Panne TUNING ri AN LW BO LU Les BO rice FOR THE SERIOUS RACER AND RNs A WHO WANTS MORE PERFORMANCE ate : = Gist SNOWMOBILE BELT- TRANSMISSION ~ _Information & Illustratiéns Courtesy Of: Arctic Enterprises Bombardier Corporation Comet Industries Kawasaki Motors Polaris Industries Yamaha International Special thanks to Terri & Cos Copyright by Aaen Performance Parts Inc., 1979Introduction ‘The Autonatic V-Belt Transmission ts one of the’ most important parts in the performance of your Racer. It ie the vital link ina vehicle that constantly changes speed powered ty an engine which 4- deally should be operated at a constant speed. With the narrow po- wer bands of the nodern two-stroke racing engine, it 1s inportant that the engine is kept on the power peak and that the power is tranonitted in the most efficient manner for maximus performance, ‘The modern V-belt transmission is, in spite of its nechanicad simplicity, controlled by a number of interdependent variables, and At 4s only by matching these variables that the best performance is obtained from the vehicle, The purpose of this handbook is to ex- plain the function of the transnission and the variables that in- fluence its performance and efficiency, and to give you a testing procedure that will enable you to match your transmission to your racer's requirenents, There are very few things the factory racers do, that you could not do yourself with a good tachoneter, and a sound testing procedure, The two ingredients necessary to obtain an efficiently matched clutch are an understanding of the mechanism and plenty of testing. In this second and expanded edition we will go into further detail in the technical theory areas than in the previous edition. ‘This may be a little too complicated for the beginner, but as you get further into the tuning of clutches and start locking for those extra percentages that make a winner, you will start to look into ‘these areas and the theory may make more sense at that point. We are going into extensive detail in tuning popular clutches in the appendix and this should give the answers to most of the Important questions on these models,Power curves The type of power your V-belt transnission is asked to transmit, has a large influence on the design of your transmissions component parts, Modern snowmobile engines are alnost without exception, of the two-cycle variety with two or more cylinders, A V-belt transnis- stons function 1s to let the engine work at its power peak while the tranemission changes the shift ratio as the speed of your vehicle increases, Depending on the shape of your po- wercurve, this nay be accomplished with ease and consistency in a stock machine with rela- tively low power and a wide powercurve, or it may require the constant attention of a race mechanic ina high-strung race engine with high peak pover and a narrow powerband, While Rost clutches work good with the wide powerband, 1t should be apparent as you go through this book that certain requirenents are necessary to make a good race clutch. Power in a two-cycle engine ts a combination of the cylinder filling and the efficiency with which the combustible atr-gas mix is burned in the cylinder, This produces the force on the piston which results tn a nonentun on the crankshaft referred to as torque, The nore Anes this torque 1s produced: in a given period, the nore power is available. As the engine speed Angresaas, the HP also increases until the engine goes beyond a point where it “rune out of Hath," The cylinder f1i1ing and combustion efficiency then drops, When the torque production starts to drop faster than the speed increases, the.resulting power will start to decline, and the engine will “fall off the power peak” as the APH increases, In the exanple in Fig, 1, the torque or cylinder efficiency reaches ite peak at 5,000 RPM, As it only drops off slowly to start with, the engine still peaks at 6,000 RPK bofore the power falls off, This represents a mildly tuned engine which would te oasy to tune a transmission to. We wi21 refer back to this curve on several occasions in future chapters, In Fig, 2, we show the difference between a mildly tuned motor and a highly tuned race- motor of the sane displacement, While the mildly tuned notor has a 1,500 RPM range in which the transmission can operate without too inuch change in performance, the highly tuned en- Gines transmission has to operate within a 3-400 RPM range, and also at a much higher speed, ret » ~It becones obvious that 1f an engine has been modified and the powercurve changed, the transmission has to te re-calibrated, There are many variables that control this calitra- tion, and the object of this book is to enable you to obtain enough of an understanding of how a modern V-belt transmigsion vorks that you ean perform the necessary changes to obtain naxinun performance from your nachine Speed Diagrams Speed dlagrans are powerful tools in understanding what happens to the transmission in your racer, By watching your tach and comparing 1t to the ideal disgran, you will be able to determine what variables to change to obtain maxinun performance fron your transmission. ‘The dlagrans are fairly sinple to understand, as they explain everything in teras of vehicle speed and engine speed, the two functions your transaission attenpts to control, Fig. 3 shows such a diagram, with the vehicle speed in MPH on the horizontal axis, and the engine speed in RPM on the vertical axis, SPEED DIAGRAM = ENGINE SPEED VS. VENICLE SPEED Fig. 3 Low Ratio High Ratio so 607890 High Ratio . e 109 oriver Driven Fig. 5The nornal V-belt transnission consists of two sete of sheaves connected by a V-belt. The driving sheaves are mounted, to the engine, and the driven sheaves are nounted to a shaft which drives the tracks or wheels of your racer through a chain. When the belt is at the snallest radius on the driving sheaves, and at the largest radius on the driven sheaves, the transnission 1s in low ratio, or low gear, which te usually around 3:1, This ratto 1s shom on Fig, 3 as a diagonal line, To the right of this line 4s another diagonal line but at a snaller angle, which represents the high ratio.’ High ratio, or high gear, occurs when the belt 1s at the largest radius on the driving sheaves, and at the onallest radius of the dri- Yen sheave, which 4s usually an "overdrive" ratio of around .8:1 (Fig. 5). While you are racing, the belt will constantly change position between these two ratios, and the correctly natched drive will keep the engine speed constaht at the power peak (9,000 RPM as shown on Fig, 1), while the vehicle changes speed. The overall ratio of the drive is the low ratio divided by the high ratios in the case of our example it becones 3/.8 = 3.75. Fig 3 shows the shift curve of a typical racing engine, The clutch engages at 6,000 PM and clutches by eripping constantly harder around the belt until the belt 1s fully en- gaged in low gear (15 MPH on the graph). With the belt still in low ratio, the engine speed will quickly increase until the power peak at 9,000 RPM, when the centrifugal weights wA21 overcone the spring force and torque feedback in the driven clutches and start chifting the belt while keeping the engine speed at the powerpeak, This 4s then the ideal shiftourve on the speed dlagran for this engine, After sone practice, this diagran will becone very useful and give a good understanding of how your transmiselon works. The next question is: how do we nake the transmission work in this ideal manner, while minimizing the power losses through the transmission?, To do this, we have to look at the variables that control the movement of the driven and driving sheaves and therefore the belt position at any tine, Efficiency The secret to good efficiency 11es in the driven sheaves, because their adjustment de- ternines the power losses of the transnission, This nay be surprising to sone since most of the tine 4s spent working on the driving clutch to match up the tranenteeton but all work on the driving clutch 1s wasted unless you first have a setting on the driven clutch that will give you a good efficiency and mininun belt wear, Good efficiency 4s obtained when the side forces on the belt are large enough to transfer the pover at any belt position, without slip- ping the belt, Tighter settings will produce losses fron elastic stretch in the belt, and also nake it nore prone to wear and break. Of course, the bigger and nore powerful your en- gine ts, the more side force 1s required to’transfer the power, Fig, 6 shows the basic forces required on the belt ty the driven sheaves for effictent power transmission, The dotted line represents the nininun force required to transait the torque from a given engine, The higher the power of the engine, the further up on the graph the Line would be, but the slope of the line would stay about the sane, as it is deternined by the shift ratio. The actual reguirenent does not end up ac a nice straight line as in the graph due to changing efficiency through the shift range, but this 1s a little too conplica- ted at this stage, and we will cone back to'this point later.revenime ES ant 3 a ern 3 za a ea, tw ne to ass matte ter ‘min ttisy FoRHi tL ANDE To produce a total force that 1s higher than the dotted line tecones the Job of the torque raap and toreion spring in the driven unit, The total force is a combination of the two forces, As the torsion spring gets tighter and provides nore pressure as the drive shifts out, this 4s clearly a tendency in the wrong direction, To compensate, the ratio be- tween the angles on the torque ramp and the radius at which they work produces a force with 2 viope that, combined with the spring force gives a total force slightly nore than the ‘inimun required to transfer the poner and with a slope paralleling that of the nininun re- quirenent Line. (Yaybe you should read that a couple of tines), When this 1s obtained, as in Fig, 6, the drive will work efficiently through the whole range. In Fig. 7 4s shown a condition that 1s far fron ldeal. Here, the force 1s too low to begin with, and too high at the end, ‘The result 4s that the belt may spin slightly to start with and has too much ten- sion in high gear, resulting in loss of effictency and excessive belt wear, In this particu- lar exanple, the culprit is a spring with too much rate and too little pre-tension, By in- creasing the pre-tension you'll get rid of the slipping, but will have even nore belt wear and poor efficteney in the high ratio, The correct solution would be to install a different spring with less rate, and use thie with higher pre-tension (dotted line). Goo efficiency da the result of a well engineered driven unit with the correct combination of spring rate tension, and torque ranp angle. Here 1s where 4t pays to keep a good eye on the factory racers, It is usually easy to cee what ramp angles they are running, and by hanging around when they change belts, you can got a good idea of the pre-tension by watching the effort required to spread the sheaves. Sonetines they may even tell you 4f you ask, but don't take all information for granted-- tt pays to check several fast machines to get a good idea of the settings. In the back is data sheet for your'use during the clutch-tuning procedure, Be sure ‘to keep a record of the ranp angle and pra-tension on your driven clutch,, The Driven Sheaves Since the torque ts multiplied in low gear, nost side force is required when the belt rides at the largest radius of the driven sheave, and least side force is required when the belt is at the smaller radius, or in high gear. This 4s hard to accomplish with springs a- lone so the torque-sensing ramp was introduced. ‘he Lorque-sensing ranps work against the moving sheave, and feed part of the torque back as side force on the sheaves, and therefore automatically adjusts the side force re- quizenents on the belts as it changes position (Fig. 8). They are usually interchangeable and available with different angles for varying amount of torque feedback, ‘The snaller the angle, the more side force 1s created against the belt, Sngines with 75-100 