newbee to timing belt change

[irideforlife]

Hi. Can I ask a question re the st1100. I have a 1997 30,000 mile bike. Should I do the timing belt and then also replace the tensioner, water pump and idler? Just asking as the mileage is well within Honda`s limit but the bike is 25 years old. Do I need to replace the tensioner, water pump etc or will an inspection for smoothness of running be ok? What happens if I move the timing marks a little when taking off or putting on a belt? Can they just be manually moved back to where they were?

 

[Oldbikefixr]

Hi. Can I ask a question re the st1100. I have a 1997 30,000 mile bike. Should I do the timing belt and then also replace the tensioner, water pump and idler? Just asking as the mileage is well within Honda`s limit but the bike is 25 years old. Do I need to replace the tensioner, water pump etc or will an inspection for smoothness of running be ok? What happens if I move the timing marks a little when taking off or putting on a belt? Can they just be manually moved back to where they were?

There are several videos showing the belt change on Youtube. One of my favorites showed the change with an engine sitting on a workbench. It made every step quite clear. My other showed the job being done in the bike, putting a practical flair on the job. Soooo I read the Honda procedures several times, and watched both videos multiple times. There's also some discussion/tips on this site, just use the 'Search' top right of this page...'Timing Belt Replacement' should bring it up. The job itself was simple, hardest part was removing all the plasticwork and keeping up with the fasteners. Once all the engine covers were off, everything looked nearly new, even the belt, so all I needed was the belt itself. While everything was apart I replaced all the hoses I had to remove and checked the valve clearance (all within specs).
I did remove the plugs and marked the gear and crank positions with some Whiteout, white or silver marker will work as well, to give a quick visual that everything.

 

[irideforlife]

thanks. Do I need to consider doing the belt at such low mileage, albeit that it is 25years old. happy to spanner but never really taken an engine or timing belt or chain off so a bit worried. So its a case of checking the moving parts to make sure all are free - ee tensioner is nice and smooth etc

 

[Uncle Phil]

thanks. Do I need to consider doing the belt at such low mileage, albeit that it is 25years old. happy to spanner but never really taken an engine or timing belt or chain off so a bit worried. So its a case of checking the moving parts to make sure all are free - ee tensioner is nice and smooth etc

You will find opinions on both sides.
I change them at 100,000 miles and don't worry about age.
They are way overengineered IMHO - which is a good thing.
I've got an 01 that still has the original timing belt because it only has 60,000 miles on it.
If it runs fine, I would just go ride!
BTW, I have over 440,000 miles between 4 running ST1100s - and they all still run.

 

[irideforlife]

Thanks uncle phil

 

[tnbill]

I have my 91 with 57000 on the clock apart right now. I bought it last April and with unknown history i am doing all new cooling hoses, elbows and t stat along with the 40 amp alternator. Looking at the timing belt it shows NO signs of wear and still supple so i feel no need to replace it. With ad much has to come apart I would not go there till there is more to do or the milage at the recommended interval.

 

[Smudgemo]

I doubt you'll find any issues with the belt. I did a replacement on a '97 a year or so back with 74k and it was fine. My '96 with 68k looks fine through the inspection cover, and since I'm not itching to dig into it for anything else, I'm going to leave it until Uncle Phil's recommended 100k or so. It's not a hard job if you're reasonably competent and can follow instructions, but there is a lot to take apart to get to it and I'm just not excited about doing it again when there is so little documented evidence of belts themselves simply going bad.

 

[red one]

Put me in the if it ain't broke don't fix it camp. I think the consensus here is it isn't the belt that breaks but a drive component that does it in. You can have no warning like Phil's it just happens. Your mileage is so low I'd forget about it. Mine is 23 years old with 82K miles and I can tell you I don't lose any sleep over thinking mine is going to snap. Ride your machine and enjoy it.

 

[DeanR]

On my '91 I did my first ever timing belt change at 95K. Thanks to all the help here it went well. I had made a note that the pulleys felt ok, so did not do the water pump. A mistake. I think it was the following year that the pump started leaking the green stuff. Still need to do this but the 91 water pump presents problems. Needs an alternator upgrade too.

My daily ridden '99 is at 85K. Belt is about due and I have one ready to go. Should probably do the pulleys as well, although I don't want to since they are PROBABLY fine. (like last time)

 

[ReSTored]

In all of the years I've been reading about the ST1100 don't think I've ever seen a report re the belt breaking by itself and then destroying the engine.

There have been a few cases of the water pump failing, the pulley seizes , then the belt gets torn up and then............ very bad things happen to the interference type engine in the 1100. Usually bent valves and damaged pistons.

Some people say that while you are that far into things just replace the water pump as a PM type item and then you don't have to worry about it. Similar to recommendation for timing belts on your car, while everything is open just do both the belt and the pump.

 

[Erdoc48]

I replaced mine based on the age and not mileage and as others have indicated, the belt looked as new, even with the original Honda markings on the belt (these were done in late 2017 on the 1994 and 2000 STs)- the 94 had I believe ~ 35K miles on it at the time (2000 with ~ 32K), and everything was smooth in terms of tensioners, etc., so I didn’t bother changing those. I did change the hoses and metal elbows however. It’s always a tough call. I guess I look at it this way…I’m 58 now, maybe not ride past 80 or so years (I hope to continue past this mark, of course), but it’s likely I will never have to do the belt job again on either bike. I guess I did it for peace of mind, but in truth, the belt and hoses looked as new on both bikes. It becomes a personal choice- this will be an unpopular statement- if you don’t change the belt and sometime down the road it does fail (which is quite unlikely), how much is the bike worth at that time and will you elect to fix it or just get another bike?

I recently swapped out the drive belt on the Silverwing scooter (2003) and despite age (mileage was only ~ 5500 miles on the bike), it looked as new (and CVT belts likely do take a lot more abuse than an engine timing belt)- same thing, swapped it out (much easier job, maybe 1/2 hr) and noted the original belt looked as new- I kept that in the event of failure of the belt used as a replacement but it’s likely to never be an issue (those belts get swapped every 16K miles), but on the Silverwing forum, they can go much longer (like 20-25K miles).

Lots of opinions here, no one is wrong and no one is right as predicting the future is a skill most of us don’t have.