on it alone. So appears to be about a 9-10 hour job. Some things went slow and maybe would have been a little faster. It did help though to have an extra set of hands for a few of the tasks. Perhaps someone who likes to wrench could knock it out in one long day. Problem though is you don't really know all the issues regarding what parts to order until the tranny is pulled and inspected. Therefore have to wait on parts shipment. I suppose one could order just the belt and all of rings and seals needed assuming the bearing and sensors are good. That way one could probably do the complete job in one day.