I have always hated the grease in the primary sheave of the Rhino in all models. I have hated it so much as to run mine dry for a while.
The only thing I can think the grease is for is for noise control. No other manufacturer of ATV's, scooters and so forth uses grease in their primary sheaves that I am aware of.
The main problem with the grease is it attracts dirt and dust and then it builds up in the grease and centrifugal force slings the dirt to the perimeter of the sheave where the roller weights roll out to. The build up won't allow the roller weights to roll all the way out and your top speed starts going down while your engine RPM goes up.
I have been running greaseless for a while and have not had a break down of any sorts. The only issue I have seen on our race rhino is the plastic covers on the roller weights seem to wear some and they appear to expand to the point the metal weight will simply fall out. I am talking about using 660 rollers or aftermarket rollers. My stock 700 rollers have been long gone due to a engine mod that required lighter weights.
Until now if you had a 700 you had to buy 660 weights and use the covers or buy aftermarket weights and plastic covers. Problem is weights and covers are about $100 from present suppliers. We sell them now and have for a short time.
Another issue 700 owners are having and it seems more in the hot areas of the country is the sliders that are in the primary sheave which are on the fixed plate or cam as Yamaha calls it are melting. Until now the way to fix it was to buy a 660 cam and sliders because they had metal insert between the slider and the cam and it helped get rid of some heat.
So what is Hunterworks solution to both issues?
How about some roller weights with covers made out of a self lubricating material that can handle high heat? How about some replacement sliders made from the same material?
Well that is exactly what we have.
The new roller weights are the same diameter and width as stock weights. They are available in different weights and the weight is measured with the cover on since with our new roller weights the covers can't come off.
Example: Someone says they are using 14gr. weights like I do in my race rhino, well that is 14gr metal part and then add the 2gr plastic covers for a total of 16gr roller weight. So if you wanted the same in our new weight you would simply choose 16 gr weights.
Stock 700 weights are a total of 20 gr and 660 are a total of 18gr.
Back to the greaseless part. With these new weights you do NOT USE GREASE AT ALL NO WHERE. You don't even put it on the slides if you are using our new sliders too. You should clean your sheave totally out before you install the new sliders and roller weights.
Now the weird part, you can remove the sheave cover and o-ring, it is no longer needed. It's purpose was to hold the grease in and guess what it does when no grease is in there? It holds dirt in. By cover I mean the cover over the sheave that has the eight screws in it.
I pulled my greaseless sheave apart after a cross country race where it was severely dusty and inside the sheave was good bit of dirt, started out as dust but it built up very quickly with the cover on.
I removed the cover and now the dirt can't build up due to the increased air flow inside the sheave and it will also run cooler too.
Some people might say, how does it work without the cover? The same as every other vehicle with roller weights besides Yamaha, they don't have covers. The cover does absolutely nothing except hold the grease in.
So at the end of the day, what does this do for you?
1. You can go greaseless
2. You get a slider fix that costs much less
3. If you don't want to go greaseless cause you can't believe you can do it, you still get roller weights with covers cheaper than buying weights and covers separate and cheaper than buying stock ones
4. Less sheave maintenance
5. Cooler running sheave
Not sure what else I can tell you, except it simply works and works well. I assure you if it didn't work well and I thought it might fail then they would not be in my race Rhino.
We also sent several sets of the sliders to customers out in the desert to test out and so far so good.
Todd
