If you’ve put a couple hundred miles on your snowmobile this season, there’s a good chance that it’s time to adjust your belt to pick up some of that lost power that ever-so-subtly has been draining from your clutches.
As the belt wears it gets a little loose in the clutches. When you push in on the belt between the clutches, you should only have about an inch of deflection. Anything more is likely costing you some performance and increasing you clutch operating temperatures.
We’ve taken a 2024 Ski-Doo Summit X with just over 200 miles to see how much slop has crept into the belt deflection. We found there was nearly two inches … which means it’s time to make the simple adjustments.
“Besides looking at the deflection, I also look to see how the belt is setting up on the driven clutch sheeve. It should be riding above the sheeve by about a 16th on an inch,” explained Jerry Mathews of Starting Line Products.
The simple way to adjust the belt tension is by using the L-shaped tool provided with your snowmobile, you will loosen the bolt on the face of the driven clutch so you can rotate the adjuster clockwise about a half-turn. You need to work your belt up over the top of the driven sheeves to allow the sheeves to suck in. This allows the clutch to push out to the adjuster. Check you deflection and repeat the process until you feel you’ve worked the slop out of the belt deflection. Once you get where you want to be, tighten the bolt and you’re ready to ride.
“Once your belt is riding high enough on the driven sheeves to where you can see the first cord of the belt, you’re where you want to be,” Mathews said. “This will make a huge difference on the Ski-Doo, especially when you are riding through the trees and crossing that engagement rpm often.”
Mathews says you will also see the clutch temperatures will go down and you will have a lot longer belt life. After making the adjustments, we took the Summit X and hit the slopes. The response was much quicker and the overall performance improved.