Well...drastic CVT failure it seems! I don't think they have established exactly what - they seemed mostly keen to establish that the failure wasn't anything to do with the work they did at the recall.... Must have been quite a catastrophic failure as the system is completely seized, and could have been pretty dangerous if it happened at high speed in traffic. Looks like they should have done the CVT upgrade as well!

This is all depressing. I have been half heartedly looking for a newish tmax for a few months. I did have a mk4 but I sold that back in 2014, after reading of problems with the final belt drive front pulley, on Tmax mania website. Water was getting in and causing problems. I'm now thinking I might stick with my old mk2 with the chain drive.
And how can they now start having problems with the cvt side after 16years or so of being trouble free ? Surely it must be something to do with the front pulley on the other side again

I suppose you have to ask why did Yamaha bugger about and change the well proven original and much better set up of rear internal chain.

Anything internal and protected and safe from muck and mess and chippings etc is better than external as a rule.

A quick very rare very easy oil change in the final drive part was all that was needed on the old set up too.

No tensioning or alignment etc etc etc. Wheel out and back in is a doddle on the older version too as a further bonus.

I can`t see its just coincidence , Bike in with no real drive issues, a few miles down the road after they fiddle with it a catastrophic failure occurs.

Hope they are going to sort it properly as a very important set up back there.

Liam wrote: Thu Mar 07, 2019 11:54 pm
And how can they now start having problems with the cvt side after 16years or so of being trouble free ? Surely it must be something to do with the front pulley on the other side again

Well, Yamaha do continuously change (they'd say improve) every component, even during the life of a particular version, and especially between versions. The number of interchangeable parts between a mk6 and mk4 is tiny - the front wheel, and maybe parts of the bottom end of the engine. I get the impression that Yamaha tried to increase performance of the mk6 by optimising every part , tuning & lightening every part, but have appear to have got caught out in that some things aren't strong enough. Eg is the rear drive belt on the mk6 is half the width of the mk4 & 5 (thus lighter) but they'v obviously found that they needed to swap it for a stronger one. But it is amazing to ride (when its going). Maybe the early ones, as a brand new concept, were a bit over engineered to be on the safe side.
Still think the final belt drive is a complete waste of time with no percievable benefits at all compared to the old wet-chain drive.

Oh no...won't get rid of it. Its so amazing to ride....when its working. This is the only problem, though there are some quirks. If I did, the question would arise of what I'd replace it with (assuming I'd enough money to buy again). Maybe the Kymco AK550, if they still exist, especially as there is a Kymco dealer quite close. The latter may be important, as there are few Yamaha dealers around than there used to be, and its turning out to be right pain without a dealer nearby. Since Tillstons stopped, my only choices are York and Bedlington(!). York is obviously within reach, but fighting through the horrific traffic to actually get to Jax's from the bypass is a pain.

Where is the Kymco dealer in the NE Mr G ?

I know threres on in Driffield ?

Last time I looked, Marshalls of Eston were a Kymco dealer - though I think they are perhaps more interested in off-road bikes (and deal in cars as well).

Correction, they don't seem to be any anymore! Well, that's Kymco off the list - no dealer in reach at all!

I had the recall work done....its only a small Yamaha dealer and the mechanic doesn’t work on a Saturday in the winter,so couldn’t actually speak to him to find out what he did or didn’t do with respect to the recall work as i also had the annual service done as well,on the service receipt it says Drive belt recall carried out,updated ECU under warranty....i had about a 50 mile ride after i left the dealer and all seems well,although MrGrumpys problem was fresh in my mind...

Steve

Stephen wrote: Sun Mar 10, 2019 8:58 am .i had about a 50 mile ride after i left the dealer and all seems well,although MrGrumpys problem was fresh in my mind...

Just think what will happen when I get it back! Everytime I feel a vibration or something odd happens I'll be wondering if the CVT is about to seize!
I think there was an underlying issue with the CVT anyway - whether changing the drive belt prompted it to actually fail or whether it was pure coincidence is a very interesting question.....After all, all they did was change the belt, requiring a couple of bolts to be loosened and the pinions moved. Maybe the change to the belt changed the stress patterns back through the system into the CVT? I've no idea.