HP usually z = 312, while smaller engines nay run ramp angles up to 40 - 45°, If you only change ranps, a ranp with a smaller angle will bring the engine speed up before it shifts to con- Pensate for the higher torque feedback, A larger angle will permit the drive to shift at a lower engine speed. The spring in the driven unit 1s present to give a pre-tension to the ranpe so that the necessary side force is available to transfer enough power in low gear to give an initial Saale Tae - 1 Stall! ; Hatt tot meme eg _==+o— ae \s]e Sees ea MOVABLE SHEAVE,‘ia start for the torqué-sensing to work, Required pre-tension 1s usually around 50 - 100 inch- radius (see Fig. 9) and you then multiply the radius with the pull on the scale to get your DRIVE EFFICIENCY CURVE ‘The typieal efficiency of a belt drive transmission ts shown 4n Fig. 10. As the belt starts out in low gear) 1t has to nake a relatively tight turn aroua the MEE yutie there te aleo relatively snall contact area, Conbined with the fact that this Geiss at the sane tine that maximum belt pressure is required results in tending forces and distortion on the pelt which steals power and reduces effictency. As the belt shifts out, it starts running at larger radiuses and the pressure is less. BEficiency then increases until the belt goes past the 1: 1 range, Now the belt speed has increased considerably as it moves out on the driven sheave. The sore tines the belt has to bend in a given tine, the more power 1s lost. As the speed increases, the belt also has to turn around a tighter radius on the driven sheave, Asa reslut, when the drive goes into overdrive, the effictency falls off again, Attention to detail in this area can give quite ‘again in top end, It 4e doubly important not to have too much side tension in high ratio, ‘as this would only lead to more power loss and less top speed. % Efficiency EFFICIENCY vs. SHIFT RATIO ee 200 90 70 60 50 3 aa aa 0.812 Low " shirt-Hatio High 7ig Sheaves While the correct design and adjustments on the driven sheaves determines the efficten- CY of the transmission system, the driving sheaves must control the engine speed and keep it vunning on the power curve through the entire shift range, When both systexs function cor- rectly and give naxinun horespower coupled with best effictency, you have a correctly tuned clutch, ‘The movenent of the sheaves and the belt 4s controlled by flywelght and can-nechantens An different arrangenents fron one design to another. Much of the "tunability" of the clutch systen depends on the design of this nechanien and there are advantages and drawbacks to all of then, Basteally the aystens have to overcone the forces of the pressure spring, and then natch the side pressure requirements of the driven plus the torque lost in trananission be- ‘tween the driver and the driven system, The net force required is therefore larger on the @river than on the ariven, To understand the influence of the parts in the driving clutch we should take a look at the jobs the driving clutch has to do. First, the clutch permits a free-running condition which is the engine speed-below engagenent, to nake it possible to start and warn up the en= gine while the machine‘ is stationary. In the free running condition, the force from the Pressure spring 1s stronger than the force fron the centrifugal weight and roller-mechanisn, ‘and the movable sheave will therefore not close on the belt. At a certain engine speed, usually called the engagement speed, the force from the cen ‘trifugal weight nechanism will overcone the spring pressure, and the movable sheave will close in on the belt and start to engage 1t, The vehicle will start moving as the sheaves close harder around the belt until it is fully engaged and no more slip occurs, This ts called the "clutching action" and takes place up to 30 MPH depending on engagenent, speed , and gearing, The belt is still in the low ratio position in the sheaves, and. the engine speed ill now increase until the shift-speed is reached, At the shift-speed, the centrifue Gal forces overcone the tension of the dirven sheaves and noves the belt on the driving clutch sheaves, In a correctly tuned clutch, the shift-speed 1s at the poner peak of the engine and the engine now maintains a constant speed while the belt changes position to increase the vehi- cle speed, ‘The point where the belt starts moving out is critical, because until that engine speed vas reached an increase in force from the centrifugal mechanism was necessary. But when the belt starts moving out less side force is necessary on the belt to shift it because the tor- ue-serising mechanism on the driven sheaves feed less side force into. the “belt as the torque seltiplication is reduced when the ratio changes fron low gear, Since the engine 1s required to stay at a constant speed, the reduction in force can only cone fron the shape of the flyweight surface working against the rollers in the case of‘tho Polaris, Conet, Yamaha and Kaxasak! clutches or the shape of the shift-can which the fly weight rollers work against 4n the Arotie and Sk1-Doo clutches, ‘The shape of the can surface then determines how well the side forces on the driving sheaves match with the side forces on the ériven sheave, and this determines how "straight " the drive shifts (1,0, how close to a constant speed the engine is kept). If the transalssion does not shift straight, you will be off the power curve at sone point in the shift cycle, with a loss in performance as.a result, There has been exception to this in cases where 1t has been desirable to let the engine over-rev temporarily and then shift out at a later point, but the purpose of this is mainly to conpensate for bad traction or extrenely narrow power curves. Driving Clutch Components Pressure Spring ‘This spring is located around the shaft and spreads the sheaves apart to obtain the free running condition, (See Fig, 8) The installed tension of this spring determines the engagenent speed of the transmission, For highly tuned engines, a high engagement speed is necessary