V-Matic Service Light

I have just had the Amber V-Matic light come on the bike on a ride home can anyone advise what I need to do here? I have just had a service done and was advised everything is ok. What parts do I need to replace & can the bike still be ridden? I have recently purchased the bike and it came with a 3 month warranty is whatever needs to be fixed covered under this?

Being new to the Silverwing I don't speak with any knowledge.

But!!

Could it be that they simply didn't reset a service light perchance? It may be something you can do yourself after a phone call to them. Just a thought.

Babylonbouy wrote:

I have just had the Amber V-Matic light come on the bike on a ride home can anyone advise what I need to do here? I have just had a service done and was advised everything is ok. What parts do I need to replace & can the bike still be ridden? I have recently purchased the bike and it came with a 3 month warranty is whatever needs to be fixed covered under this?

How many miles do you have on the SWing??

Do you have a J Costa Variator?

In the meantime I would reset the "V" light and see if the continually comes on.

The SWing can still be ridden.

The service light comes on every 16,000 miles which is the factory recommended replacement interval for the drive belt. The light also comes on if the onboard computer senses a difference between speed and RPM which is outside the programmed parameters. For instance, if your belt wears prematurely, or stretches, or if your rollers wear, it will take more RPM to go a given speed. If those RPMs are outside the programmed range, the light will come on.

My scoot is an '02 and I have always had the V-light come on. Mine seems to do it when I accelerate rapidly to about 75 mph. If I gingerly ease the speed up to that range the light won't come on. When I replaced the belt at 14,000 miles the light would not come on. But after some wear (much, much less than the 16,000 miles) the light comes on again around 75 mph. For some reason, my scoot runs at RPMs that are just outside the programmed range for the V-light. Perhaps mine came with rollers that were just a little out of spec to start with.

To reset the light, hold in the mode and reset buttons on the odometer, then turn the key on and continue holding the buttons until the annunciator lights go out (usually about 3-5 seconds) then release the buttons.

Riding with the V-light on is fine. It will not damage the scoot. However, if your mileage is near the belt replacement interval (16,000 - 32,000 - 48,000 etc.) you should replace the drive belt.

Hi Mike,

It almost sounds like you have a J-Costa Variator installed in your scooter. If you ever get a chance it might be well worth your effort to take a look.

DennisB wrote:

Hi Mike,

It almost sounds like you have a J-Costa Variator installed in your scooter. If you ever get a chance it might be well worth your effort to take a look.

I WISH I had a J. Costa! I have the OEM variator. It has been acting this way ever since I bought it 4 years ago with only 1350 miles on it. Next time I change the belt I am going to weigh the rollers.

It does have a J Costa Variator, I did a reset and the light did not come on for the ride to work, can someone let me know whether I should get OEM belt or Kevlar also with the rollers are there different weights what should I be using and can someone give me the part # to order from scootertrap as I sent email to HDL and they replied with call us for help as I live in Aus I was quoted $345 for a OEM belt so ordering from OS will be cheaper even with the conversion. Thanks for your help.

Babylonbouy wrote:

It does have a J Costa Variator, I did a reset and the light did not come on for the ride to work, can someone let me know whether I should get OEM belt or Kevlar also with the rollers are there different weights what should I be using and can someone give me the part # to order from scootertrap as I sent email to HDL and they replied with call us for help as I live in Aus I was quoted $345 for a OEM belt so ordering from OS will be cheaper even with the conversion. Thanks for your help.

http://www.scootertrap.com/SilverWing600.htm

Search for "Mitsuboshi Kevlar Belt"

My light used to come on sometimes when I had my J. Costa installed but only when I was going up a steeper incline. You just need to do what Mike said in order to reset your light. I have the Mitshubishi belt and it seems to do good but I can't really tell if there is a difference. I think it is supposed to not stretch as much as the OEM but I'm not sure reallly. Matt is a great guy to work with at scootertrap.com .

I have the original variator with Dr Pulley weights and it seems to ride a bit smoother but the J. Costa is a great mod. I will probably buy some new pins soon and re-install the J. Costa sometime this winter. I just like to change things around sometimes.

After I had the J Costa variator installed at about 6,000 miles, everything was fine for about 2,500 more miles. Then the amber light came on. The dealer said that the belt needed replacing and since then everything has been fine. But now I wonder if I really needed a new belt. And while I am on the topic, I may be alone in this but I don't think changing the variator really made much of a difference in performance at all. But that should wait for another thread.

Since my J.Costa install this summer, mine has been doing this. I replaced the belt with a Kevlar at the time of the install too. Seems like it happens at least once a tankfull of gas. Not that big a deal on resetting it, just kinda annoying.

