Hi, Don't know if anybody remembers my complaining of a loud rattle type noise at idle and how last fall I said I would take it apart this winter and check it out....well I finally fixed it and thought I would pass on what I found. A little history first, the noise first started between 3 and 4 thousand
miles and seemed to get louder to a point where it then seemed to level off where I now have over 12000 miles. It was worse when cold and if I had the bike on the centerstand and increased the rpms to spin the rear wheel the noise would go away, this told me that it was most likely not the transmission which has the output shaft that the rear wheel connects to.
At this point this is where it really comes in handy to have a shop manual, I've worked on other scooters so I know how a cvt works and by checking the manual I saw that there are two bearings in the rear pulley that allow the rear pulley to freewheel on the input shaft for the above mentioned transmission. When the pulley spins to a certain speed the clutch engages and starts spinning the input shaft and finally everything spins at the same speed and the bearings are doing very little in the way of making up for the speed difference, or another way to look at it is the inner race and the outer race are spinning at the same speed.
Inside this pulley there are two bearing, a ball bearing sealed on one side and a roller bearing also sealed on one side, the only lube they receive is the grease installed at assembly either when new are at the time service is performed on the rear pulley. After I got it all apart I found that the ball bearing was good but the roller bearing when spun with your fingers had indentions or some kind of flat areas on its outer race. The input shaft which the rollers run on was fine which surprised me since I expected it to be damaged. The bearing did seem to be a bit on the dry side and that combined with the fact I drive alot on the freeway might have loaded the bearing in such a way to cause it since at that speed the rollers are pretty much in the same position all the time. If not that maybe it was damaged when assembled at the factory cause it did have a ding in the end of it where it was pressed or pounded in. At any rate I got the parts I needed at Ron Ayers website( Bearing,o-rings,weights for front pulley,etc and a new belt since it was apart and reaching near the end of its life) put it back together with loveing care and plenty of grease on everything. Put the battery back in since it was one of the only warm days we've had and started it up, sounded like new again, took it for a 20 mile ride and it still sounded fine so will see how it goes when I start riding it more once the weather breaks for good. Whew.... thats the most I ever typed at one time and I think I need a break now. If anybody has any questions at all about what I did drop me a line and I'll be happy to try answering them.
Tom
miles and seemed to get louder to a point where it then seemed to level off where I now have over 12000 miles. It was worse when cold and if I had the bike on the centerstand and increased the rpms to spin the rear wheel the noise would go away, this told me that it was most likely not the transmission which has the output shaft that the rear wheel connects to.
At this point this is where it really comes in handy to have a shop manual, I've worked on other scooters so I know how a cvt works and by checking the manual I saw that there are two bearings in the rear pulley that allow the rear pulley to freewheel on the input shaft for the above mentioned transmission. When the pulley spins to a certain speed the clutch engages and starts spinning the input shaft and finally everything spins at the same speed and the bearings are doing very little in the way of making up for the speed difference, or another way to look at it is the inner race and the outer race are spinning at the same speed.
Inside this pulley there are two bearing, a ball bearing sealed on one side and a roller bearing also sealed on one side, the only lube they receive is the grease installed at assembly either when new are at the time service is performed on the rear pulley. After I got it all apart I found that the ball bearing was good but the roller bearing when spun with your fingers had indentions or some kind of flat areas on its outer race. The input shaft which the rollers run on was fine which surprised me since I expected it to be damaged. The bearing did seem to be a bit on the dry side and that combined with the fact I drive alot on the freeway might have loaded the bearing in such a way to cause it since at that speed the rollers are pretty much in the same position all the time. If not that maybe it was damaged when assembled at the factory cause it did have a ding in the end of it where it was pressed or pounded in. At any rate I got the parts I needed at Ron Ayers website( Bearing,o-rings,weights for front pulley,etc and a new belt since it was apart and reaching near the end of its life) put it back together with loveing care and plenty of grease on everything. Put the battery back in since it was one of the only warm days we've had and started it up, sounded like new again, took it for a 20 mile ride and it still sounded fine so will see how it goes when I start riding it more once the weather breaks for good. Whew.... thats the most I ever typed at one time and I think I need a break now. If anybody has any questions at all about what I did drop me a line and I'll be happy to try answering them.
Tom
