Cush drive is okay

Chris B. inspected the cush drive today and gave it a clean bill of health, because he said "it's already been rebuilt. See the rivets that's not the manufacturer and the little bit of warping on the plate between the rivets is normal on a rebuild". He also dismantled the gears from the axle and inspected how it all fit together and confirmed the gears were installed correctly and were not rubbing. Everything looked good. Crap! At that point Chris recommended installing a new or tester clutch even though my clutch looks just great.

When Chris inspected the clutch and again today when he inspected the cush drive he commented, "it looks brand new." That combined with a rebuilt cush drive prompted me to call Christopher Markley and ask him if he rebuilt it. He has rebuilt so many of these and could not remember. He told me to check the parts invoices he gave me to be sure.

So I found a Scooter Works invoice he ordered back on 7/2006 and among the many items ordered I found:

1 Comp Clutch Kit -- VSX Surflex (item #CK4)

6 Spring, Cush Drive Inner (item #77372)

1 Plate, Spring Gear, Inner VSX (item #77371)

1 Plate, Spring Gear Outer VSX (item #77370)

6 Rivet, Spring Gear Assembly (item #S 05765)

1 Bearing, Spring Gear VSB, VSC (item #S 07153)

1 Lock Washer, Spring Gear NOS VSB,VSC (item # 58636)

From Scooter Parts Direct I placed an order on 11/2006 that included:

6 Spring, Spring Gear Outer (item #78853)

It seems all items for the cush drive were ordered on my dollar. So I regret not checking my paperwork to verify before I cracked the cases.

Besides Chris being right that everything looks brand new, I am not exactly sure what this could mean. Maybe after market products resulted in this sound. Research time.

I will post detailed photos before I put her back together.

Suggestions?

Dry test trouble shooting

I seeked help from Hiro and he gave me some good advice in terms of how to identify the grinding sound between neutral & 1st gear. Here are Hiro's suggestions:

"It is a good time to see if the gears mesh perfectly and how the noise can be generated by turning the motor by hand, shifting the gear through 1st to 4th from neutral. I am doubting the gears on the selecting rod installed with improper alignment. In case, the noise comes from the grind between the gears and shift cross. Assuming the noise can be heard during the acceleration with fully engaged clutch.

Once again, I will doubt the clutch unit if the half engaged clutch generates the noise.

I doubt the improper alignment between 1st and 2nd gear (which should have room for the neutral) or worn gears(both gears on the cush drive and the gear shift)/shift cross. I need to check if the gear cable adjustment and the condition of the waved (which align the gear location) dishes in the gear cable adjustment unit. There is a possibility that the peak(s) between the neutral position and the 1st position was worn badly and can not stay in the 1st position to grind inside the gear on shift unit."

Thank you Hiro!

Cush drive inspection

I will post a detailed photo up of my cush drive soon. I have noticed that the bearing which was replaced during the engine rebuilt is a sealed bearing and it is my understanding that the caged style bearing is preferred here. I will need to remove the seal around the bearing.

I have also noted that there is some warping on the top plate of the cush drive between the rivets and I wonder what kind of impact that could or not have with regards to the grinding sound.

Tom G. taught me the best way to test the cush drive:
"Shaking the cush is not a valid test. Hold the large gear in one hand and the cluster in the other hand. Now twist hard. If the big gear moves with relation to the cluster gear, then rebuild. If no movement, the assy is fine."

Cush drive removal

I invested some time over the past few days to remove the cush drive. Here is a slideshow of the process:
My goal was to remove ONLY what I must and to leave as much of the engine in tact as possible. A huge thank you to Tom G., who mentored me through the process as well as Paul S., who helped me through some of the tactical steps.

It feels as if I have been blogging about scooter restoration for quite some time. In the beginning I couldn't find any that did it in detail and that's why I decided to document the details for others like me via a blog. Also, many blogs start the documentation process, but either the bike and or the blog never seem to reach completion. Today there are many more resources available for the newbie and novices online (or course the best are the experienced wrenchers), and I'd like to recommend two resources for you that have been trustworthy and around a lot longer than me. Here are two articles I used for this process . . . transmission removal from ScooterHelp.com and brake shoes removal from Paul S.'s site ScooterLounge.com.

The next step is for me to inspect my cush drive and then rebuild it. I plan to do that work myself.

Disassembly Tip (update)

Newbies,

When disassembling your bike print out an extra parts catalog with diagrams. You may need multiple copies of some pages. Use a ziplock to hold your parts and with highlighter mark the parts you have in the bag. Then put the diagram in the bag. Use zip ties to hold the "order" of the parts in place. Leave the zip tie loose enough so you can clean the parts.

Now inspect your parts and use a different color maker to label "replace" for parts that need replacing.

This will make reassembly easier.

Special thanks to Hiro who gave me a similar idea (and Hiro credited it to Tom G.).