17oz weight wearing on Viking VI

**67StingrayJ** · 05-18-2020, 03:29 PM

Hey y'all,
I have the JBS purple spring, JBS slugs, brand new fixed sheave, JBS extreme sheave and JBS 17oz weights on my Viking VI. I has a brand new oil seal on the wet clutch shaft out the engine, and a brand new one way bearing. I put about 200 miles on the machine with the new clutch setup but the last 20 miles or so of riding, the exhaust note didn't seem to smoothly increase like it wast. Rather, it seemed like it would step up in RPMs. It was like the loading on the clutch wasn't moving up and down its torque curve, but jumping or skipping. It wasn't jumping in huge RPMs or anything, just small baby stepping. A few times, it seemed to jump back and forth between RPM too, say between 3,500 and 3,300 (complete guess). I wondered if the weights were getting stuck in the sheave, or sliding out one by one? It just wasn't sounding right to me. It definitely didn't have the same steady smooth, gradually increasing sound of the exhaust note. I was riding on hard pack rock trails, roads, and occasional washboard gravel road.

I decided to open the thing up and take a look. Maybe a stick, or too much dust, or a stray rock got in there. I pulled everything apart, washed it up clean and looked for anything abnormal. Nothing abnormal was in there. The once red grease was near dark red but that seemed to be appropriate for 200 miles of high temp dessert, hard pack, rock riding. I took a look at the weights for any flat spots and when I noticed there was some wear on the 17oz weights. They were starting to flatten. They definitely weren't the same as when I put them in. I could make out a slight line where the wear started and stopped.

I started freaking out and went to all the JBS install videos I could find to make sure I didn't do anything incorrectly. From what I can tell, I didn't put anything in backwards, I greased it just like it showed in the video, I didn't drive it without the cage, or without the cover or without the snorkels on. I got to looking close at the Extreme sheave and there is a slight dip in sheave right where the sheave's machined surface meets the factory surface.

1. Could this be causing the stepping of the exhaust note phenomenon I was experiencing? I want to emphasis, it wasn't a issue with the engine, it physically felt steppy in the seat.
2. Are the weights supposed to get any flat spots on them?
3. Is there suppose to be a noticeable step in the machining of the JBS extreme sheave?

I'll post photos later tonight. Videos really show the wear so I'll post those too.

**Timmi** · 05-18-2020, 04:20 PM

"The once red grease" ... if you didn't use Yamalube, that's your culprit

Originally Posted by 67StingrayJ

Hey y'all,
I have the JBS purple spring, JBS slugs, brand new fixed sheave, JBS extreme sheave and JBS 17oz weights on my Viking VI. I has a brand new oil seal on the wet clutch shaft out the engine, and a brand new one way bearing. I put about 200 miles on the machine with the new clutch setup but the last 20 miles or so of riding, the exhaust note didn't seem to smoothly increase like it wast. Rather, it seemed like it would step up in RPMs. It was like the loading on the clutch wasn't moving up and down its torque curve, but jumping or skipping. It wasn't jumping in huge RPMs or anything, just small baby stepping. A few times, it seemed to jump back and forth between RPM too, say between 3,500 and 3,300 (complete guess). I wondered if the weights were getting stuck in the sheave, or sliding out one by one? It just wasn't sounding right to me. It definitely didn't have the same steady smooth, gradually increasing sound of the exhaust note. I was riding on hard pack rock trails, roads, and occasional washboard gravel road.

I decided to open the thing up and take a look. Maybe a stick, or too much dust, or a stray rock got in there. I pulled everything apart, washed it up clean and looked for anything abnormal. Nothing abnormal was in there. The once red grease was near dark red but that seemed to be appropriate for 200 miles of high temp dessert, hard pack, rock riding. I took a look at the weights for any flat spots and when I noticed there was some wear on the 17oz weights. They were starting to flatten. They definitely weren't the same as when I put them in. I could make out a slight line where the wear started and stopped.

I started freaking out and went to all the JBS install videos I could find to make sure I didn't do anything incorrectly. From what I can tell, I didn't put anything in backwards, I greased it just like it showed in the video, I didn't drive it without the cage, or without the cover or without the snorkels on. I got to looking close at the Extreme sheave and there is a slight dip in sheave right where the sheave's machined surface meets the factory surface.

1. Could this be causing the stepping of the exhaust note phenomenon I was experiencing? I want to emphasis, it wasn't a issue with the engine, it physically felt steppy in the seat.
2. Are the weights supposed to get any flat spots on them?
3. Is there suppose to be a noticeable step in the machining of the JBS extreme sheave?

I'll post photos later tonight. Videos really show the wear so I'll post those too.

**67StingrayJ** · 05-19-2020, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by Timmi

"The once red grease" ... if you didn't use Yamahalube, that's your culprit

I was using Yamalube, I purchased it from Partzilla. Here are some photos.

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**67StingrayJ** · 05-19-2020, 07:49 AM

100% I was using Yamalube. I'd post a photo if I had one here at work with me. I don't think these weights should be showing this much wear after 200 miles. I forgot to mention the cam plate was brand new too, and so was the clutch drum.

I hope James at JBS sees this and fixes me up. These things were $70.