Thread: Belt change photo essay for Mana.

OK, this will take a while as I'm going to have to edit photos and shit as I go and the complete job took me about five hours from whoa to go and I'm buggered so bear with me.

A couple of caveats.

It will contain mild profanity simply because that's how I am. If you can't take mild profanity stop reading now and go back to your knitting.

All the correct torque settings are listed in the manual. I've been pissing about with motorbikes for most of my life and I'm older than dirt. I didn't use a torque wrench on any of the components, I did it by 'Feel'. If you are uncertain mark nuts and bots so they can be done back up to the same place, (Typing correction fluid is good for this.)

This is, to most people, major surgery. Its not tremendously 'Difficult' but if you have trouble opening child proof pill bottles I don't suggest you attempt it.

Finally I accept no responsibility for your screw-ups. If you attempt this and break stuff its your bloody fault, not mine! OK?

First step. Remove the left hand footrest plate.



Next up remove the plastic outer cover from the back of the transmission case.before this note there is an air filter under the two plastic covers.





Next remove the sensors and all the wiring including the main feed to the starter motor which lives under the engine, the side stand switch, (Which has captive nuts in the plate that it bolts to, don't loose them.) and the wear potentiometer which can then be removed by taking out two screws.




Take off the air filter cover.

Pull the rubber boot off the E-CVT servo motor and undo the two bolts that hold it in place and pull it out of the case. Fuck-arseing, (A technical term.) may be required as it is sealed with an o-ring so it may be sticky. Use your brain. (Edit. No it isn't. I was thinking about another job. I'm easily confused. Having said that it can sometimes be tricky to get out if its gummed up with dust.)



I tied some twine around the motor spindle under the pinion and tied it up to a mirror to keep it out of the way otherwise it keeps falling down and getting in the way. Guess how I know this?



Use a rattle gun to undo the 27mm nut on the rear pulley shaft



After which you need to pull the cover off after removing all the bolts that hold it on. This is possibly the biggest pain in the arse of the entire job as the o-rings on the end of the variator hub lock it on real tight.



Here is what I had to use!



Yeah, there are pry points but its still bloody brutal. The knack is sufficient force without using too much!

Once the case is off you can find that sometimes the E-CVT reduction gear will stay in the case. Sometimes it stays in the case.



Then rattle off the variator hub nut.



Leaving the hub unsecured on the crankshaft.



From whence it can be slid off.

The inner pulley face can then be slid out on its splines to allow removal of the E-CVT intermediate shaft.



Note the shitty state of the o-rings. This is why you replace them every time the case comes off.


The inner front pulley face can now be removed exposing the entire drive cavity which needs a thorough clean.



More in a bit.

Moving right along let's get to changing the 'Sliding Blocks'.

Now the nice thing about these tiny bits of plastic shit is that you can see them through the front of the variator hub.



Those little 'V' shaped bits visible through the slots in the hub are pressed into the inner plate. To get to them you have to disassemble the hub and while its is not a bad idea because it allows anally retentive idiots like me to put a bit of anti-seize on stuff its a 'Rhymes With Runt' of a job because the outer hub bearing is tight on the shaft, (There was smiting involved getting it apart. Not real 'Old Testament' type smiting but a few rude words slipped out, some of which might of got me arrested had I uttered them publicly a hundred years ago.) a dead blow hammer and persistence won out.

You want my advice? Look at 'em through the slots. If they ain't broke? Leave 'em alone. After I had the wretched piece of crap apart I compared the old bits and the new bits and after 50,000 Km of abuse and neglect THEY LOOKED JUST LIKE THE NEW ONES! Fuck me sideways with a bleached porcupine! That's another half hour of my life I could of better spent listening to Val Doonigan records and downloading midget porn!

Oh, to get to them you knock down the tab on the lockwasher then tap the ring-nut off with a punch. Getting the locator plate off is where the smiting comes in. You then remove the centre hub and the inner plate that carries the 'Sliding Blocks' comes out.



Its a shit pic? Bite me!

Note that in the centre of the hub there is a sleeve. It is not suggested in the manual that this be greased. That being the case why does the hub have a sodding oil seal in it? I smeared a small amount of grease around inside where the sleeve goes then pressed it gently back in and wiped it all clean externally. Cunning as a dunny rat me!.

Holy Cr*p Pete, thank you so much for being willing to share... Although being F*cked sideways with a bleached porcupine really does not sound appealing at all!

