Belt tricks...
 

If anyone has some tricks, do's or do-not's with belts post them here.
How can we make these more efficient.

I dont know if it works or not but I saw a real fast Losi guy the other day cutting every other tooth off of a belt. Maybe he was just bored.

make it tight
 

run detergent soap while the toothless side of the belt while it is running, to make it tight.
Actually you can do this on real fanbelts of car to lessen the noise, just be careful your fingers might be caught!!

yes you can do that trick to the losi to free up the drive train it really works good.:sneaky:

Soak them overnight in WD40.

Make the tension right. As loose as possible, without skipping.

I've heard of guys, that sanded their (car :D) belts to be less wide. Haven't tried it, but it sounds promising.

yeah cole, the sanding trick is usually for the backside of the belt. trimming the width is easiest done with a sharp x-acto. i've sanded the backside of the belts and it really free them up to conform to the pullies. it's a meticulous operation that can obviously result in failure of the belt.

alex lopex's cleveland winning xray had it's belts sanded. all the way to the fiberglass. you just have to be careful not to get the fibers wet with solvents or sauce. they seem to deteriorate quickly if this happens. like wet clothes that stretch out.

the wd40 may soften the neoprene, but it will also shrink the belts. i've done this a few times, but it really messes up the mesh. you'll see it if you try to wrap some of the larger pullies >32t. the belt needs to be forcibly drawn into the pulley. and if the belts are tight to begin with, forget about it.

my.02

Re: Belt tricks...
 

If it's too lose what I do is unhook it and go one hole tighter so that it fits snug on my waist. If it's too tight, I either go one hole out or lose some weight...errr oh transmission belts, nevermind.

Re: Re: Belt tricks...
 

:lol:
You must have been the first to tie your own shoes in preschool ;)

I think the teeth are soaking up the wd-40 and expanding on you like a sponge- not really shrinking the belt, just expanding the size of the teeth. I just use a rag and apply wd-40 to the back side of the belt before each run.

Narrowing up the belt/s will help with effeciency.

i dunno, it may be possible, but i don't believe the pullies to be the culprit. the belts are soaked when removed from the car, and immediately upon re-installation, it is evident that the mesh has been altered.

who knows, but i do agree that application to the back side is the way to go. i used to use paragon a few minutes out from each run just as you do with the 40. the belts seem to be most compliant when they are acutally wet.

install a shaft?

:lol:

belt tricks
 

yes that sanding part is worth a try and the cutting of the tooth one every other tooth is worth a try.

I believe we have to treat the belts one way or another, because if some of you guys run Tamiya the aluminum gear diffs, sometimes deform, and the grooves on them that catches the belt widens.

Todd Hodge says that cutting off every other tooth on a XXX-S really frees up the drive-train
so if the pros do it, then why not try it for yourself!!!???

I just cut every other tooth on my belt on my Losi, haven't run it yet, but it looks a lot faster. :p

J

Why not wait untill Losi releases one, that's what I want to see. If Todd says it then I somewhat beleive it but untill I try it which I seriously doubt I will be cutting up my belt I will see what the truth about it is. To me, the narrower the better.

Because, I'd rather have a faster, more efficient car now, rather then later. ;)

J

Belts will flip over if you make them too narrow:eek:

hello.......

my schumacher has 4mm width belts.....

I'm planing to run narrower belts, I'll try 3mm, if I get a good performance without extreme wearing or broken belts, then I'll try 2.5mm......

Has anybody ever tried to run belt with the width or alike????

On the losi belt, whe you cut every other tooth off, it actually makes your car faster. I isn't one of those, efficiency mods, or, it's easier to set up mods, it makes you faster. I'm not a pro, and i can feel it. Basically, when you off the throttle, you roll soo free, you can get so much more corner speed. Actually, i'm underrating this, it's better than i previously said. Doesn't wreck your belt, as long as you cut it right, and it's easy to install. When you rebuild you diff, put the new belt in. i did it on the blue belt, i can't imagine what it would be like on the yellow belt.

Hello!

Is this trick when you cut every other tooth off only working on losi cars?

/AN

i don't know, i think it's only needed on losi cars though. I haven't seen any other cars with it done, except for losi. Try it on a spare belt, if it works, hey, good for you. I drive a losi, so i don't kon wif it works on other cars.

yep!

i'll buy new separate belts for test....

hey guys,

i haven't tried to cut any teeth off of a belt but, here are some things to be mindful of:

- the losi belts are urethane, and i don't believe that the teeth have any type of coating. for the other cars using the neoprene type belts there are two concerns. these belts have a nylon coating on the drive side (teeth) that resists wear. will cutting the teeth, and putting a ton of discontinuities in the covering cause premature wear or poor tooth strength?

- also the losi car uses a very large layshaft pulley. it's like 20some teeth. most others use 15-18 range,and have less belt wrap than the losi car. the point is that the losi may still have 6 or 7 teeth contacting the pulley versus maybe 4 or 5 for the other cars. will 4 teeth even stand up to a stock motor? if so will the belt tension have to increase, thus negating any effeciency brought about by the painstaking operation?

- if the belt is long (usually a front) and you run it loose, it will have a greater chance of rolling over, so your width may have to be 3mm or greater. conversely, if the rear is narrow, it my want to skip more due to the load transfer durring accelleration.

please let us know how your tests come out, but i'm betting on a 3mm minimum as a rule of thumb.:p

i'll try 2mm and 3mm width too.....

but if running 2mm width belts i get 5minutes without transmission troubles I'll use this every race.....

the 2mm belts here in Brazil costs only 1dollar (the short belt) and 1,50dollars (the long one).....

if i get a better performance I think will be a must run these belts only for racing.....

Dip the pullys and belts in teflon lube. The teflon will stay on but the grease will come off. Leaving you a shrink and expand free belts. I have done this to diffs also.

AzNDRAGster,

this helps to get a lower friction transmission???

seaball, I run a losi and cut every other tooth on the belt, running it pretty loose a couple weekends ago at the novak race, running mod all weekend (wed thru sun). No belt problems, a lot of bad racing luck, but the belt still performs fine... and the car is sooo much freer now...

on my losi i cut every other tooth off the belt and to me it made the car feel slower down the strait and it felt the same in and out of the corners. so idk maybe its just how you drive that makes the belt feel a lil different:weird:

mine felt pretty peppy all over the place with the cut belt...

I just shaved every other tooth on the diff on the xray to try that out instead of doing it on the belt doing it to the belt will make it alot weeker.

Yes, teflon will stay on the belt and will act as a luberacant to the belts. I have done this on belts, shaft gears, spur gears, ect.

I wonder why there's no teflon treated pullies on the market?

azndragster.......

what teflon oil do you use and/or recommend??????

how long should i dip the pulleys and belt in the oil???

only coating the belts and pulleys with oil will work well or I have to dip them in the oil to do the best job????

SalvadoriRacing: Spray the belt with teflon spray

/AN

TexasRacer, have you had a chance to run your xray with the modified belt?

i bought 3mm belts.....

the supplier i found doesn't cut the belts narrower than 3mm....

but it's ok....

i'll try to run these belts, but it seems to be cut by a blind man!!!
uhaahuauauahuhahahahauhahau!!!

the belts are a little crooked, I think they don't have the best equipment to cut a narrow width with precision......

:lol: :cry:

AN.....

do you recommend any brand or model???

do you know a website/webstore????

Nope I actually didnt mod the belt I did it to the Diffs instead. I will be running them this weekend to let you know how it goes so far it feels alot better.

I dipped the pulleys overnight, I dipped the belts for a LONNG time.

Use a bike chain lube with teflon.