Primary Drive Questions..

[confab]

Is there an adapter to convert the 45" small taper sprocket shaft to the BT tapered pulleys and sprockets? (Or even the splined ones, for that matter.)

What do you do about the large, caged roller bearing in the clutch housing when converting to a belt drive? Is there a skinny, little sealed bearing you put in there, instead? Because it no longer gets any lubrication...

[JBinNC]

The clutch hub bearing just gets a little grease inside the cage, same as it ever was. I have seen a 45 with the long roller bearing conversion (of which I am not a fan). I think all the 45 clutch hub bearings are ball bearing instead of rollers, but I could be wrong.

Jim

[confab]

Thank you..

And, we're using a BT 4spd here. So, it has the short little "sprag" type rollers and the metal cage.

I guess you just lube it every now and then?

[Guest]

45's all had the small ball bearings in the cage, I did put 'BIG FIX' rollers in mine & it was fine for the 7-8 years I owned it, I also made my own 2'' belt drive by buying pully blanks from my local bearing supply shop & turned them to fit, I used a turned down 45 front sprocket & fitted it on the inside of the pully with 6 allen bolts as on shop bought kits, I think over the counter you can only get skinny 1'' set up's & I wanted a 2'' for looks & because it was going on my 45 Magnum, the taper on the sprocket shaft does look small, but is more than adequate for the power a 45 or even a 45 Magnum produces.

[Guest]

heres the finished set up

[confab]

I used a turned down 45 front sprocket & fitted it on the inside of the pully with 6 allen bolts as on shop bought kits

Excellent.. Exactly my fallback plan.

Yours turned out beautiful, too.

Thanks!

[confab]

What type of belts are we looking at, exactly?

There's a bunch of different profiles and materials. Which ones are the ones typically used for Harley primary drives?

[Guest]

thanks confab, much appreciated fella,....
I actually used timing belts from a bearing shop for about £25 ($34) it's the 2nd 45 belt, i used 390H200 0n the magnum as the trans was further back than in a std 45 frame,
a bearing shop can (& it's online,) work out for you belt lengths, by using the pully diameters & the minimum & maximum crank center to mainshaft centers
I have built 2 using timing belts myself & never had to change them,
there isn't the power in a 45 that would demand a Gates big twin harley
type belt that costs $135+ new, but they would obviously be longer lasting,
when I built the one in the above pics, I wasnt able to find an aluminum front pully so used a cast iron one, but after I machined it out the weight wasn't too bad, but idealy I would have gone for an alloy one,
i havent got a mill, but if you know ya way around one & have access to a deviding head
or indexing rotary table as well, you could make the pullys yourself to the exact ratios that you need,..

[confab]

Yeah, I got a cheap dividing head some time back just for this project.. Was thinking about trying my hand at pulley creation?

First thing I noticed about them was: Once you get outside the Harley/BDL/Primo/Etc replacement parts category? There's a truly blinding array of options in timing belts.

Here's a quick rundown from McMaster Carr, if anyone is interested.

https://www.mcmaster.com/timing-belts/

[Guest]

I forgot to say that literally the hardest part was the front sprocket,
i havent got oxy torches etc & the front sprockets on a 45 are bloody hard !!!...
a buddy took it to his works & had a real hard job in getting it soft enough to machine,
he heated several times & eventually ended up getting it to the point a tungsten carbide tipped tool would machine the profile down.
try it with a file & you'll see what I'm saying....

[confab]

Thanks.. I haven't turned it off yet.. But I hit it with a carbide tool and it looks like it will go?

Maybe it is an aftermarket sprocket?