With your tutorial I don't think it is something I would have a problem with (famous last words) but I am all for supporting my local mechanics so despite having all the parts here I will let them do it for the new season... Everyone has to earn a living!!!

Right. Now is the time when things start getting a bit tricky and you have to start making decisions on what you are and aren't going to do when you replace the belt. Because my bike has now done nearly 50,000 Km I thought it was time to go right in and find out what might be good, bad or downright ugly.

To this end you need to have the 'dirty great fuck-off tool of awesomeness that costs a lot of money'! Now the thing about this tool is that like those cheesy products flogged on daytime TV it performs more than one job. Unlike those products it doesn't come with free steak knives nor does it fold up for easy storage under the bed.

What it does do is allow you to disassemble and grease the rear hub and its rollers and easily install a new belt.

First step is disassembling the hub. Throw DGFOTOA up in a vice like so and install the clutch end on the six pins on the tool provided for the purpose and screw in the compressor from the other end to hold it in place.



Using a breaker bar and the shallow socket provided as part of the tool undo the giant ring nut in the centre of the clutch hub. It is done up 'Till You Fart' tight. You can see the socket and bar in the pic above.



Once the nut is off the compressor can be unwound and the pulley spring will push the pulley hub out of the clutch centre so you end up with three main components. The pulley and hub, the spring and the clutch.



The way the clutch works is very simple. As the pulley spins centrifugal force overcomes the springs that hold the shoes in and they throw out and rub on the inside of the drum on the transmission shaft. Like any friction based device the material of the shoes will wear with use. Also like any clutch there are specified minimum thicknesses of the friction material. In reality these are often very conservative and I didn't bother checking what they should be. My clutch works just fine and to my educated eye I'd guess that the shoes are perhaps half worn at most. For people who do a lot of city riding wear will obviously be quicker as it is stop-start riding and trickling along in traffic that will test the clutch most. Most of my riding is done on the open road and although the bike often has two fatties on it and luggage the clutch gets a pretty easy time of it. When it starts to slip? Then we'll all have a better idea of what the actual point of criticality is and I'll take it apart and fix it. Until then I'll keep the several hundred dollars a new clutch-pack costs in the bank thank you very much!

With the hub? Inside it there are pins in cam slots that control the spread of the pulley faces. Now these need grease obviously and the entire unit is sealed at the bottom by an o-ring and at the top by a seal. Using two screwdrivers you can pry up the sleeve exposing the hub.



To my astonishment I actually found there was a goodly amount of grease in there! For anyone who has worked on Italian bikes for any this will be seen as nothing short of amazing as the Italians generally seem to have a deep seated phobia about grease and never use enough of it! Recovering from the shock I wiped out the old grease and added some new before sliding the outer sleeve back on. I'm glad I went in there because now I know but to be honest, if everyone's bikes are as well prepped on assembley there is absolutely no *Need* to go in here as early as I did. My guess is it is the sort of thing that could be left quite safely until clutch replacement time so you can cross that one off your bucket list too

Do note in the above pic that the top of the hum has two flats on the threaded part the huge nut goes on. This is important as the flats correspond with flats un the clutch centre so when you throw the unit back into the DGFOTOA you need to make sure they are close to aligned.



Sleeve re-installed on hub. I apologise for the rather cluttered nature of this corner of the workshop but note that I do have a very colourful grease pot! .

Place the spring on the hub and add the top spring seat.



Add the clutch pack and align the flats on the hub and the pack by eye.



Throw the whole sorry lot back up into the DGFOTOA and use the compressor handle to squeeze the whole lot back together. Getting the hub through the clutch centre may require a bit of piss-farting, (Another technical term.) about but I managed it without any real drama. You then re-install the big nut and do it up till you fart.





Now if you have half a brain you'll realise at this point that the next step is installing the new belt and will of already hung it over the threaded part of the compressor. I forgot. No big deal but it'll save you a few minutes.

You next have to install the two large half-moon collets on the pulley adjacent to the clutch.



And then the compressor bridge that makes up the other part of the tool.



Turning the handle on the bridge will spread the pulley by compressing the spring allowing the belt, (Which you have now remembered and grumpily collected from the other end of the workshop!) to be hooked over the othe compressor arm and slipped deep into the valley of the expanded pulley.

IMPORTANT NOTE the belt is directional and the Mana's engine is unconventional in that it spins clockwise when viewed from the left. Remember this when installing the belt.



