timing belts

[davebo63]

I have owned my goldwing 1500 for a few weeks. love it! i have been watching videos and visiting facebook groups and learning more every day. one thing i seen a few times. they mention if your timing belt breaks , i guess while your riding ? that it will destroy your motor ? do you guys know that this is a fact ?

[MikeB]

It is a fact. The Honda Gold Wing engine is an interference engine. The pistons will contact the valves if the crank and cams are not in sync.

[Swagonmaster]

As MikeB said, there is no chance of belt breakage and no damage. The best you could hope for is that the valves would be bent and the rest of the engine be ok, unfortunately repair requires removal of the cylinder heads and replacement of the valves and then replace the timing belts that could have been done before all of this happened. Honda says that the belts should be replace at 100K but many choose to replace them earlier due to the length of time before the bike rackes up that many miles. The consenus of opinion is if you get a bike with a lot of miles on it and you aren't SURE that the belts have been replaced it is some of the cheapest insurance you can buy, and with the do it yourself guides we have it is entirely possible to do the job yourself even if you aren't a tech which makes the job cheap.