Just changed the rollers!!!!

kkobal said:

For those of us not so experienced but willing to undertake challenges, it would be nice to have someone detail out the procedure with photos. The service manual (which I have), isn't for the uninitiated (i.e. you need some experience with these machines to understand what you're supposed to do and when to do it).

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Below is a step-by-step sequence for R/R the variator and/or rollers:

As for the variator changeout, its pretty straightforward. I did not follow the manual exactly this time, as it recommends the complete removal of all covers including the main storage "tub" (so you can remove the left and right filter housings at the intake manifold). This in unnecessary and a lot of extra work. All you need remove is:

(1) Rear access panels, top and bottom (expose battery)

(2) Passenger seat, grab bar, grab bar cover

(3) Left side cover

(4) Foot rest board mat 1, 2 (long one and short one)

(5) Side cover molding (lower painted molding)

(6) Left air filter cover

(7) Plastic covers in front of V-belt air intake.

(8) Vanity cover on drive belt case cover, then the air filter intake and cover. Don't remove the filter. Now you can get at all the screws that hold the plastic air filter cover in place. Be careful with these, they are Phillips head special screws with molded rubber seals on them. They are quite tight. I used a very large head phillips driver.

(9) V-belt case cover, aluminum. Be careful with this. After removing the fasteners (the perimeter 8 mm hex head screws and the 12 mm bolt in the center), gently pry off with a large blade screw driver. You will notice slots in the main housing to do this. The cover is a very tight fit to two O-ring seal collars on the pulley shafts, which mate to bearings inserted into the cover. Don't destroy or damage the O-rings when you pry off the V-belt cover.

(10) Watch for the square black plastic baffle in the front of the pulley case after you pull the cover. It just sits in place, and is easy to fall out when removing the pulley case.

(11) Now you can see the drive pulley and the driven pulley. I used a breaker bar with the 24mm socket to remove the drive pulley (variator) nut, while holding the variator motionless with a tool I made to fit the 2 holes in the rim of the finned cover. Carefully remove the sealing collar with the two O-rings, then slide the outer pulley half off the splined crank shaft.

(12) Remove the drive belt from around the crank shaft, being careful not to get any grease from the splined crank shaft on the belt. You cannot remove the belt from the rear pulley, so I just tie wrapped it out of the way.

(13) Remove the rear pulley and the cam plate from the crank shaft. At this point, if you cannot remove the backing cam plate and pulley section together, the roller weights and sliders will spill out. Don't loose the sliders (there are four). These are graphite, so be careful with them.

(14) Malossi supplies only the inner pulley and rollers. I had to insert the aluminum roller cores into the outer plastic covers. Do this by hand so you don't damage the plastic covers. Install the rollers into the rear pulley according to Malossi instructions. They are oriented in a specific direction, depending on the rotation of the pulley. Clean the Malossi pulley front belt contact surface with solvent and don't get grease or fingerprints on it after cleaning.

(15) Clean the cam plate of the graphite dust from the OEM rollers, install the sliders on the cam plate, and carefully mount the cam plate behind the Mallosi rear pulley. The pulley should have the spacer installed already. This is a thick cylindrical spacer that slides through the center of the pulley. Push it forward when you mount the cam plate so they are in contact.

(16) Here's the tricky part. Install the rear pulley assembly on the splined crank shaft without spilling the rollers! The cam plate is splined to match the crank shaft. Carefully push the rear pulley assembly to the back of the crank shaft so the cam plate is tight against the stop. Clean the pulley surface if you need to again.

(17) Pull the drive belt over the shaft and place around the lower bushing machined into the front face of the pulley. This will space out the belt so that you don't pinch it on assembly of the outer pulley. Clean the belt contact surface of the outer pulley and assemble on the crank shaft.

(18) Install the O-ring spacer and the nut. Finger tighten the nut while rotating the front pulley to make sure the belt is centered and not pinched. Keep tightening the nut while periodically rotating the pulley. To torque to final reading (60 ft-lbs), you need to hold the pulley assembly while tightening. You can buy the Yamaha special tool for this or easily make your own tool.

(19) Before re-assembling, you might want to remove the rear clutch cover and roughen up the shoes, and hone the inner surface of the cover with something like #800 paper. Mine clutch shoes were somewhat glazed. It takes a 17mm socket, and the torque value is 43 ft/lbs.

(20) Re-assemble in reverse order. Don't overlook that black plastic baffle in front of the housing. Grease the O-rings on the bushing seals lightly before installing the aluminum cover.

That's it. Before putting the aluminum cover on, I fired up the bike to be sure everything was rotating correctly and the front pulley ran up the belt as rpm increased.

The variator is Malossi part number 5112623 and you can get it through any Malossi distributor. Go to the Malossi website and click on dealers.

Hurkmaj said:

Why did you opt for two different weights as compared to all of the same weights.

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as Red Herring said, it's the total weight that is important.
ill try to explain.

the stock weights are 8 x 15 grams totaling 120 Grams (obviously 15g ea)
the combination that Red Herring used works out at 4 x 15g + 4 x 10g
totaling 100 grams or an average weight of 12.5 grams ea.

my new variator will come with 8 x 12 gram weights totaling 96 Grams

if you use the method that Red Herring used (and there's nothing wrong with that way of doing things,
it just gives you more adjustability in the total weight used) you MUST
make sure that you have the weights correctly spaced.

if you have all the 15 gram weights on one side and the 12.5 gram ones
on the other side, it will be very unballanced. and not very nice. probably
not even rideable in that condition.

so you would put one 15g weight then one 12.5g then one 15g then one
12.5g etc etc etc.....

hope that made some sense ?

jason

It sounds like this addresses the Majesty's major weakness, and that is the acceleration under 30 mph is weak for sure. Slightly lighter weights would allow the engine to rev a little higher and pull harder out of the hole without raising the cruising rpm much. For best fuel economy on the highway, I have already figured that much over 60 mph or over 6000 rpm really eats into the economy. Once the variator has spun out above about 65-70 mph, the final gearing is the same, so what we are talking about here is midrange anyway. If you ever ride two-up and you and your SO add up to significant weight like my wife and I do, then the extra oomph off the line would be welcome. One comment indicated fuel economy was better after this mod??? If that is the case, I would be really surprised. I believe Yamaha would have tweaked the stock setup for the best economy/performance tradeoff right out of the box, but the proof is in the trying. I may give that a shot and do it when I have to replace the belt the first time. I don't enjoy doing the mechanical work enough to make those kinds of changes unless I am already in there for another reason. Then we can kill two birds with one stone. At the rate I am going, that will be next year sometime. I only have a little over 2000 miles on it after buying it in mid-May. I'll am putting about a 1k miles per month on it, which will drop some in the winter. But not to hijack the thread, I think making the change when you're doing other maintenance in the same part of the bike makes the most sense. I do have one question...can the lighter rollers be bought through Yamaha? Or is there another source we have to use?

Cheers and no gears!