KatMan
Active VIP Member
Enclosed is a thread off another website Re diamond drives. A bit dated(2008) but the slop comment is the same I have with my 07 M1000. Seals/gaskets as commnet is also of concern. Has anyone else had similiar issues? Something shoudl be done other than maintenance? Another comment was to put hydraulic fluid in instead of the recommened oil. Thoughts?
One of the unfortunate design characteristics of the planetary drive system in the DD drive is an unusual amount slack in turning your secondary forward and backwards. In sleds with chain drive systems, this much slop or slack was annoying, caused chain failures and most owners quickly adjusted this slop out of the system with their chain adjuster.
My observation watching many m series riders, when taking off.....if the rider has the habit of slamming into that planetary gear slop, before long they will be down at the cat shop with a broken gear case. Its like being out in the hills and discovering the rear u joint is on its last legs in your pickup, some guys will gently take up that slack, finish the day in the woods and put in a new U joint on Monday nite. Others will be stranded within minutes as they finish of the wounded u joint.
I must admitt I've learned to drive around this design flaw in my 3 m series sleds and rarely notice it. Durning demo rides last Dec. almost all the riders I was out with new to cat or M series complained about the slop. Two of the riders I rode with bought 1000's and 3 chain cases between them, and frankly I am suprised they got over 500 miles out of the system the way ther were hammering the sleds. The 5 or 6 broken cases on the 07/08 I've looked at with my dealer all appeared to suffer gear damage, broken teeth, what let go first? No sign of hotbearings ?
Several of the M7's that ran out of oil or got too much water in them two years ago had spun bearings in the cases and then some munched sun gears.
And maybe it is the oil? I've run everything but hand lotion in mine experimenting, over 10,000 miles accumulative on three sleds with the planetary gears wizzing around. Issues.....yes leaking.......all three, installed vent lines on all three, new seals on two, haven't tried the gasket kit yet........that seems to be dealer elusive. With the clutch bolt center drilled and on some the clutch bolt threads shaved, some how its seems you still build pressure in there ? Many of these sleds show no oil weeping on the garage floor durning the week, even a quick glance at the already black plastic clutch area no super obvious oil weeping, pull the secondary, not GOOD, pull the secondary out on the trail durning hard riding and you have a better chance of finding the leak.......they leak when riding and?? building pressure in the case. I've seen it leaking around the case screws, the shaft seal, pushing up around the reverse shift shaft and sometimes the case is just covered in a fine black oily fuzz and hard to find any one spot even with leak detector.
The biggest problem with the leaking chain case ( besides the eventual failure of the case without lubrication) is how massively the oil screws up the clutching and the number of m series riders struggling with clutching and heating clutches etc etc, when no point in really even worring about adjusting belt deflection until you stop the oil leak. 14 m sleds at christmas in cat shop for service, 9 with leaking chain cases, 2 complaining about oil drip, all in complaining about belt life, lack of rpm and overall performance.
Now.....the upside for cat is they sold a boat load of new kevlar!! The upside for dealers on top of paperwork is they had a LOT of warrantly work to keep busy with. The downside is there are still a lot of m series sleds out there with greasy clutch's.
One of the unfortunate design characteristics of the planetary drive system in the DD drive is an unusual amount slack in turning your secondary forward and backwards. In sleds with chain drive systems, this much slop or slack was annoying, caused chain failures and most owners quickly adjusted this slop out of the system with their chain adjuster.
My observation watching many m series riders, when taking off.....if the rider has the habit of slamming into that planetary gear slop, before long they will be down at the cat shop with a broken gear case. Its like being out in the hills and discovering the rear u joint is on its last legs in your pickup, some guys will gently take up that slack, finish the day in the woods and put in a new U joint on Monday nite. Others will be stranded within minutes as they finish of the wounded u joint.
I must admitt I've learned to drive around this design flaw in my 3 m series sleds and rarely notice it. Durning demo rides last Dec. almost all the riders I was out with new to cat or M series complained about the slop. Two of the riders I rode with bought 1000's and 3 chain cases between them, and frankly I am suprised they got over 500 miles out of the system the way ther were hammering the sleds. The 5 or 6 broken cases on the 07/08 I've looked at with my dealer all appeared to suffer gear damage, broken teeth, what let go first? No sign of hotbearings ?
Several of the M7's that ran out of oil or got too much water in them two years ago had spun bearings in the cases and then some munched sun gears.
And maybe it is the oil? I've run everything but hand lotion in mine experimenting, over 10,000 miles accumulative on three sleds with the planetary gears wizzing around. Issues.....yes leaking.......all three, installed vent lines on all three, new seals on two, haven't tried the gasket kit yet........that seems to be dealer elusive. With the clutch bolt center drilled and on some the clutch bolt threads shaved, some how its seems you still build pressure in there ? Many of these sleds show no oil weeping on the garage floor durning the week, even a quick glance at the already black plastic clutch area no super obvious oil weeping, pull the secondary, not GOOD, pull the secondary out on the trail durning hard riding and you have a better chance of finding the leak.......they leak when riding and?? building pressure in the case. I've seen it leaking around the case screws, the shaft seal, pushing up around the reverse shift shaft and sometimes the case is just covered in a fine black oily fuzz and hard to find any one spot even with leak detector.
The biggest problem with the leaking chain case ( besides the eventual failure of the case without lubrication) is how massively the oil screws up the clutching and the number of m series riders struggling with clutching and heating clutches etc etc, when no point in really even worring about adjusting belt deflection until you stop the oil leak. 14 m sleds at christmas in cat shop for service, 9 with leaking chain cases, 2 complaining about oil drip, all in complaining about belt life, lack of rpm and overall performance.
Now.....the upside for cat is they sold a boat load of new kevlar!! The upside for dealers on top of paperwork is they had a LOT of warrantly work to keep busy with. The downside is there are still a lot of m series sleds out there with greasy clutch's.