because the power falls off quickly at the lower RPM. The higher the installed tension of the spring, the higher the engagement speed, When you change to a spring with higher pressure to increase the engagenent speed, the shift speed will also move up, but not An the sane proportion as the increase in engagenent speed, A stronger spring that moves the engagement speed up 500 APM nay only move the shift speed up 100--150 RPM due to the na~ ture of the centrifugal weights which increase pressure at a rate which 4s a function of the square of the engine speed. It 1s important to keep track of which spring you are using, and what engagenent speed it gives you combined with your flyweights, This information is generally available fron the manufacturers, and should te kept for reference when you start tuning the clutch, . Sone springs nay take & set and provide less tension after soxe use, This will lover the engagenent speed and shift speed. Rather than changing springs whenever they take a set experienced racers will retune the clutch ty taking sone weight off the “flywelghts and use the spring that has already taken a pornanent set, Sone racers also put new springs in vise and compress then fully several tines to make sure that the spring takes a set before thoy use then, On never designs this nay not be a problen anymore, but it does not hurt to check overall length of your spring whenever you have the clutch apart to see if it nas taken a sem, 7 ci Flyweight Systene--Polaris, Com and Yanah: ‘These driving clutches are basically of the cane principle as far as the flyweight ar- rangenent. 1s concerned, ‘Three flyweights are mounted directly on the movable sheave and work against rollers aounted ona “spider” which 1s fastened to the drive shaft. Movenent of the belt 1s controlled ty the welght and shape of the flyweight, The distance of ite center of gravity fron the center Line of the drive shaft and the speed of the engine pro- duces a centrifugal force on the flywetght, How much of this centrifugal force that is transformed into actual side force on the belt 1s determined ty the shape of the flywetght when 1t works against the roller. (See Fig. 11) Tt 4s important during testing to only change one variable at a time, otherwise you are eure to be confused after awnile, Most manufacturers supply a series of flyweights that have the same shape but different weights, When changing flyweights with’ different shapes, try to go to one with the approximate same weight, When changing flyweights of different weights only use the ones with the sane shape, If you go from one flyweight with one weight and one shape, to another with different weight and different shape, you will not know how much of the change was produced by the shape of the flyweight and how nuch was caused by the weight of it, Fig. 11 ‘YAMAHA, COMET, POLARIS, BK1D0O F/A ‘CENTRIFUGAL FORC! SHIFTFORCE MOVABLE SHEAVE Force on RIVER ROLLER FLYWEIOHT CComet-iohn onary filer; Flyweight mechanlam used In Yamah. Deer, Poa, Shoe A, with 8 ‘cam surface Is part of the lywsigh Fig. 12 e 10Fig. 13 Remove material for more curvature to bring shifteurve down to “straight”. -_~ Fig. 14 Renove material to give less curvature to bring shige curve NF “straight". remove material 5 be to increase [4 SUNEAEERETE= Spee only Fig. 16 Remove material to give delayed shifting. “4a RPM y y MPH RPM, wn RPM 4 MPH MPH“Influence of Weight The weight of the flyweight is usually given in grans because this 1s the nore accurate and easily understood system,- ‘The change in weight 1s then directly’ proportional with the number, Going fron a M0 gram wetght to a i gran weight gives you a 10%, increase in total wetgnt. A heavier weight will bring the engagenent speed and shift speed down, while a Lighter weight will bring the engagenent speed and shift speed up, If there 4s no flywetght avail- able between two sizes to give you the exact shift speed you want, sone weight will have to be removed fron the heavier set of flywolghte, This weight should then be removed from the Backside of the flyweight in a small graduation at a time as shown in Fig. 12, Before in- stalling the flyweights again, make sure they all weigh the sane # .2 rans, otherwise the arive will be out of balance ‘The Yanaha clutch has a unique systen of changing weight, Their flywelghts have 3 holes in then, To increase welght, a rivet 1s added in the hole, increasing the weights un- ‘41 all threo holes are filled. For closer details, lock in the appendix under Yamaha clut- 4 ches, When the shifting surface 1s ground, it is inportant, that all the arms are ground the sane, If not, one ara may swing further out at any given shift position, and this will ‘ring the drive out of balance. To make sure the shift surfaces are the sane, the arns should be ground ina fixture that holds them all, and then ground with a belt sander, The final weight should be checked ona scale, preferably of the three-bean design for accuracy, Influence of Shape, Obtaining "Straight" shirt The shape of the flyweight deternines if you will have a “stralght" shift, A straight shift holds the engine exactly on the power peak all through the shift range, To increase ‘the engine speed ina given range, the flywoight aust be given less curvature in that sec- ton, Assuming your cluteh was in good working condition, and the driven can angles and pre- tensions were right, but the engine started over-revving as the drive shifted out you would have to replace the flywetght with one with nore curvature or grind the shift surface as in Fig. 13. f If the drive started to shift out at the right engine speed , but pulled the engine speed down as the drive shifted out, a flyweight with less curvature is needed, and if none are available, the existing weight can be ground as in Fig, 14, 12nein sce en Rc RR i NN eR teas Changing Sngagenent Speed Sonetines there will not be.a spring strong enough to give you your desired engagenent speed, and the weight has to be modified to obtain the desired speed, This can be done by grinding as shown in Fig, 