Maintenance & Technical > KX500 Original
ATF as Gear Lube
Hillclimb#42:
Thumbs down to the ATF. I tried it in both bikes, 250 and 500. Both bikes have had trouble with tranny. (Transmission not a he-she :lol:) I had the 250 try to seize and the 500 actually did. My kx tech said that the kx stock clutch plates are aluminum and that causes alot of oil contamination. That the transmission in a kx needs oil changed alot to minimize problems along with changing to steel plates. The gears can actually seize right on the shaft without proper lubrication. Too coincidental for me to think the atf had no part it in it.
The 250 was stuck in gear after a crash, and eventually freed itself. The 500 seized while warming it up, staging for a near vertical hill climb. I was in neutral giving the Waaang, bang, bang, bang.... then screech. She lurched forward and died all the while in neutral. I could only push it around if I pulled in the clutch lever. Cost 225 to split cases and fix it. Thats enough experimenting for me with that. Also would like to add the note, Stewart is not an ATF fan. Wish I would have noticed that before hand. Well back to 10w30 for me.
Jeeks:
How often did you change the tranny fluid?
I've been using ATF in my KX250's since 98 and have not had one iota of a problem. I'm pretty hard on the tranny too. I buy ATF type F by the case and change it about every 2-3 rides which calculates to about 5 hours of running time.
If you changed from 10-30 to ATF, you should have changed it on very short intervals to clean out the residual 10-30 before running the ATF for any long period of time.
hughes:
--- Quote from: Hillclimb#42 on May 13, 2008, 04:46:19 AM --- Bought some type F. Ready to try it out on my k5 and 250. I have trouble with them both, when I want to shift to neutral. They want to go 2nd to first , first back to second, I can hardly get them into neutral without killing the motor. The 250 wants to go to neutral only when I don't. My engine builder said he puts a stronger spring in them to hold them in gear better, so maybe thats the deal. My size 13's have no trouble shifting thru the gears otherwise, but I'm hoping the ATF is going to be the trick. I 'm also kinda hoping to get a few more r's out of them, as it seems the motor would run a little more free.
PS. Noone else I've talked to has ever heard of using it in anything, but 50 auto's. Dare to be different, I'll let you know of the results.
Results update. Shifts smoother, goes into neutral easy. I only put it into the 250. The 500 will be getting it for next race. It likes to pull some when in gear and clutch is in. We'll see if it helps that too.
--- End quote ---
From reading this post it appears you had issues already inside your tranny other than the spring that the engine builder may have installed. ATF didn't cause your failure.
Hillclimb#42:
Maybe not, but the gear did seize on the shaft, and I changed every time I rode more than an hour, and every other hill climb. Same when I ran the oil. My guy said it was full of crap, and I had less than 20 hours on the bike since complete rebuild. I'm actually shocked at the results myself. I personally also saw a heavy coating of carbon on top of piston. We run 6 bikes on the same fuel with no carbon after a year or two of riding. Its jetted stock and runs awesome. My kx expert gave me the same lecture of changing oil frequently, and didn't really say ATF was bad, just that motorcycle transmission oil is better. And he's the one who had to press the gear off the rod or whatever.
I could use the same arguement that I have ran oil for several years with no transmission trouble. And I do not know if it was already there or if it was the mixing of the two. It just seems hard to imagine that it works so much better and seized on the shaft after putting probably the third or fourth qt in it since swapping, It could also be the type of racing that I'm doing. Warm up, pin it for 4-12 seconds and park it. I doubt that many of your rides are that way. It would no doubt do my bikes a favor to ride them longer.
Noone else had transmission problems or did and think its from something else other than trans lube?
Jeeks:
You hillclimbers are supposed to be on the forefront of invention. :-D
Maybe have the tranny/gear/shaft modified to accept a oil grooved bushing or even a roiller bearing? :?
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