Once installed in the pulley the compressor can be unwound and the bridge and collets removed.



Reassembly is essentially a reverse of disassembly but there are some important considerations and things to watch out for.

First slide the rear pulley with clutch assembly and belt onto the transmission shaft and hook the belt over the crankshaft after re-installing the inner front pulley cone. The E-CVT variator hub can then be slipped onto the crank. Remember to slip the E-CVT intermediate control shaft in behind the inner pulley cone before installing the hub.



I have the crank holding tool to allow the re-torquing of the crank nut.





But in all honesty you can just hit it with a rattle gun and common sense.

Primary E-CVT transfer gear can also be installed in the crankcase. Note all these shafts run in 2RS bearings so check them all for roughness and serviceability. None of mine have yet needed replacement.



Install new o-rings on the variator hub. I smear them with rubber grease in the vain hope it will make the poxy cover come off easier next time!



Before you re install the cover wind the the threaded hub, (Which should have its internal threads greased, I use copper cote.) in so it just grips the belt with the outer pulley cone. Do NOT wind it all the way in or out as it has to be able to move in and out to get a reference for travel when it is being re-trained. BUT the pulley has to be able to grip and turn the transmission or the re-training cannot be done and the tool has a little hissy-fit and sulks.

Then re-install the cover and the E-CVT servo motor.



Tighten the transmission shaft nut.



Connect up Navigator or Axone or I assume PADS and re train the TCU and potentiometer.

Note that before the re-training can be performed you must clear all errors using both the OBD and Navigator otherwise the tool will sulk. The side stand must be up and the rear wheel HAS to be off the ground as drive is delivered to it while it is calibrating.

Go ride!



I hope this has been helpful. The whole operation, including taking pics for you lot of fuckwits and correcting my own stuff-ups took about six hours. If I'd been concentrating purely on getting it done it would of taken me a bit less but to do 'All of it' is a fairly major and time consuming job. No more so though than doing a clutch on a Guzzi or in a car.

Pete

And NOW we see why it is an $800 job... Pete, you should be a hand model...

The crux of the matter Paul is assessing the risk.

Simply swapping out the belt is something that I'm sure someone competent, like Patrick seems to be, would have no problem doing by working out a cunning way of spreading the pulley to allow the belt to be stuffed into the valley. Where things get more difficult is when it comes to stuff like getting the clutch pulley apart to grease and inspect the pins in the hub. I'm sure that too could be worked around but having the correct tool essentially makes it EASY!

Given what I've found in my bike I'd say that as long as they are all prepped and delivered as well as mine there is absolutely no need to go in as early as I did. BUT, that is my bike, ridden by me in my environment. There is no guarantee that for other people and other bikes the situation would be the same.

As far as replacing the sliding blocks goes I can think of very few things more un-necessary! When you're doing the belt just look at them through the slots in the hub and get in with an air duster and blow the crap out of the hub. Job done. When they look worn, (After a couple of trillion miles!) THEN replace them. No need to go in there unless the hub bearing goes udders skywards and all the bearings in mine were fine!

No doubt someone will pipe up and say its all lies and I'm just trying to get people to wear their bikes out because its mo work and money for me! good luck with that!

Its up to every individual to make their own choices but I personally won't be going in to the hub to grease the pins or changing the sliding blocks again for a VERY long time on mine.

Pete

The pegs don't look THAT bad when they are folded up like that Hopefully Jude is more comfy now.

Seriously great write-up/explanation Pete. After seeing the entire thing I have NO issues with a dealer charging what they do and the piece of mind they aren't just hacking away at it like I would be makes it worth every penny!

Thank you Pete for a fabulous tutorial. You missed your calling as a technical writer even if the editors found a need to censor a few descriptions! Personally, it reminded me of my long-ago military tech instructors before 'PC' was invented. Excellent work!

Originally Posted by PSolk

The pegs don't look THAT bad when they are folded up like that Hopefully Jude is more comfy now.
:

Thanks Paul. Jude is rapt! They've made a big difference.

Petr

Just as a postscript its amazing how much difference cleaning all the crap out of the transmission and fitting a new belt makes. Take off is now smooth and seamless again with no shuddering or groaning. The bike feels brand new again!!!

I really don't mind being an *Authority* on something as peculiar as the Mana. I have a long and illustrious, (If you can call it that!) history of liking orphans and oddballs that nobody else takes seriously. I used to own Lilacs for gods sakes!!!

Pete