Rear variator bonded contact patch By scootaway (Read 398 times)

[scootaway]

Hi everybody, prosperous 2014 to ya all. I want to tell you about something I observed. lately my scoot seems to be slightly heavier on gas than before. So during routine maintenance I removed the rear variator to see if there is oil in the gearbox and to apply a little grease to the sliding bush inside the variator. Good thing I did because I noticed that the centrifugal clutch has three contact patches (similar to drum brakes on a car). They wear down and 1mm (.039 inch) is the wear limit. The problem as they wear down is that the distance between them and the bell (like the outer drum) increases just as your handbrake lever seems to come up more and more until you adjust it. The result is that you unknowingly have to ref the engine more to pull off and that increases your gas consumption. I replaced my centrifugal clutch and the scoot feels much more responsive. I am pretty sure my gas consumption is going to improve.

[ellpee]

Confused newbie here -- variator is in front, clutch is in back, as I understand it. But I get the drift, and have learned from your post. On my Roketa, initially I had a lot of "chattering" on startup because I had babied the clutch too much during practice driving and glazed those three pads a bit. Rough-sanding them fixed that. Now I'm at just over 3000 miles, and I make an effort on every start to "goose it" just a bit until I feel the pads taking hold; generally speaking, it feels good, very little chattering -- only when I'm having to putt around below 10 mph in a parking lot or whatever. But I imagine that DOES cost me a little bit of gas.

[scootaway]

Ellpee technically you are right variator front clutch back but because the rear also varies I just call it the rear variator. The chattering you refer to, what is that? Did you purchase the scoot 2nd hand or new because the chattering should not be there actually it should be rather quiet. I had chattering on mine and had to replace the complete unit at the rear when the scoot was still fairly new. The Chinese did not apply too much grease and the bush ran dry and that is where I kept the centrifugal clutch as a spare and could use it now.

[ellpee]

Early on, when I would crank 'er up and begin to give gas -- gently, tentatively, because I was a nervous newbie who hadn't been on anything with two wheels in many, many years -- it would grab and let go, grab and let go, until I got some forward motion going. Especially noticeable when I was up in the church parking lot practicing those pesky figure 8's and U-turns and what have you that I needed to master if I was going to pass the motorcycle practical test down at MVD. (Needless to say, all that practicing was <10 mph.) As a result, after a few weeks every start involved the grabbing/bucking, and I learned on this forum that I had probably glazed those three clutch pads by being too gentle and tentative, in effect "slipping" them more than what would be considered normal. Consequently, as they swung out due to normal RPM increase, they were not getting a firm hold on the inside of the clutch bell as soon as they would have otherwise. I pulled the clutch bell and rough-sanded them just a tad, and day and night, all good again (and plenty of material left on the three pads). Hope that answers what you were asking.

Oh, and "quiet"? Not really, at least not on mine. From Day 1, on startup I heard a sort of "rattling" from the CVT which I ascribe to the variator rollers; as soon as I get a few RPM going, enough to push the rollers outward in their tracks, it quiets down and away we go. Someone here told me that is normal and just how a CVT works, and not to worry about it.

[scootaway]

Someone here said ride 'em like you stole 'em. Safe riding Ellpee