Herman -
Sorry but have to disagree about belt drive noise, the PB installed chain drive (and BB mount) on a red m3w I have at the moment is much more noisier than the belt on my Orange m3w.
And the mess the required lubrication makes......
And lubricating the chain 500-1000 km? Bit of a pain if your on a 3000km tour...such as the Morocco tour?
Look forward to seeing a solution to the BB issue, although always was under the impression that in gearboxes too much oil = more friction = increase in temperature??
I have driven many m3w's where the BB is quiet - no issue, so not sure the current thinking about increasing oil capacity is the answer when there are many m3w's that do not suffer from BB noise with standard oil quantities. Might be something I'll try with increasing capacity as a quick trial as my Orange m3w's BB screams...
We have tried adding various additives to the std 300ml oil capacity - nothing really made much difference to our m3w's so saved the money and just used std viscosity.
BB mount - again the NVH kit works in most cases - I have only had 1 NVH kit that caused problems (banging on hard acceleration) that couldn't be resolved - although this was a dealer retrofitted NVH kit not a factory fitted one so probably wasn't fitted correctly....and the PB BB mounts aren't a perfect answer as I have experienced on 2 x m3w's..
If your worried about weight then fit a Supermax sprocket - 20000 kms and still okay on my orange car and it gets a hard life...
MMC have
only just started using chain drive on the Super 3, probably for 2 main reasons:
1/ its cheaper than a belt to install.
2/ to eradicate the belt squeal noise which is probably due to poorly engineered BB/swing arm alignment in manufacturing which cannot be 'dialled' out by adjusting rear wheel alignment.
So the S3 squealing issues are nothing to do with the belt itself. And its a different Bevel Box to the 5 speeder by another manufacturer - Graziano(?) - so can't see that 2 different world renowned companies have designed and manufactured the BB poorly and not taking into account the belt pressure?
Just out of interest - does the fitting of chain drive to S3's mean the S3 owners have to take the S3 into a dealer every 1000km's for chain lubrication or is there a chain oiler fitted ? If not, is chain covered by MMC warranty? Just interested really.
Please keep us all up to speed on the BB investigation - be interested in any feedback regarding your reconditioned BB to see if it makes a difference on a
belt driven m3w.
All the best
Steve
