Hello Cush Drive, my old friend.
 

So, I got a mate of mine to change my tires lately.

I'd just had my 6,000 mile service at a Yamaha dealer...

When we took the back wheel off, the rubbers were totally perished and there was cruddy rubber bits inside the hub, so I phoned the dealer.

He said
I opted to do them myself, since I was fitting a new exhaust and rear brake pads anyway.

Cleaned out the hub as best I could (will have a proper clean at some point if anyone can recommend me something to get rid of baked on rubber??!)

Popped the new rubbers in, put it all back together.

400 miles later...

Well now the movement between sprocket and hub is like a prick in a bucket.
I've got nearly a centimetre of play!!

Grabbed a bit of an old inner tube, packed it out as per instructions today.
Will let you know how it feels now, off to Scotland tomorrow!

Just a bit pissed off that this is a known problem and the new rubbers seem to make it worse!


LOOOOVE this bike, but there are a few little annoyances.

Wow!! I am on my third XTX and this one is at 22000 kms and I have never changed and cush drives. Is it your 18 inch wheels and off road tyres I wonder....

Cush Drive
 

Simon - from all accounts, you are the lucky one! Or a magician with your throttle control? :winner:

Mine were shot, with a centremetre of play when I bought the bike (XTR) at 4,000klm. I packed them out with an inner tube, per the recommendation from this site, and 25,000klm later there is still no play. Happy days!

:signthankspin:

:eek2: That has got to be some sort of record Simon!

Or he has the ultimate throttle and clutch control....:041:

Changed mine last week with 9000 miles on clock, runs sweet as a nut now. Lovin It!

Just replaced mine for the second time at 14,000 miles.

So here we are, 500 miles after I packed them out with inner tube, and I'm getting that awful snag-pull again.

Pretty sure my chain is adjusted correctly, though it's difficult to check with this bike. Always seems too loose to me.

Anyway, when I get to Edinburgh, I'll open it up and put another layer of inner tube in.

Hopefully, that should sort it out.

Next step will be a D.I.D chain and sprocket set...
More money spent!

Ahh!

Are you confident the sprocket carrier bearing isn't knackered? The previous owner may have ridden a considerable distance on sloppy cush rubbers, which will have put extra strain on the bearing.

I made a set out of 95A urethane... done maybe 10,000k
on them still tight as when I put them in...
I got a strip of 75X20 sheet off E-bay..Cut them to shape
with a hack saw..
I made them very tight..I thought I was not going to get
them in... enough pushing & rubber grease and they went
in ,in the end...

Isn't the point of the Cush drive rubbers to be of softish rubber to absorb the "shocks" to the drive system?

Doesn't packing them out with extra padding or replacing them with a harder material defeat the purpose?

I know they don't last long (5,000 to 7,000 miles seems typical), but maybe that is something we have to live with.

Shore A urethane is still quite compressable...
urethane has a higher resisstence to tearing & compressing/deforming than rubber..

Pretty confident, since I'm the only owner.

Rubbers were knackered at 6,000 miles when I looked at them.

Up to 7,800 now...

How would I check the bearing?

:eusa_doh:Sorry, was under the false impression you'd got yourself a used bike, not a new one!

Knackered cush drive rubbers give excessive rotational play, a knackered carrier bearing will give lateral play, side to side. Grab the sprocket with both hands at opposite sides and try and push/pull with alternate hands. Any rocking or movement means trouble. It is a better test to take the wheel out, hold the sprocket in a vice and insert the axle and look to see if the axle moves side to side.

Heres my two pence worth

Use to own an XTR for about 40k miles and replaced the cush drive rubbers twice over the entire time on the bike and that included alot of hard handed riding.

XTZ, first thing i did was pack the rubbers out as they where a bit loose when i got the bike, after another 3k miles (11k in total) they where shot along with the sprocket bearing. New bearing in and i find that the sprocket can still wobble on the bearing with a fare bit of free side movement, and that was with new cush driver rubbers. Any who i go for a 2600mile ride to Germany/Swizterland and for the last 200miles of motorway the bike was really slack feeling at the throttle, only once i got home, unpacked the bike and checked the chain on the center stand did i find.......you guessed it my cush drive rubbers are completely shot after 2600miles. Id said more than 1cm movement of the rear wheel and still the same amount of free sideways play in the sprocket.

Seems wierd but ive another set of cush drive rubbers ready to go in.