I bought a 2004 avenger with 125 hours on it. ran it abought 25 hours and the belt started slipping real bad. I looked in the book and it read that once it is 1 5/16" to replace and I did. the new belt was the same width but worked for about ten hours till it started slipping up a steep hill. Is there something wrong with my unit, do I buy the hd belt, or what is going on here? I see people climbing steep hills on youtube all the time why can't I do that? any advise will be appreciated.
Try belt dressing from the auto parts store. I just had the same problem and it worked for me.
I have heard of a couple of those machines that had motor mount issues...if the motor gets loose and the clutches get out of alignment you can have serious belt wear issues...you shouldnt have that kind of wear....i think that the high dollar belt isnt going to fix your problems...id look things over closely first...if you need more info on clutch alignment let me know...
Hope this helps
Originally Posted by mdschweikert
Anything new on this MD?
My thinking is that your belt should NOT slip, and it might be worth while to pull your clutches apart to see if all is well.
Clutch faces should not be "shiney smooth", I dress my clutch faces with "Scotch Bright", it's like pot scrubber material(Not metalic), it takes the shine off the clutch faces and ever so slightly scratches them.
You might want to try loosening/tightening the Secondary Clutch Spring. It may have been adjusted in the past (I don't know what the "stock" setting is for an Avenger........
You say it's slipping on a straight run up hill? Possibly the Secondary is set too loose, upshifting to easily, not downshifting soon enough, could cause the belt to slip in the Primary...........
I've also heard of motor mount and mounting plate problems, but not with the '04, Could be an Alignment problem too.
OR, maybe I'm just thinking too much and the problem is just a couple bad belts:-)
RD
Our 05 has a HI range transmition and would slip when under a load going up hills too, a new belt made it worse. So I took apart & cleaned the secondary clutch and installed a new spring in the #1 slot. It helped out a lot. I had about the 150 hours on it then.
I have a 06 Avenger and here is what i have learned about the machine.
Went riding with some friends right after i bought the machine. Challenge: up the big hill, while the members that i was riding with had max's and a big foot they would get a running start and top the hill. I tried it and could not make it. Belt slipped and back down she went. I was in high gear and thought speed was the way to go...not so. One.. the Avenger is 1150-or 1250 pounds no rider. These machines have two type of trans a low gear and a high gear transmission. I have the high gear. To make a Long story short. Different machine different types of approach to obstacles.
What i learned to do was when climbing a steep hill, i use low gear and as the belt rides up in the clutch for higher ration on the trans it makes it harder to pull so i burp the throttle and allow the belt to drop down into the secondary clutch. I have actually stopped on hills and restated with a little throttle as needed to make the machine pull which keeps the clutches in low ration positions. My machine has pulled with tracks and 4 people in the machine up a hill that had a full pucker factor. One of the passenger was Matt O. While doing this only use enough throttle to keep the machine pulling.
I have since added the new Argo tire. This brings on another problem. Traction verses belt. These tires are aggressive and it becomes a battle of which one is going to give up first. Sometimes the tires win and sometimes the clutch/belt wins. When i have a lot of people in the machine is when this occurs. Position of the passengers makes a difference and how you distribute the load. The 06 Avenger has the two center tires lower in the frame than the front and back. Loading passenger to the rear of the machine makes it harder to take advantage of the pivot point of the center tires. Loading the passengers more toward the drivers seat works best.
When fully loaded i look for assistance form the terrain. Little high spots to pivot on and if there is none i will slow down, back out of the throttle and let the gearing work in my favor.
When i am just by myself or if the wife is riding with me i have a occasional chirp but nothing more than that.
When i had a 2003 Conquest i could do donuts all day long but the tires were Runamucks and had no side bars like the Rawhide III's which is a more aggressive tire and resists lateral movements.
I have a lot of time in my Avenger and it has always pulled through for me but it is not a tank with unlimited power. There is no machine that will do it all and never get stuck....you just have to learn what works and what doesn't for your machine.
Now is this the way it is designed....but it makes sense at least to me. I am lowering the ration on the trans clutch to handle the load on the machine.
I keep the maintenance up on my machine and what i found is that at some time in the past some grease had made it's way to the clutch faces so i keep a watch on that also.
Carb cleaner ensures that the grease is removed and doesn't allow the belt to slip as more pressure is applied. Rd is correct with the scotchbright pads. Shinny is not good and grooves in the clutch is also not a good thing. This can be checked by removing the belt and using a straight edge and looking for worn sections on the face of the clutch.
Sorry for the long story but these are the things that i have found to work through a lot of rides with the machine. So some of these may work for you.
PS: The secondary clutch can also be adjusted by the spring holes to hold it down in the lower ration longer and this will help also. It is like changing the colored spring from a yellow to a red. You get the idea.
Hope this helps some.
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