15+ Another vay of changing the engagenent speed 1s to let the flyweight tuck under nore to nove the center of gravity alnost under the pivot pin, It should algo be noted that this noves the shift curve if the sheaves are not readjusted to give correct belt clearance on engagenent (See specifically under Polaris race clutch ad justnents), Overspeed with Delayed Shift-Out Tis modification wil let your engine over-rev before it starts shifting-the belt, and then shift down to the power peak later in the shift range, Mercury used this on thelr ear- Lier stock racers to prevent the track fron breaking loose on the start and give the vehicle fan extra jump coring out of the comers, With the increased traction available with better suspension and stulding, this particular modification te sonevhat less used these days, To nodify the flywoight, a flat 1s ground in the early portion as show in Fig. 16. Grinding Flywetghts ‘There are a few things to atch for when you start grinding the shift surface on the Flyweight, You have to nake sure that the finished surface remains flat and parallel with ‘the pivot pin, If this 1s not the case, there will be bending aonents and side-forces on both the roller and flyweights and the bearing surfaces will deteriorate and bind. Aso when the shift surface 1s modified, material 1s renoved which makes the flywelght Lighter and moves the basic curve up slightly. The changes in shape usually have more of an Anfluence in the shift pattern than the weight that was renoved, but St 1s a detail to con~ sider because you are actually changing two variables at the same tine, arctic Clutches Everything that has been said so far about transmissions applies to the Arctic model, except for their flywelght system, On the Arctic, the reaction roller is on the flywetght, and the shift cam is mounted in the moving sheave, The advantage of this arrangenent ts that the cam surface can be changed to give a “straight” shift, without changing the weigh? of the Flyweight, The flywetghts can then be calibrated separately ty adding snall weights to the roller pin, to give an accurate shift speed. Rules for curvature of the shift cam also apply for the Arctic clutch, A large angle with the drive shaft will pull the engine speed down, while @ onaller angle with tho drive shaft will move the engine speed up, This applies for both engagenent speed and shift speed, See Fig. 17, For nore specific tuning Anfornation see the appendix. . 13.Fig. 17 ARcTIC, CENTRIFUGAL FORCE | ForcE-on ROLLER FLYWEIGHT’ & ROLLER, MOVABLE SHEAVE DRIVER, ARCTIC RAMPS Remove material for more curvature to bring shiftcurve down to "straight" MPH Renove material for less curvature to bring shi ftcurve wp to "straight" a Renove material to improve engagnent-speed only. ee 14suena nen RN nn Kayasakt Clutches Kayasakis clutch has an unusual design of its flyweight system, Rather than the welght arn starting in the 6 o'clock position and swinging to the 9 o'clock position as in Folarts clutches, the Kavasaki arm starts in the 9 o'clock position and swings to the 12 o'clock po- sition, The weight arm has a bolt-hole in’which different bolts and washers can be mounted to change the welgnt of the arm. Engagenent speed is eastly changed ty grinding the tip of ‘the arn where 1t first contacts the roller. Modifying to higher speeds can be done by 1igh- ter arns, but-since the curve of the arm.is curving in instead of out it makes 1t hard to nodify the shift-curve itself. For nore details on tuning the Kawasaiti clutch see appendix, Other Makes ‘here are a nunter of other nakes of clutches, but the above mentioned clutches are the nost popular for racing, If you should havo a clutch that 1s not one of the makes mention ed the only difference will be in the flyweight mechanism, It is fairly easy to establish ‘the welght portion and the can surface that controls the shift in any design by sone stuly of the nechanisn, Once you have established what the can surface is and how to influence the weight of the nechaniom, the sane rules apply as in the mechanisns mentioned, If you understand the previous naterial in this book, you should also te able to figure out how to Anfluence a new design, 5 Rollers ‘The shift surface has to react against a roller to produce the desired force on the sheaves, and the rollers have to rotate freely to make the clutch shift consistently, Car- rect bearing design 1s therefore of great importance in a good working clutch. Rearing materials vary fron fancy needle bearing and teflon-coated twonze-backed bush~ ings to fiber bushings and plastic bushings and plain impregnated steel running against the steed pin, The higher the level of performance and the nore critical the application, the higher the denand is on the xoller. bushings. Maintenance of the rollers 1s therefore of great importance, If the roller stops to roll, the flyweight arm will start to slide on the roller surface, creating a flat spot, This will deteriorate the shift characteristics and hare both the upshift and backshift capability of the clutch. Sliding Bearings In order for the movable sheave to move and shift the belt, it has to slide on bearings or bushings on the clutch shaft. These bearings have to be correctly designed and properly aligned to give a smooth shift, In clutches where there are two bearings, one in the nov- able sheave, and one in the cover, these have to be correctly aligned to work freely and not 15‘tind on the shaft, Polaris, Conet, Yamaha, and Kawasaki are of “this design, Yamaha has a particularly interesting design because toth bearings can swivel in thelr housing, and therefore are self-aligning, All designs have to be watched, It 4s particularly tnportant to watch out for nicks and scratches on the sliding surfaces that ould make the bearings hang up or wear prematurely. Excessively worn bearings may give the chance to lock and jam on the shaft or against the torque-buttons or the spider towers as the sheaves get thrown out of concentricity, This will result in poor shift characteristics. To check the