Tranny Slipping? Or is it just the oil?

[P.W.]

I'm going to call them 1st thing in the AM and see if they can look at the front sprocket for me (us) asap.....like tomorrow.
Maybe they won't need to wait for the snow to melt and the roads to get better to get this figured out after all .... and I'll get "Skeeter" back home sooner than I thought.:2thumbs:

Thanks to all for your input!
P.W.

 

[BajaRon]

I'm going to call them 1st thing in the AM and see if they can look at the front sprocket for me (us) asap.....like tomorrow.
Maybe they won't need to wait for the snow to melt and the roads to get better to get this figured out after all .... and I'll get "Skeeter" back home sooner them I thought.:2thumbs:

Thanks to all for your input!
P.W.

The front pulley fix could easily be your best hope. Depending on how it went. The pulley splines are softer than the output shaft they run on. Designed this way to sacrifice the relatively inexpensive and easy to replace pulley while protecting the more expensive and much harder to replace output shaft. Let's hope for the best!

 

[P.W.]

Guy's
A little "play by play" update as to what is going on. The Dealer just called and said they checked the front sprocket and said it was good.... so that's not the problem. Also, just my luck when they took it for a test ride they didn't hear it slipping either. I told them to hook the Freedom trailer up to it, get out on the highway in 5/6 gear and get rough with it and I would think it should slip then.
The only thing they found wrong so far was the belt was really loose ......Could the belt have been slipping a cog on the front sprocket? I doubt it..... I'm grasping at straws here.....I'm Still thinking it's internal. I should have more updates in a few hours.

P.W.

 

[Possible]

IMO if that belt had been loose enough to slip a cog, you would most certainly have noticed. And the belt damage would be
easy to see. If a cog belts slips, one or more to the cogs get torn off the belt.

 

[P.W.]

Well, it wasn't my imagination, upon taking it for another test ride the dealer did experience the 6th gear slippage I was talking about.
So they hooked the bike up to the computer and it did show a clutch slippage code on the tranny. They did three kind of updates to the bike and took it for another ride and this time it didn't slip, so maybe they fixed it? I told them to keep it for a week or two and drive it as much as they can to see if it slips again.
Now my question is..... are my clutches bad, or going to be bad early from slipping??? (I would have to think yes).But I guess it's all documented now if something were to happen down the road....Good thing we bought the extended warranty at the time of purchase back in 2019.
I'll keep you all updated if anything changes...

P.W.

 

[K80Shooter]

You would think that if they checked the codes and confirmed that it was indeed slipping that the same codes would have been there when you 1st took it to them. I'd wager that they never even checked them.

Good luck.

 

[P.W.]

Good point! Why didn't they check for a slippage code right away when I rode it into there shop on day one??....Well I guess it's a good thing this is all being documented right now at this time...may need this info in the future for tranny work.

P.W.

 

[spyder01]

When you changed your oil did it smell like burnt toast,if so then yes youre clutches are probably burnt.Another sign of burnt clutches would be chattering due to plate warpage.It is possible for a clutch to slip for a short time without overheating to the point of failure.Every time you pull out from a stop your clutches are slipping under load until they lock up completely which could take more than 1 second,and every time you shift there is a short period of slippage.With auto transmissions there is a computer parameter called clutch volume index in which the computer can measure the life span left in your clutch pack and adjust for a worn clutch.I dont know wether the Spyder has that capability but the dealer tech should.

 

[P.W.]

The oil was fine when I changed it, no burnt smell or anything stuck to the magnet...clean as a whistle. So maybe I lucked out with smoking the clutches....time will tell.
I just hope they got it fixed right on the first visit, so I'm not driving 2+ hours, one way to the dealer all summer long to get this resolved.

P.W.

 

[Mikey]

Good luck!!! Ride it like you stole it!!!

 

[P.W.]

I'm going to ride it a bit harder when I do get it back to see if it ever slips.:2thumbs:

 

[PMK]

The oil was fine when I changed it, no burnt smell or anything stuck to the magnet...clean as a whistle. So maybe I lucked out with smoking the clutches....time will tell.
I just hope they got it fixed right on the first visit, so I'm not driving 2+ hours, one way to the dealer all summer long to get this resolved.

P.W.

I know the other person mentioned the burned smell. Unfortunately, since the Spyder has a shared sump, it is very unlikely to burn the oil like what happens with transmission fluid. Hopefully an easy fix for you.

 

[RudyB]

I would say probably 99% of Spyder owners wouldn’t know how to do it really nice answer you gave the guy

 

[P.W.]

After three weeks at the shop....we're going to go get it Saturday morning and see if the slipping is "Fixed" or not.....will report back here and let you know how it went. Fingers crossed.

John

 

[P.W.]

Well, after a 150 miles of two up riding today pulling our new freedom trailer .......NO slippage :thumbup:

 

[JP58]

So what did they do to fix it.

 

[P.W.]

That's a good question....not real sure, they did three kind of updates to the tranny computer. I really didn't expect that to fix the slipping.... but appears to have been the problem.