Chinese scooter eats drive belts for breakfast

To my learned forum friends. In addition to my beloved Swing, I also have a no name Chinese 150cc GY6 (long case) scooter. It is fun around town, and weighs next to nothing. My problem is that it has gone through 5 belts in less than 3000 miles. I've tried Kevlar, and non-Kevlar belts. the best I can get is about 600 miles per belt, and the last belt lasted 30 minutes. I always verify proper direction of belt travel. The drive and driven faces are smooth. I clean the case every time I change the belt.

I do notice that the case gets too hot to touch when the scooter is being ridden. I know that heat destroys, but other than doing a major venting job on the case, I'm at a loss.

Any help would be appreciated.

Have you thought of trading it in for the Honda PCX 150?

Actually, I thought about leaving by the side of the road, but it's too much fun to ride, so I pushed it home. My wife just shook her head at me when she saw me coming.

I'll pull it all apart, and go through all the pieces. Maybe there is a burr, or something that is causing premature belt failure. Wish me luck.

Could be damaged surface on the driver or driven pulley,could be pulley's out of alignment or could be pulley running out of true.

I'll check all those possibilities. Thanks for the ideas!

Darkeswinger: go to http://scootdawg.proboards.com forum. They deal a lot in Chinese scooters and will probably be able to give you a better idea of what the trouble may be. I think they recently actually built a different forum but I don't really frequent there anymore so I'm not sure.

I agree that it sounds like something is not lined up correctly.  You might try taking the variator and clutch off, blow them out with an air compressor and put back together.  I found that the Harbor Freight corded electric impact gun works well to remove the nuts.

My wife has a 50cc GY6, bought new 2 years ago.  This season it started to bog shortly after take off.  I took the variator and clutch off,  I thought maybe I would find the rollers out of round, but they looked fine.  What I did see was that the clutch shoes were glazed.  I scuffed them with 180 grit sandpaper.  Put it back together, problem solved.

The OEM belt was down from 18mm to just under 17mm.  I had bought a Bando Kevlar belt in case I needed to replace, but I am continuing with the old one at 4000km.  The book says replace at 8000km;  hope I don't end up pushing!  I read that Bando and Gates PowerLink are good belts.

Good Luck,

Massachusetts Gary

I'm between houses at the moment, but as soon as I can, I will tear the scoot down, and give it a thorough going through. Fortunately, I have the harbor freight impact tool, and it really is a quick process to get it apart. I will also look on-line for a "junked" scooter for some drive line spares.

Are you using the impact wrench to tighten up as well,if so are you stopping frequently & spinning the variator so that the belt can seat properly,if not this could be the cause of your belt breaking up prematurely,rapid tightening without rotation will cause the belt to be "nipped" between the plates

I did make sure that the belt was not pinched. Then I spun the back tire to make sure that the belt was not pinched in the rear assembly either. It could be that I weigh 215, and I like to drive the scooter like it is a Silver Wing. Oh well, it gives me something to ponder and an excuse to get my hands dirty.

I suggest putting on a new belt, riding it 10 miles, and then taking it apart to inspect the belt.

Repeat as necessary (with increasing mileage if needed to accelerate the process) until you see the damage occurring, and maybe keep doing it after that to see how the damage progresses.

Maybe you'll find a clue as to what kind of damage is happening and where it is coming from.

Could also be cheap belts and not the scooters fault. I had a Chinese 150. It came with a gates belt that had 3200 miles on it when I sold it and still worked fine.

Good thought. I have a cheap chinese rock tumbler that ate belts until I bought a Thumler's tumbler belt. Been going strong ever since.