condi- tion of the bearings, inspect all the surfaces, then assenble the covers on the clutch with- out the pressure epring in place. Move the sheaves in and out as they would during shifting and check for slop or areas in which they would stick, and correct this accordingly. All ‘the testing in the world will be wasted 4f the sheaves stick somewhere in thelr novenent, Torque Transfer Point ‘As the sheaves nove in and out, during the shift, the pover or engine torque must in ‘sone way be transmitted without binding up the sheaves, In the driven assembly the torque is transferred to the movable sheave through the torque cam and the aliding buttons, and this 1s now a standard design on all units, The driving assenbly 4s a different story, There are a nunber of ways to accomplish the transfer of tarque while the sheave is moving. On earlier models the sheave would nove on a spline of the shaft, which then also acted as the sliding bushings, As the spline got worn there would be distinct steps forming on the teeth, and the assembly would also got sloppy, resulting in binding on both up and down shifts, Splines are now only found on old~ er clutches as new designe have proven more effective, The next step was to ‘replace the splines with hex or square bushings as in the case of the Arctic Cat and Ski-Doo clutches. Although these designs work well in most conditions, they partly suffer fron the cane problon as the splines. They serve two functions both as sliding bushings and torque trans- fer point, To make natters worse, the radius at which the torque is, transferred is rather small, making the force to be transferred large (torque ts force multiplied by the radius on which it acts), One of the first to recognize this problem was the Polaris engineers. They decided to nove the transfer-radius as far out as possible and reduce the function of the bushings to Just take care of the sliding notion. To accomplish this, they put plastic sliding buttons on the spider tovers where the rollers were mounted. On each side of the toner the buttons would slide against flat nachined surfaces. Since the torque transfer point now was at 10 tines the radius only one tenth of the force would work on the surface, making it eacy to slide and shift the sheaves, With the larger radius, the clutch 1s also less sensitive to wear on the sliding surfaces, giving 1t longer and nore consistent life, A number of the now clutches now have designs with sliding surfacés on the spider tovers, and this is a de- sirable feature for a racing elutch, + 16anaes eee en Back-Shifting and Speed Variance Curves ‘The true test of a good clutch comes when the clutch has to back-shift in response to changing loads or speed, A race driver coning out of a corner, somebody starting to cliab @ hill or somebody hitting deep loose snow, needs an accurate back-shift pattern, The clutch has to shift dow and increase the shift ratio, while naintaining the engine speed for full power, If the moving sheaves are binding when they try to shift back, the engine speed and power will drop and co will the speed of the machine, ‘There are a number of friction points in a clutch; rollers, flyweights, sliding bush- ings and torque transfer points all create certain resistance to back-shifting, A certain nininun anount of pretension 1s therefore needed to overcone this friction, As a clutch gets worn, there will be nore friction and the clutch will start to perform poorly, It will drop quite a bit in engine speed before the unit reacts, As the friction also is present during the upehift 4t will require more RPM to overcone the forces. As a result, there will Ye a-difference in engine speed on up and dovn-shift, and this difference is called a speed variance curve, see Fig, 19. ZOO TIINGH Showa not Fave a speed variance of auch more than 250 RPK between up and dovn shift, The older clutches with splines and hex or square bughings are the most prone to develop a large speSOVEFlance as they get worily and they wear’ faster because of the higher forced they need’ to transmit and the double function of the bushings. This may not ve overly pronounced on a snaller trail sled, but on a race sled tt becones the difference between winning and losing and for this reason the design with a torque transfer point on ‘the spider tower is much preferable. (An exception to this rule is drag-racing , where no hack-shifting 12 required, and the Arctic hex bushing olutch 48 popular because of its fea mes which allow quick fine tuning.) rr SyendYactance mw, © 7% 5 100 AM 17When back-shifting detericrates, sone drivers will respond by tightening up the driven sheaves, This will not reduse the speed variance, but rather nove the back-shift curve clo- ser to the pover curve, This helps during back-shifting, but since the up-shifting curve “Row moves up and off the power curve on the backside, there is usually a reduction in per- formance and top speed, Bad back-shifting is a sign that the nechanisns are getting worn and that something is binding, and instead of wrapping the driven sheave tighter, the clutch should be serviced and the worn parts replaced with new ones, Maintenanc It should how be clear that maintenance“{s the key to good clutch performance. Belt. dust and other particles get in everywhere,'” bearings wear out and lubrication disappears, Any testing 4s wasted of something 1s binding. somewhere and for the racer it becomes a mat~ ter of routine to inspect and maintain the parts in good working condition, ~ Alignnent Tt 4s very inportant for performance and belt 11fo that the sheaves are in correct a+ Jugnnent with each other and have the correct cefiter distance, The alignnent should te set up correct for the high ratio because this is where the belt speed 1s highest and nisallen- nent will do the most harm, If the engine is rubber mounted or the chassis flexes, the a- Lignment will change under load, To prevent this, many racers mount a turnbuckle with two od ends between the engine and the mounting for the cross shaft, See Fig. 20, The correct alignnent figures