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Smoked another belt!

9K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  acefire 
#1 ·
So I got my Commander back from the dealer. I had the dealer install a Gates Carbon fiber belt, as I was told that Can Am wanted the old belt that burnt up with less then 20 miles after it got wet due to no drain cap on the CVT (see newbie intro for full story). I took the Commander back out yesterday and in less then 6 miles the belt was slipping and smoking, I'm at a lose as I've never smoked a belt yet and we have 4 Yamaha Kodiak 700's and a Polaris Ace 570, and yes I've got those belts wet and still after draining the CVT's and allowing the belt to dry while idling had no issues. Now this last belt, the Gates belt never saw any water, dry dit paths aND a few hills. Any ideas from you all, I'm picking your brains :nerd, I wouldn't think that a brand new Can Am with less then 26 miles shouldn't have this problem.
 
#2 ·
The Yamaha clutching is very hard to ever smoke a belt, let alone wear one out. they have a wet clutch that disengages so the clutch Never looses contact with the belt. What were you doing when you smoked it the second time?
 
#3 ·
My guess is there is a problem with one of the clutches and the bone heads didn't even look at them . The water from the first time might of been dirty and now things are not working correct . I have three canam's and normally there clutches work good
 
#5 ·
I was riding in an open dry dirt area with a few hills about 12 to 15 feet high, nothing that was to tough for the Commander or the new belt as I wanted to give it a chance to break in as the owners manual states.
 
#6 ·
From what I have read, the clutch system is grease free, not like the clutches that are on the Yamaha Kodiak 700 that has greased weights in it. So I'm not sure what you mean by a wet clutch system? I was informed by the dealership that they did use some scotch brite on the clutch surfaces to clean them up and remove any vanishing that was left from the old belt, but that is all that they did as their was nothing else wrong.
 
#7 ·
There's no grease in the can am clutches except in the one way bearings that give you your engine braking. The can am belt is loose in the sheaves until the engine spools up to around 2000k rpm and the clutches cause it to catch. The entire set up is external to the oil fed internals of the engine.

Yamaha belts are always in contact with the sheaves and dont slip unless really forced. A yamaha wet clutch is within the oil fed engine case and bathed in engine oil so it's "wet". It's basically a centrifugal clutch with friction material that locks into a drum as rpm increases to engage the cvt system - the one way bearing is also in there. The primary sheave in the external cvt system has the greased rollers in it. The yamaha system is awesome until you get into higher HP applications like the commander.
 
#9 ·
Well said! Or when you get silt in the Grizzly grease in the Yammys primary! ?
 
#10 ·
Still not understand why the belt keeps smoking (slipping in the sheaves)? I also noticed that when I go to accelerate from a dead stop I notice that it feels like a jerking motion, like the belt is trying to catch, but is not full. It feels almost like a vibration until I get moving.
 
#11 ·
The jerky feeling from my experience is the nature of the BRP clutch. I installed new one way bearings and it made it a bit better but it's still there.


But you shouldn't smoke a belt with normal riding. Have someone that you trust look at it.
 
#12 ·
The jerky feeling is from the flat spots left behind from smoking the belt. You want to stop smoking the belt get a good belt clean everything and do the marker test to see if the sheaves are slipping. If they are not slipping . And everything else is good stop babying the throttle in high range. Ether use low or mash the pedal down and take off in high. Do not spend more than .01 seconds getting from idle to 2000 rpm or above.
 
#13 ·
What about the rollers?

I've noticed flat spots on mine, and have replacements purchased but the "Honey Do" list for getting the yard cleaned up, etc., is painfully long.




-Kris
 
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