Spindle drive belt on a 95 VF-2

[DaOne]

We have a 95 VF-2 with a 7500 RPM spindle with gearbox. I am trying to isolate a noise the shows its head at around 2200 RPM in high gear. It almost sounds like a bad bearing however I feel it cant be because if I raise or lower the RPM it goes away and never shows back up. The encoder belt is showing signs of cracking so that will be changed. The main spindle belt also is prob the original belt so we want to change that at the same time is it dosent require more than a few hours of work. Whats the easiest way to remove this belt?

[Haas__man]

Remove all head covers.
Turn off compressed air to machine.
remove Tool Release piston.
Remove 5 mounting screws that hold transmission to head,
but leave back left screw in position but looose.
If you take out all six screws then tranmission could rock forwards and fall.
Now remove access panel from underside of head (roughly 4 x 5 inches)
now pull tranmission towards you as far as you can to slacken tension in belt
lift belt over the spindle and push down into head casting
reach from underneith the head through the access panel and pull out the belt.

Now do the reverse to put belt back in.
Once the belt is back on you will need to make sure that the orientation is set correctly. As yours is a 95 machine it will have the mechanical type.
Turn the spindle/belt/gearbox while pushing the shot pin bolt in (this is on the right sideand is the part that locks the spindle on orientation)
when the pin pushes in the spindle will stop.
Now look at the spindle dogs.
They should be in line with the x axis
if they are not then remove the belt again, turn the spindle a couple of teeth then re-fit belt.
Push in the pin and turn spindle again until it locks.
again, look to see if the spindle dogs are in line with x axis.
keep on moving belt until it's in the correct position.
When it is you will need to tension the belt.
to do this put all six mounting bolts back in but loose
push transmission away from you until belt is tensioned properly.
then tighten bolts.
Refit tool release piston.
Turn compressed air back on.
test orientation.
test spindle speed.
refit covers.

Hope this helps.