are given by the manufacturer for their units, Balance Your driving clutch may reach speeds of 12,000 RPM, and your driven clutch even higher, ‘end small amounts of unbalance may affect the performance and cause severe loads and loss of efficiency, It 1s therefore important that all parte are balanced as closely as possible, sNost driving assenblies have tarks on their components so that they can be assenbled in ‘the sane relationship each time to keep the balance correct, Sonetines the belance may be changed as when for instance the sheaves are machined true, Sone sheaves have cast surfaces ‘that may vary due to die-wear, and these sheaves chould then be machined true. This will change the original balance, and the parts should be rebalanced, This can be done statical~ ly with a wheel-trueing stand or other balance stands such as used for crankshafts, Unbal- anced clutches often result in poor shifting, premature wear, and sonetines broken or bent cerankshafte,Correct Inertia The 18 a phononena nany tuners are not aware of, Each engine has a natural torstonal frequency in the crankshaft assembly, depending upon the flywheel effect (inertia) of the ohaft Ateolf and all the parte mounted on tt, A natural frequency 4s what a tuning fork vi- ‘rates at vhen struck against an object, If the torsional frequency of the crankshaft hap- pene to occur close to tho power peak of the engine where the clutch has to operate, the Te- oult can often be disastrous with clutch parts wearing at astrononical rates and even crank- shafts breaking, This often occurs when other than an original clutch is used, The cure is to ada or reduce the inertia of other components, usually the flywheel. Yanaha did, for sev- eral years, have a-vear problon with their SAK clutches until St was traced to be too little total inertia and the problen was cured ty adding an inertia wheel! to the flywheel. If you feel you have prenature clutch wear, wrong inertia nay well be your protien, Gearing Contrary to popular belief, changing the gearing does not change the shift speed ona correctly tuned and maintained transmission, The main reason to change the gearing is to obtain the best efficiency fron your clutch,» If you go back to the efficiency curve in Fig. 10, you will find that the effielency tapers.off as you go past 111 ratio, If you have adequate starts, you should concentrate on gearing such that you are at the top of your eff- jetency curve when you want to be at-your top speed on the end of the straightayay . This means you should generally gear on the tall side, Gearing too low is a disaster on top speed because not only do you have less efficiency at the higher ratio, but as the transmis- sion stops shifting in high, the notor starts revving and falls off the power curve, with e~ ven less power asa result, If in doubt, gear high! The Belt ‘Todays racing belts transmit over 100 HP with efficiency and consistency, The develop- nent of drive belts has been azazing in the last 10 years. It used to be that broken belts were consonplace, and horsepoxer over 4 alnost inpossible to transmit. The earlier belts were made with fiberglass cords which were stiff and had poor adhe~ sion with rubber, Then a new material called Kevlar or Fiter "B" started to make inroads, Engineers found that a 45 gauge Kevlar cord was just as strong as a 90 gauge fiberglass cord and gave the belts’ much nore Flexibility. . ‘The use of Kevlar increased both efficiency and strength and is today the only material used in racing belts, Other such factors as special bonding procedure, ‘rubber material and cog design also influence the efficlency and strength of the belt, 19 ’gern imams To snaure efftotency and good power transfer it is Anportant that the sheaves which the Twit works on 1 free fon grease, of] or rubber deposits and are enooth, Sheaves should be sanded dom at regular intervale With a fine grit enery yaper to insure the test working conditions for the tet. Excessive heat buildup in the sheaves or the air around then adversely affects ‘the strength and the efficiency, and it pays to have the clutch area well ventilated for this reason, Anew belt should be run-in for a short period before it 1s used for full power, This can be done on a warmup stand or during a short easy run, An experienced race driver will buy at least half a dozen belts at a tine and after run-in, measure the length of the belt. Belts made ty the sano manufacturer may vary as much as $" in cfrounference. Belts of close length are then paired together and the rotating direction and length narked on the belt with a felt tip pen, This insures that once the center distance is adjusted for these belts and you will have more consistency in your selection, As the sides of the belts wear, it will pull further into the driven sheaves in low gear and loop further out around the shaft on the ériven sheave. hen this becomes exces- sive--1/16" or nore wear--, the clearance between the sheave and the belt becones larger be- fore engagement and the position of the belt puts it ina higher ratio on engagement, The result is that the sheaves slam into the belt with a Jerking motion, but since the system is now in "2nd gear", 4t tends to pull the speed down and tog the machine off the line before At starts to shift out, This can all be corrected ty installing a new belt with the correct Jength and width, Tt 4s important to pay “attention to these details as they may make the difference be- tween winning or losing, Always keep a close eye on the belts condition to spot cuts, cracks, frayed cords or other damage, The pictures on the following pages and the drive ‘elt maintenance chart should give you a guideline to solve any of your telt problens. Broken Bait” Overeond Fable Pex Felgue ‘Cracking sualy caused by can be caused by torque loads when excessive he ed the tonal ma mechanical demage strength ofthe bolt “or manufacturing Rote ibrgiass ew. Overcord wil ‘eaake with Sords expoted (1), which "San badly bing in the clutch Ke ‘Fiver 6 brew 20rerord bf Lose Spin vn Sten asacenred Saiaed