The Yamaha Road Star Warrior Forum

Out of curiosity I pulled the cover on my 6k mile 06 and everything looked fine. Should I still be concerned if I continue to keep an eye on my belt tension?

I've really been considering trading her in for an FJR1300 and this type of thread doesn't make me comfortable if that deal never happens.

On the way home from work a few nights ago on my 02 wr (w 12,500 miles) I noticed a growl/howling sound coming especially from fr. pulley area. And you could put your hand on it and really "feel" the noise and vibrations on the pulley cover. Once home I got on here and found all you guys' description of it exactly what I hear. I checked and then changed the transfer gear case lube, it was up and looked decent. Pulling the fr pulley cover revealed a little road grime, grease, etc but nothing excessive or unusual. I let my local yamaha dealer mechanic ride it and he agrees something's wrong, and hopefully after seeing the 20+ pages I printed off here about it, it sounds like he'll try to get the factory to warranty it. My appointment is this Sat (9th) so I'll probably find out next week. I will let you know what happens. But in any case this sounds like something that should be an "official" recall this is obviously not a rare thing!

V4John:

Out of curiosity I pulled the cover on my 6k mile 06 and everything looked fine. Should I still be concerned if I continue to keep an eye on my belt tension?

I've really been considering trading her in for an FJR1300 and this type of thread doesn't make me comfortable if that deal never happens.

I bought my 2004 Warrior in October 2007, it had 4,500 miles on the clock, as of October 2008 it now has 20,350. During the time I've owned this incredible bike, I've lurking around this site and learning alot about this machine and I thought that I would add to this thread. I noticed that when I would push my bike out of the garage to wash it, I would hear a grinding/clunking sound coming from the drive pulley area. Due to my reading on this site I decided to remove the pulley cover and take a look, lo and behold I saw the dreaded "red dust of death" on the pulley! The belt was way too tight and the nut on the pulley shaft was finger tight and the lock washer tabs were not bent over the nut. I have performed the red lock tight method of temporary repair (has held for 15,000 miles!)  till the new replacement parts arrive. Pics of shaft and pulley are in my gallery. Damn I do love this machine!

 Damnit... Well I guess now I know what that noise is when I push my bike in and outta the garage. Now I'm gonna have to pull the cover off and check the situation out. Unfortunately I've been noticing some leakage under this area, Shite!!!  I was thinking that maybe I just had a bad seal, guess thats prolly not gonna be the case. I have an '04 that I got in jul of '07 with about 4200 mi on her, I'm now just over 7000. Wish me luck as I get ready to pull the cover off. 

Okay, now the question is "does this happen to nearly all of the pre-06 Warriors or is it fairly random?" Since I need to start doing some things to the bike tomorrow Ill definitely be removing the pulley cover and checking for some red residue.

Jer:

 Damnit... Well I guess now I know what that noise is when I push my bike in and outta the garage. Now I'm gonna have to pull the cover off and check the situation out. Unfortunately I've been noticing some leakage under this area, Shite!!!  I was thinking that maybe I just had a bad seal, guess thats prolly not gonna be the case. I have an '04 that I got in jul of '07 with about 4200 mi on her, I'm now just over 7000. Wish me luck as I get ready to pull the cover off. 

Additional Photos http://flickr.com/photos/15071518@N07/sets/72157602601838714/detail/

Good Luck

FYI  In 04 I noticed a clunking/clicking issue when pushing my 03 bike backward.  I pulled the cover and found the issue mentioned so many times in this post.  Anyway put the cover back on and went to finish the ride. Before I got home 15 miles, the pulley/shaft stripped stranding me on the highway.  Contacted the dealership where I purchased it at (several weeks out of warranty) and they or yamaha picked up the repair cost.  I lost 8 weeks of riding waiting for the repairs to be completed.  Hats off to the guys in Searcy AR (Even if i lost the 8 weeks of riding my pride and joy).  Hopefully not to many people seen me on the Honda Shadow while I was waiting  LOL

Holy crap. This is a hard-core problem.

 I have an '02 with only 7,000 miles (6800 when I bought it). I've only owned it for a couple of weeks and I'm just trying to get acquainted with potential problems. My bike had the transmission recall completed. I have the paperwork for it. Is there any chance that they might have done something to prevent this problem while it was in the shop, or probably not since it's not an official recall?

 For you guys who check your own belt tension, did you buy the special tension checking tool somewhere? If so, where? How much? Got a part number? I'm mechanically inclined and don't have a Yammi dealer nearby so I'd prefer to do it myself. Currently my bike has no symptoms. There's dead silence when the bike is in neutral whether I'm pushing it, or rolling at 20 mph in neutral. There's no oil leaks. It freewheels with no drag or friction.

 Am I overreacting, or am I just lucky and should check this out ASAP?

Sushi_Biker:

My bike had the transmission recall completed. I have the paperwork for it. Is there any chance that they might have done something to prevent this problem while it was in the shop, or probably not since it's not an official recall?

I am sure the local stealer here put the correct amount of torgue on the pulley nut after the tranny recall. I have an 02 with 8900 miles and was reading about this so I took the cover off to check it. I set the torgue wrench to 125 and to my amazement it didn't move. From now on it will be a permanente part of my regular inspection.

 i had to replace my drive shaft berring at about 5k mi when i removed the front pully there was no red dust but the berring was shot big time! i replaced both the left and right side berrings inside the housing so far so good - 12k now - the sound the bike made before the change was like you were going 50 on a flat rear tire kind of a low pitch. check out my posts hope they can help

 better safe than sorry - i think i caught mine in time- after i heard the noise i quit riding it that same day and started to tear into it.

 i think i have the same problem also. over here in germany since now nobody had that probelm.

I also had öl under my front pully but no strange noise , so i opend the Pully case and there was tha fucking red dust and greasy. so i cleaned that *** up and drove about 700miles in two weeks. No Oil came out. now the Bike ist stand still for a week and since yesterday there is a Oil Stain again.My nut is a little lose, but i think it supose to be like that

deven, the pulley nut should be tight, not loose. two weeks ago I had to replace the middle driven shaft and drive pulley and the related bits. Not too difficult, just take your time.

 Hi

and there is no posibility to tight that nut up ?, so it stays Tight ,i don´t think that my drive shat ist already damaged