2011 TW200 belt or tranny issue?

[Modrob]

Some time ago unit stalled going uphill towing a small motorcycle. Some smoke and smell of rubber burning. Removed belt and it looked ok but the case area was grimy with grease-like sludge. Cleaned it all out and installed new belt and front variator pulley assembly. Within a few minutes of running it was destroyed in pieces—this was low speed but uphill, with jerking/stuttering. 
I then opened it up and removed the belt remains, but reinstalled the old belt. It runs again but again has the stuttering/jerking when accelerating from stop, or when slowing down to about 1-2mph…changed transaxle fluid and no difference.

Any ideas?

[Modrob]

Took it apart and found inside case area had some light oil residue all over and some had gotten on the belt. Belt residue was on the front variator pulley surfaces and the clutch pulley had quite a bit as well. I’m thinking the two failing seals allowed the oil/tranny fluid to seep into the area, causing the belt to start gumming up the pulleys. Also, the clutch spring seems maybe excessively strong as well as difficult for a pulley sleeve to slide on the inner shaft. I’m going to attempt to break down the clutch (if I can can come up with a diy tool to keep pressure as well as ease off pressure on the spring) and see if I can salvage it. May just go ahead and order another clutch anyway…

[Greg Kilgore]

Clean the sheaves with soap and water. Then lightly scuff the sides with a brillo pad. Watch a few YouTube videos on replacing the cvt belt. Doesn't have to be same model or same machine. You are just wanting a general look at how to clean up the sheaves. Replaced the clutch 2 times on a cfmoto 600 uforce. Once just ofter I purchased the used machine. Then 8 months later after a catastrophic cvt belt failure flipped me and the wife on its side do8ng about 30mph down the highway. The belt came apart in pieces and chunks and wrapped around the sheaves. Locking the transmission/rear wheels. Then we went sliding down the blacktop. I turned the steering wheel to ease off the highway onto a grass area. Then we flipped on the driver side. Just some bruises and a few scratches. Nothing serious.  After getting machine back on its wheels was able to put in neutral and push around. Then called brother-in-law to bring a trailer and load. Repaired the machine and sold at wife's request. Then got a Axis 500. Same cvt belt setup. But in her mind it hadn't tried to kill us. Lol

Look at a diy tool for the secondary sheave for a cfmoto. There's a lot of guys that a tool for adjusting the clocking to remove the HD spring. I'm not familiar with your setup. But most are similar. There is a lot of force under that spring. Becareful that spring can seriously hurt or kill you.

 

Also when I got the new Axis I put on a 5-point harness simply because the cfmoto flipped us and the lap belt wasn't enough to keep the wife from getting hurt.

 

[Greg Kilgore]

Here is a post I made about the cfmoto over on their forum. Can see what could happen if the cvt belt gets wrapped around the sheaves 

 

https://cfmoto-forum.com/uforce-600/2013-uforce-transmission-locked-up/

[Modrob]

Thanks much Greg…

wow! That was a bit scary of an incident…glad it wasn’t worse. 
When this first started giving trouble, the original belt (I’m second owner) smoked some on a hilly driveway, and stalled. I was able to limp it up to the garage and then dig into it…

Ordered a new “Kevlar” belt and installed after cleaning out the case (it was a real mess!) A couple of test trips up and down the driveway, and bam! that belt ripped to shreds. I put the original back on it just for testing, along with the new front variator pulley. And another cleaning of the case. Immediately it started the jerking/grabbing at low speeds. (I’m sure the original belt idea wasn’t smart but it was a learning thing) And again, this last time tearing into it found the case again in dirty position, with the buildup on both pulleys…

thanks again for your insight.