by arcane Soap sore Siig oe bo Sete ong for Undacord Crick ‘the drive system, or Cog Lose Socom ne Sehnaormout conser ne Sonate posebiy Sporsrcctie indy | Sanding the essay om Senses Sowa evr Sidera Wear ape Cont ‘Stan Sebeton [2 ‘Suteh Menyonuses, Inctuding mislign= msn tts, teugh she ‘incorrect bet pie which ean alow the bal ange tuly on | ite sidewall engine mounts, aneave face garage Instrunentation ‘The tachoneter will be your nost useful tool when you are working with your transnts- ston, Be sure your tach is of good quality, high accuracy and dependable repeatability. ‘ll tachs benefit from good vibration-nounting to provide a steady needle that will give s meaningful reading, You have to make sure your tach 1s calibrated right, so that you actu- ally read the correct engine apeed, otherwise the whole tuning procedure 1s wasted. Here 4s where the factory teans have an advantage, They can calitrate thelr tachone- tere with the engine when it is on the dynanoneter, to nake sure they know where the power peak is, and they do not skimp on the money to get the oct accurate and rugged tachs avail- able. One of the best tachs avatlable is the Kroeber, which is used by many of the factory teams both in snowmobile and notoreyele racing, To check that your tach 1s right, there are several alternatives, One of the best 1s to use a strobotach aimed at a rotating part of the engine, and check it against your tach reading, Another alternative is to have it checked by an instrusent repair shop; there 1s usually one in every larger city , and your ocal car dealer nay be able to direct you to one near you. To check your top speed at the end of your test strip, a speedoneter is useful to ob- serve any gain, There are factories that, like to use a radar unit to check top speed but ‘this 4s many tines {nacourate and the results should be used with caution, Tinting lights are useful 1f you can afford them, Other useful equipment if you operate a1DRIVE BELT MAINTENANCE CHART The Problem Causes 2) Belt glazed excessively or has baked «Excessive slippage caused by’ appearance a) Insufficient prossure on belt sides 1) Excessive horsepower for belt and converter : (©) Excessive oll on pulley surfaces 4) lnsutliciont pre-load on driven spring 9) Excessive operation In low gear position 4) Belt worn narrow in one section Excessive slippage in arver pulley caused by: 8) Locked track b) Converter not functioning properly ©) Engine idle speed too high 6) Concave worn belt side(s) ') Excessive ride-out on driver pulley * © b) Drive misalignment ¢) Rough orscratchod pulley(s) surtac 4) Excessive slippage ip-over” at high z 4) Pulley misalignment b) Excessive belt speed €) Excessive ride-out on driver pulley 4), Incorrect belt fongth 10) Flex cracks between cogs '8) Considerable use, belt wearing out ) Bent pulley(s) flange causing belt flutter ©) Excessive operation in low gear position 4) Extremely low temperatu 12) Broken belt ') Engagement RPM too high ) Bolt hanging up in bottom of driven pulley ©) Locked track Treatments 1) Check driver pulley for smooth actuation b) Consuit dealer {) Check bearing seals and clean pulley surfaces {) Consult Operator's Manual ®) Inspect converter 4) Rotate track by hand unt ») Repair or replace converter ©) Reduce engine APM {) Repair or roplace driver pulley ») Align pulloys ©) Grina'or palisn pulleys 4) Repair or replace driver pulley ') Align pulleys ») Recuce engine RPM 6) Repair or replace driver pulley 2) See Operator's Manual 1) Replace belt ) Repair or replace pulley ¢) Inspect convertor 6) Warm up belt slowly 5) Balt too snort: replace ©) Rotate track by hand untit freewith negabucks are a magnetic speed pickup monitoring engine speed and sending via a radio to a chart recorder, This 4s strictly factory R & D equipment, and not all that practical on the race track, A good tach, trained eyes and ears and a good seat of the pants feeling are nany tines better tools. Influence of Engine Performance on Shift Speed Due to the: torque sensing feature of the driven sheaves, the engine output wil influe ence the shift speet, The arive will shift at a slighty higher speed when the engine se old and has good torque, than when {t becones warn ard osee,sone power, To compensate for thie, ake gure you nake all your teata ven tho engine 1s warned up. Also nake sone teat una on race day 1f possible, because the engine will produce nore power ona really cold day and-this nay have t0 be compensated for, Changes 4n altitude will also change the shift peed as the engine lesea jower at higher altitudes and a recalibration may be necessary. Test Area i To test your transmission, “you need a test area. What you should look for is a flat, straight plece of land which will permit you to make a vm of at least t/t mile, The tost procedure consists of a'dreg run fon standing start) while you keep one eye on the tach, Since you will be watehing the tach most of the run it is inportant that there are no obsta~ les tn the area that can get you in trouble, Procedure 1. Find out at what engine speed your engine is supposed to operate at naxinun perfor- 2, Establish what approximate engagement speed you want to run, 3, Draw a speed diagran with the above information for your reference during testing. 4h, Make sure all parts of the transniseion are working freely, that the transmission has ‘the correct alignment, and that you are using a good drive belt. 5. Make eure you are using the reconnended ranp and pre-tension on the driven sheaves for vest efficiency. 6, Nake notes of what exact parts are in your transnission before the test run, 7, With the vehicle standing still, increase the engine speed until the vehicle starts no- ving, and note the engagenent speed. : 8, Make sone runs to warn up the engine. 9, ake four full acceleration runs fron a standing start and observe where the transnis- sion starts shifting out, and the shape of your shift curve (does it hold the engine at a constant speed fron approxinately 30 MPH, or do the RPM's increase or decrease as the ‘transniseion shifts out).