Sunl SL50QT-16 : Resto-Mod

[90GTVert]

I need em for turn signals. I leave them off other than the seat/fender when I'm tuning the carb, but it's fine now and I can get to the CVT just fine with 'em on. People ignore me enough when I use blinkers, don't wanna try without em. Besides that, this thing is ugly when it's all together. It would scare away mice without em.

[90GTVert]

Got it all back together and took it out for a bit. I only went 30 miles (40 degrees is cold. lol I was wondering how I used to ride in the 30s every night and never cared). Max speed, 45MPH. Basically full travel on the vari. There's just barely a mark left. The Naraku is 1MPH faster right now and it's got more travel left, so I think I might see if anything can be done with it.

[lshigham]

It is indeed cold. It was 36F when I left this morning, I didn't feel in the slightest bit cold on my return journey!

[90GTVert]

I modded the vari a bit today hoping for more travel. Here's what is left of the marks I made on it to check the belt travel.



I was trying to "extend" the ramps by removing some materieal to let the rollers/sliders open the variator farther.



I started by using a small hacksaw to cut the lines that would be the outer edges of a track.



I used a file to remove material between the two cuts.



I was afraid the sharp edge might damage or wear the sliders/rollers...



...so I smoothed out the edges a bit.



Repeated 5 more times.



Marked the variator's face.



I ended up getting to 47MPH tonight, almost back to where I was. The belt is getting very close to the edge of the vari now. The top mark is the latest one. The mark on the right is what was left when I went a little faster.



I think I'm gonna cut the grooves just a tiny bit deeper. Belt travel is good on the rear pulley. Beyond that, I think I just need ot get my tune spot on and maybe I'll finally see 50?

[190mech]

Have you swapped back to the stock tranny gears yet?Looks like you are close to getting all you can out of the vari !!

[90GTVert]

I swapped back to the stockers shortly after putting the Naraku gears in. It was obvious they didn't increase top speed like everyone says.

I'm gonna put some dyna beads in the rear tire too. It has a bad vibration from 40MPH to the top speeds I've seen so far. I don't know that it will help, but it can't hurt. The only bad thing is that I use the vibrations as a speedometer since my Sigma has no lights.

wwwaaa.......wwwaaa......wwwaaa.....wwwaaa is about 40MPH.
wawawawawwawawawawawawa is top speed.

[2strokd]

:rofl: HEy. I like the vari mod!!!! :thumb:
I was filing mine down for longer ramps(all sho some pics) but i like your idea. Lots faster and easier :cheers: .

[90GTVert]

It does make me wonder if the rollers/sliders will wear faster on that edge. Time will tell. 30 miles later, they look OK. At this point, if I ruin a vari and a set of sliders it's fine... as long as I get to 50MPH. Not that I wanna screw anything up, but it's a learning experience.

[90GTVert]

I put dyna beads in the rear tire. Either I'm wrong about which wheel is out of balance or the dyna beads did mostly nothing. Pretty sure it's the rear. I feel the vibration in the seat, the floorboards, and nearly everywhere, but it isn't bad in the handlebars. That should mean a rear wheel out of balance. I might put beads in the front tire just for the hell of it.

I mentioned making the cutouts a little larger earlier. This pic shows the difference between before and after. I spent even more time straightening and rounding edges once I had them all cut this time.



I rode for 70 miles last night, and the sliders aren't showing wear too bad. The DrPulley sliders show no actual wear, just black marks. The sliders from ScrappyDogScooters do have very mild wear on the edge where they meet the cutout. I would say the Scrappy sliders are a little subpar in comparison to the DrPulley sliders, although in normal circumstances they have held up very well.



I did finally manage to cover the whole face of the variator. The only thin black mark left is where the outer edge is beveled so the belt can't hit it. The belt does ride in the center as well, but because of it's angle it doesn't rub the marker off of the very inside.



So what was the result?!?



So close. 49.01MPH. The revs weren't terribly high at that speed, so I'd like to decrease slider weight, but I don't have far to go. I am using 4.75g now. 4.5g is the lightest I have. I guess I'll try the 4.5g and if that doesn't do much of anything I'll up the contra stiffness and retune the weights to get where I think I need to be. 0.99MPH has never seemed like so much.

I can definitely say this is harder with so much weight. Of course power is a big concern, but I really have to get the trans in tune so it will be in the right rev range when I need it the most at speed.

[2strokd]

Sooooo close !!!!
Thanks for the update and pics of the sliders. I was wondering how well they would hold up, and if they were gonna get a notch in them.
Cool! Also thanks for telling us how the scrappy version holds up.
I didnt expect them to be anything like Dr.P,s sliders.

Here are some pics of the vari i started to mod for more weight travel.

This way takes forever tho

Here is a pic of were i started to grind the inside out so the weights would go further in. Not sure if thats a good idea or not.?.

[stepthrutuner]

One advantage of running heavier weights and a stiffer contra has to be less belt slippage. I guess this is the only way to limit slippage on very powerful, highly tuned scooters?

[stepthrutuner]

I'm sure you've checked your tire for roundness.

[90GTVert]

Nice work on the variator Robert! That looks way harder than what I've done, but it should be a lot easier on your weights. I don't think you need to go as extreme as I have by cutting out the walls unless you also go nuts filing the variator halves in the center. I think when I really filed both halves down, it made the belt shift up too high too early and killed the revs enough that it didn't wanna finish shifting. I may be way off, but that's waht it acted like. Ever since I filed it down the revs are good at first and then drop.

Belt slip has not been an issue with this thing since I switched to good belts. Right now it's a 1K contra 4.75g sliders. I used to think the contra was all about getting the trans to downshift faster. The more I mess with it, the more I'm thinking it's more about controlling slip. I've used stock contras and when accompanied by lighter weights they will work just fine. I've used stiff contras with heavier weights and got basically the same results. We tend to think that stiff spring is gonna force the rear pulley shut. Well, yeah... but it's still gotta counteract the force of the weights... which are heavier to get the same revs with the stiff spring. The more I learn, the less I feel like I know.

No, I haven't checked the tire for roundness. My only experience with out of round tires (to my knowledge) has been on cars. With them, it's usually really bad at slow speeds and improves as speed increases. This never starts till 40MPH. I don;t think my beaten and banged up steel wheel helps a whole lot.

[190mech]

Glad to see youre almost there!!
What will you do next once you hit 50mph,go to Bonneville? ;D

[90GTVert]

lol I was thinking relax and ride... unless they make an underpowered fatass division. I may never get that last MPH though. We'll see. The sad part is, it's still only good for about 40MPH cruising. I guess I could go back to the Naraku gears for more reliable cruise speeds. I really don't care about long distance tucked speeds other than for the purpose of this goal. Besides, this thing really doesn't feel safe at speed. Remember, my brakes feel inadequate in town at 25-35MPH. It's got the smallest drum and a heavy rider. At 45MPH I pretty much feel like I'm screwed if anything happens. I saw a few deer on the side of the road last night and thought, "well, I guess this is it". :scared: Luckily, they stayed put.