My guess - and that is all it is - The J.Costa causes a variance in engine speed (RPM) to vehicle speed (MPH) that is outside of the standard performance parameters. The result is the on-board computer (ECM) detects the variance and sets the light to ON. This makes sense since the J.Costa does result in a different performance profile from the stock variator.

Again this is just a guess on my part. I have not collected or used any empirical/objective data to arrive at this conclusion.

Again another guess - but, this explanation might explain MikeH's problem as well. Although my guess might be some additional wear in the variator on his bike as I know he rides two-up quite a bit. Dang friction and mechanical devices.

Does the Mitsuboshi Kevlar Belt eliminate the belt slapping ?

Erniel

Erniel,

Welcome back!

The new belt eliminates the slap, but over time the nature of physics being what they are - the belt wears (or stretches) or the conditions present themselves such that the belt slap may return.

I notice the noise most when I accelerate slowly, I don't notice the noise often.

My V-matic light also just came on. I installed the Dr. Pulley Sliders about 3 months ago and have put on 1000 miles in that time. My RPM's were lowered by about 400 from stock. But now, sometimes the bike is revving higher than it should and than at times it is fine. It is rather sporadic (back & forth). I don't know if the sliders have re-oriented or if it is a belt issue. I have Monday off from school and will take a look. I will also state that I should have the newer Dr. Pulley slider that was supposed to not suffer from reorientation so we'll see. I'll report back Monday.

Okay.... Swing is back up and running at proper RPM and I've reset the V-Matic indicator and it also has stayed off so problem solved. The first thing I did after pulling off tupperware and covers was to start the bike and see if the belt was riding up to the top of the pulley and the belt did not. This told me that the issue was in the variator itself and not the belt. Once I pulled the variator off, I checked the sliders and they had not re-oriented/flipped or were in any way repositioned which I was kind of happy to see. What I did find, however, was a large amount of clutch dust that was compacted in the crevices of the variator. This was causing some of the sliders not to ride to the top of the ramp plate which would explain the increase in RPM and the belt not riding to the top of the pulley. The fix...........I used brake cleaner, a tooth brush, and a tooth pick (to removed compacted residue from corners that could not be removed with tooth brush) and thoroughly cleaned the variator. I then got a little crazy and got the dremel tool out with a polishing bit and some Simichrome and polished the faces of the variator where the sliders ride up just a bit. I bought a dry lube made by Dupont in a spray can and sold at Lowes and applied it to both the ramps and faces that the sliders come into contact with. Voila!!!! Bike is as good as ever. I believethis problem is most likely to occur with the Dr. Pulley Sliders as their is more surface area contacting the variator faces resulting in increased friction but probably not impossible with rollers either. This is something to check out if your V-Matic indicator pops on for no apparent reason AND... your RPM's have increased.

What is the advantage of the kevlar belt sold by Scooter Trap as the
cost is 80% more than the stock belt.

Erniel

Erniel wrote:

What is the advantage of the kevlar belt sold by Scooter Trap as the cost is 80% more than the stock belt.

The only advantage I saw with the Scooter Trap kevlar belt was that it never had any belt slap ... though my original OEM belt belt slap disappeared after a little while.

The Scooter Trap kevlar belt say to replace at same interval as OEM belt ... so it does not provide longer life per their recommendations.

Comparing the maximum mileage of the the belts from different owners would not be an exact apples-to-apples comparison ... because there are multiple factors driver characteristics, variator changes ... etc.

I agree with Ron and have repeated the results, this fix does work.

For those that use the DrPulley sliders and you are having the V-light come on after or during some spirited riding it signals what Ron has described in his post at the top of this page. I found the same compacted dust build up then did a thorough cleaning and it is fine now. I used the Dupont lube when I first installed the sliders and agree that it makes everything smooth. Thanks Ron!

As noted earlier, I have the j-costa (which I didn't feel made that much of a difference) and my v-belt light comes on all the time. I stopped worrying about it a long time ago since it doesn't seem to mean much of anything. I had a new OEM belt put on the first time the light came on, about 4,000 miles ago, but now I just ignore the light. Have fun riding your SW and don't sweat the small stuff.

My v-matic light came on at 16,000, I replaced it at 20,000 and reset the light. you just "Twist Lift and Fly" with the new belt. it felt new again. I used the Honda Belt.

I went for a ride a couple days ago and watched the v light come on at exactly 16000 just as it was supposed to. I havn't pulled the cover off to see if the belt is o.k. yet as I feel it should run to 20000 with no problem. I did re set the light though. Before I make any long trips this next spring I will check it though. My question is....is there a pictoral on this forum for changing the belt?
Old Dave in Western Nebraska USA

DaveR wrote:

My question is....is there a pictoral on this forum for changing the belt?

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