* Trust your black pen marks but, don`t ingnore heat. Since my M7`s I have been moving my secondary in from the factory set-up but only enough to make up for the narrow belt widths we get as new.* * If your front is hotter than the back (check after a short hard run or two before your temps start to equalize), then it is slipping. When inside sheave is the hottest the front is slipping. Because you have a lot of weight doesn`t mean it won`t slip. It can take a lot of torque to SCREW that secondary open quickly. Once it starts to slip it is hard to stop. * Generally the outside thread pulls if your front is slipping because the moveable sheave is the SLIPPING sheave. Leaving half black streak on the sliding half is usually from a very strong backshift signal (maybe too strong a signal, maybe a big hole stopped the track LOL).* Generally the inside threads start to pull if the secondary is slipping, `cause that is the moveable or SLIPPING sheave. The stationary sheave always gets the hottest if that clutch is slipping because it is the one that is not suppose to slip at all.** Checking your alignment while running on the stand will throw you off if your clutching is out because the secondary may be out of the correct gear relative to the front. Same for using the float method.* It`s all about the momentum of shift LOL.* Anyhow getting back to the black pen marks. If you don`t look at the lines for long enough they will always equalize because of backshift.* If your secondary is too stiff (harder to shift out than it needs to be) your black pen marks will always show you need to move the secondary in more because the moveable sheave is on the inside and it is resisting this movement. So, the lines on the front look like the secondary needs to move in. It does but, not the whole clutch assy, just the sliding sheave.* If you mark both clutches it is more obvious but heat is still the best way to check if you have a good balance (which is the most important for the poor little belt LOL) in your clutches. Alignment, within reason, will only pull strings if you run at the top of the primary all the time, for long distances. You can compensate for poor clutch set-up with improper alignment.*
Pulling strings is nothing new to this sport. Even way back when, LOL, every one had floating secondary`s to make up for misalignment.
Sled chassis and engine mounting is way better than the past (so maybe it`s not the problem it was in the old days), but clutching, is still a mystery.
Geo