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[Fred]

I'm sure we've all been through this. You get a shiny new bike, ride it, love it, and a few years later when you need to service something there's a part that's siezed. The worst I remember is the main swingarm bolt on an XR650.

"Yeah - they all do that", you hear. "They all come out of the factory without enough grease. No idea why they put a steel bolt through aluminium, but you'll never get that out now."

Anyway, is there anything well known on a Zero that benefits from some attention in advance?

My FXS has the drive belt overtensioned out of the crate. That's a simple check so not a big deal.

I heard about wheel bearings on earlier models.

Anything else?

[Erasmo]

Check the all the wire connections and put a heat shrink around around it to further weatherproof it.

[firepower]

Check your belt tension and alignment. It will tighten as it ages, important in firsts couple of 1000km's

[gt13013]

I am also interested by your advices

[w5yk]

My 2016 FXS came from the factory with the belt tension at nearly 100lbs. It made a terrible sound, and was obvious immediately.

[Fred]

Mine was also well over 100, but didn't seem to cause too much of a problem. I suspect this is mainly because there is no increase in tension with suspension movement like most chain driven bikes. Good job too as it had done 8 PDI miles at the dealer before I got it.

[gt13013]

I never checked my belt, since my bike is almost new (800 miles), but from your experience it appears that I should check it!
I just have bought a Gates 91107 Belt Tension Tester, and I willl check the belt as soon as I will get this tool.
Gerard

[Richard230]

My 2014 S came from the factory with overly tight steering bearings and drive belt.  I loosened the bearings and kept the tight belt - waiting until I replaced the rear tire at 10.5K miles to set the belt tension correctly.  However, I will add that every chain-driven motorcycle that I have ever bought had an overly-tight drive chain when I picked it up from the dealer.  So adjusting drive belts and chains at the factory to make them "twang" must be an industry standard.   

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Check the all the wire connections and put a heat shrink around around it to further weatherproof it.

I'll add that some electrical insulating grease is also advisable. Probably the top candidate is around the rubber grommet on the BMS front plate, but maybe at vulnerable points behind the headlamp and under the instrument cluster, too.

We could do with a more comprehensive list from someone more experienced than me at this kind of work.

[scorpion32]

to contribute to the list:

- running light cable not connected
- H4 headlight connector glued to H4 housing
- Windshield not properly attached
- seat not properly attached (one of the outer plastic alignments was not inserted)

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

to contribute to the list:

- running light cable not connected
- H4 headlight connector glued to H4 housing
- Windshield not properly attached
- seat not properly attached (one of the outer plastic alignments was not inserted)

This could be summarized as "look for assembly defects". Those are some strange defects! Although the windshield is an accessory which might be dealer-installed but probably only the 10th anniversary edition DSR qualifies as OEM-installed.

[Kocho]

I had the same thing on my '15 SR, though in my case it was a demo bike, so it is conceivable the dealer had the seat off and did not install it correctly, however, when I took the seat off to fix that it seemed like it had never been touched, so I think it must have come like that from the factory...

And yes, my belt was over-tensioned as well.

- seat not properly attached (one of the outer plastic alignments was not inserted)

[gt13013]

Hello,
I have received a GATES 91107 Krikit V-Belt Tension Gauge:
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=101690&jsn=253
and checked the drive belt of my FXS: the belt seems over tight, since the plastic lever of the Krikit tool does not move before the "clic", meaning that the tension is more than 70 kgs (the recommended value is between 20 and 30 kgs).
That is strange that all the bikes coming from the factory seem to have over tight drive belts. Should we leave them like that or should we reduce the tension?

[Shadow]

Tension depends on age of belt and temperature. Yes the belt tension must be adjusted, and again some times while the belt is in the first few thousand miles of use.

I found the belt tension is too much loosened by the cold temperatures today, and whacking the throttle in sport mode caused a slip. I'll be more careful and adjust my belt tighter if I will be riding again in freezing temperatures.

[clay.leihy]

Belt tension does seem to level out in time. At 9000 miles I changed the rear tire on my 15 FX and when reassembling I adjusted to the same marks as before and the tension was spot on. (I could have gotten a few more miles on that tire but by the time it hit the wear indicators it would have been bald in the middle. Darn highway miles.)

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