Greetings all.....

I had the clutch replaced on my `06 Roadstar Silverado at around 38,000 miles. I went with the SPEEDSTAR spring and clutch plates. All went well until around 40,000 miles..... Out for a ride along the Ocoee River Gorge and coming back thru Turtletown, it acted like the clutch quit working. Nothing, no gears. Just quit pulling. I got it on the side of the road and called a tow truck and took it back to the dealership.

They gave me the diagnosis as to what they found yesterday....

What they found.... the nut backed off on the pulley letting it slip on the shaft. That, in turn, chewed up the shaft, which will have to be replaced, along with the pulley. ( About $900 parts and labor ) Everything else checks out okay.

My question....

Is this something that can be prevented from happening. And if it is.... what do you recommend doing to stop this from happening again? Regular checks?

From what I've read on this and other forums, this is something that seems to be a re-occuring problem, at least with the Roadstar.

I'm interested in reading what you think (or know) causes this and any remedies.

All in all, my Roadstar has been trouble free. It's completely stock. Nothing more done to it than gas, tires and oil, and the clutch replacement has been the only major repair, until now.

Many thanks in advance. I look forward to your replys.....

Best regards to all,
Mike

did they say the nut had the "safety/tab" washer on it?

red locktite + tab washer - the pulley nut should never move.

Here's what I would do
Call Yamaha customer service
Tell them that the lock nut was either loose or loosened on the shaft that hold the pulley and did the damage
Then ask them how is it possible, that a nut behind a cover, that is supposed to be torgued and locked down. that according to the service manual call for no maintenance, can't be seen, get's loose and causes this damage?
pause a second
well the only way that could happen is if it weren't done at the factory to begin with, either the factory didn't torque to spec, or they did not use the lock nuck.
How can you help?

They will call the dealer to confirm.

I did this scenario with my dealer, and he agreed.
so when Customer service called I already knew that my dealer was in agreement with me. Yamaha paid for the parts. Bike was in for tranny recall at the time, so there was no additional time for labor any way. Dealer had pulley in stock, drive shaft was there the next day, bike was picked up following day.

Just have to approach this logically, calmly. Ask the right question that leads to the fault that it had to be factory since it was either not tqed or nut locking mechanism was not done properly. BTW, I had 47k on a 5yr bike

This is a known design problem but Yamaha won't admit it or issue a recall for it. My 05 has backed off twice the reverse torque of engine braking will back the nut off even with the lock tab on the nut. I don't know when they changed the design but my 07 doesn't have the lock tab any more but has a lock nut. I finally used red locktite and bent the tab in two places to stop the nut from backing off. I still check it every few months just to make sure as I have a direct drive rear pulley and no cush drive so that makes it even worse. I also check the 07 and so far no problem with it.

Curt wrote:
This is a known design problem but Yamaha won't admit it or issue a recall for it. My 05 has backed off twice the reverse torque of engine braking will back the nut off even with the lock tab on the nut. I don't know when they changed the design but my 07 doesn't have the lock tab any more but has a lock nut. I finally used red locktite and bent the tab in two places to stop the nut from backing off. I still check it every few months just to make sure as I have a direct drive rear pulley and no cush drive so that makes it even worse. I also check the 07 and so far no problem with it.

Oddly enough Mine is making a "knocking sound when rolling forward. I am working on removing the cover, 2 bolts stripped out. Having to get an easyout set tomorrow and remove those. Hoping I caught it before it did any damage.

SD

When I roll my bike back and forth, engine off, in neutral, all is quiet, except a little rubbing noise from the belt. So I assume everything is O-K. If the pulley is loose, it would make noise, right? Also, what is entailed in taking the cover off to inspect?

Boatmark wrote:
When I roll my bike back and forth, engine off, in neutral, all is quiet, except a little rubbing noise from the belt. So I assume everything is O-K. If the pulley is loose, it would make noise, right? Also, what is entailed in taking the cover off to inspect?

Once I get the stripped out bolts out of the damn thing I will let you know.

SD

this actually makes ME feel lucky, I put on the barons lightweight aluminum 31 tooth, the shaft just ripped right through it when the nut came loose. Maybe I should have went back to aluminum. Instead I went to steel 31 red lock-tight and bent both ears,I think its on for good. The aluminum pulley was completely smoothed out but no damage to the shaft

MikelJay wrote:
Greetings all.....

I had the clutch replaced on my `06 Roadstar Silverado at around 38,000 miles. I went with the SPEEDSTAR spring and clutch plates. All went well until around 40,000 miles..... Out for a ride along the Ocoee River Gorge and coming back thru Turtletown, it acted like the clutch quit working. Nothing, no gears. Just quit pulling. I got it on the side of the road and called a tow truck and took it back to the dealership.

They gave me the diagnosis as to what they found yesterday....

What they found.... the nut backed off on the pulley letting it slip on the shaft. That, in turn, chewed up the shaft, which will have to be replaced, along with the pulley. ( About $900 parts and labor ) Everything else checks out okay.

My question....

Is this something that can be prevented from happening. And if it is.... what do you recommend doing to stop this from happening again? Regular checks?

From what I've read on this and other forums, this is something that seems to be a re-occuring problem, at least with the Roadstar.

I'm interested in reading what you think (or know) causes this and any remedies.

All in all, my Roadstar has been trouble free. It's completely stock. Nothing more done to it than gas, tires and oil, and the clutch replacement has been the only major repair, until now.

Many thanks in advance. I look forward to your replys.....

Best regards to all,
Mike


===================

Yes,even when using proper factory pulley nut retainer any shop wrench thats knows what they are doing or care about their customers safety should use loctite on the pulley nut to eunsue it doesnt come loose.

They (the Yahama shop) as the shop that sells/srv'c plenty of R*'s has to be aware that its not that uncommon for the front drive pulley nut to come loose and to always use loctite on the front pulley nut as addded precaution to avoid a possbily dangerous accident if the pulley came loose locking up rear when cruising 70-80mph or when in the middle of a corner having the rear wheel lock up, or even loosing forword power/motion when pulling out in heavy traffic and getting rear ended,etc.

There is no way the front pulley nut should have come loose 2k miles after they installed it ,thats all on them not ensuring it was installed properly/tightly/what ever it takes to do that and if they dont take full resp and fix it for NOTHING you need to take them to small claimes cort.

Now if you had put on 20k miles-3-4 yrs later and it came loose that would be a diff story be since we are aware the front pulley nuts can loosen up at times that we need to chk to ensure its tight every so often as normal maint item on these bikes.

But the front pulley nut comming loose only 2k miles post install at the dealer/Yami shop,they own that one for sure!!!!

As far as avoiding this issue in the futre goes,using proper torque on pulley not,using factory retainer,applying loctite to pulley nut threads when installing,and doing seasonal ckh for tightness as a reg maint item is the only defense against it ever happening again.

Scott

Mine was 18 months out of warranty when it happened on my 'Liner. Dealer estimate (where I bought my 3 last new bikes)was north of a grand for the repair , and they went to bat for me with Yamaha. Then My dealer gave me a direct line to Yamaha , they told me to have a nice day. I told them My next new bike would not have Yamaha on it.

I got lucky and found a complete Transfer case from a Raider that had 15 miles on it. Did the job myself and saved $$$. I really like my Yamaha , but them sticking the customer with this known problem and washing their hands of it Does not sit right with me. Period. Those that have had to foot the bill themselves know exactly how I feel. BB