I went riding today in aplace called Sinker Creek. It's aptly named. I sunk the cat today. didn't kill it or get water in the oil or anything serious. I just flooded the belt housing. I drained it, got about a quart of water out of it. I just couldn't seem to get the belt to dry or keep it dry for some reason. Anyway, when I got home I pulled it apart to check it all out. Man O Man was that thing crudded up. With all the dust that gets in there from desert riding, mix it with water and PRESTO you get something akin to cement. I think that if a person was to do a lot of dirt riding, it would almost be worth it to fabricate some sort of air filter for the tranny. Upon reassembly I found out why the water kept getting into the tranny. There's a gasket under the plastic cover that's on top of the case housing, any way that wasn't quite in place and the water went in through there.

I took some Before cleaning pictures of the clutch and housing cover and some after ones. You can see the crud I'm talking about. Just go to My Pictures that are posted below and have a look see.

 

LMAO, you sure thats the same bike??

 

What did you use to clean that with. That is fantastic!!

 

I went to the local K mart and got some Gunk engine brite. $1.50 a can, used one can. Spray it on, wait 15 minutes and hose it off with water. NO wiping required. I tried Gasoline, Brake cleaner, kerosine, carbureator cleaner. None worked and I was just about to get some easy off oven cleaner or something made to cut heavy grease and oil crud when I spyed the Gunk. Works great. I still had to scrape some of the heavy crud out with a narrow bladed screwdriver. It got out over 90% of the worst of it though.

 

Thats the only thing I don't like about my Auto Cat. Whenever I get my belt wet it also manages to muck up my clutch. I have had my clutch buggered up several times already. After I snorkled my tranny vents I still had a problem with that seal on the inspection cover leaking. I pulled the rubber seal off and goobered it up with RTV. Now I'm getting water in the tranny intake (up under the handlebars) Time for yet another snorkle....... I also discovered that a bolt was missing from the casting from the backside of the clutch housing (tranny vent housing that runs up under the seat) I read that people have been plugging this vent off so I simply removed the other bolts, removed the housing, made a cover out of .125 steel and sealed it up. Hopefully my belt housing is now more water tight.

 

Mike I have wondered what actually os the purpose of the 2 vents at the back of the tranny. I mean 2 vents should be enough, 3 are overkill and 4 is just too many. Afterall the 2 in the back are connected at the case anyway. The vent for those are too low besides. I think your suggestion to seal the inspection cover with RTV is a good one. I can't see what harm it would cause to remove the 2 in the back and blank that off. With the amount of air that the belt moves and the fan blades on teh front pulley sheave I don't think that much water will go down the exhaust if you have the rev's up while going through water.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Minehunter,
Before I removed that vent housing and blocked it off, I checked out the amount of airflow both in and out (used a smoke grenade). I did not find a signifcant amount of airflow either way. The front intake/ exhaust was a different story. They moved a ton of air through the belt housing. If I need to go back to the original set up, no problem I will just pull off the plate and bolt on the stock parts. I agree that a consistent application of the throttle will put out enough pressure to keep water out. When I have had problems is when I get stuck and had too back up or rock back and forth, that will splash water in all sorts of odd places. This last time I managed to run water down the Tranny intake, way up under the plastic in front of the handlebars. Next week I am making a snorkle for this as well.
Mike