The CVT nut from hell: Air Impact Wrench advice

Posts: 3 · Newbie Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 3 Pictures: 0

To all out there that have had trouble removing the CVT & clutch retaining nuts, I feel your pain!

After my new roller weights and 1500rpm spring arrived from the US (I live in Western Australia), I duly set about completing the supposed 1 hour job to fit the new parts.
Got the exhaust and CVT cover off easily enough, although I found that Kinroad (150 Sahara) had kindly stripped the retaining bolt holding the exhaust to the redundant kick start spline in the factory.
Rattle gun in hand, I set about removing the 17mm nuts that separated me from performance country....
Knowing my gear and what we've used it for in the past, I didn't expect to have so much drama removing one little nut. 40lbs from factory? Yeah, more like 400lbs. To cut a long story short, the only way to get the CVT nut off was to break blades off the fan and get a nut splitter in there. Even then, the nut was 90% split and it still would not come off! I had to resort to the tricky (and very careful use) of the angle grinder to shave the nut down on one side to within 0.5mm of the thread before I could actually remove it. Believe it or not, the nut came out in one piece using a socket on the rattle gun! Thankfully no damage to the crank or threads either.
The next problem was to find a new CVT fan. Shouldn't be a problem I thought, these engines are fitted to everyting from scooters to quad bikes to buggies. Wrong. I chased all over the place in Perth, no luck any where. The best offer I had was for 6-8 weeks ex China from the wholesaler. The thing that made me laugh was I can get the parts out of the US cheaper and in around 4 days! Not good when I need the buggy for the weekend though and it was already Wednesday. At a last ditch attempt, I heard about a place where some old stock had been sent to auction and hadn't been sold. Lo and behold, I came across a complete brand new GY6 engine & trans, still in the box in the exact same make and model as mine, harbouring exactly the bits I needed!
I exchanged what could be considered a bargain amount of cash for the whole lot and walked away with other various belts and parts as well. You Beauty!
When I dissassembled the new motor for the fan, I encountered another siezed on CVT nut! Doh! I won't repeat the first few words I had to say. In the end, WD40 and the rattle gun won out on the new engine and I removed the nut and fan undamaged.
The rest of the job filled the 1 hour task to do the CVT and was very straight forward. With time running out and another siezed nut on the clutch to overcome (on the new engine and my buggy), I thought it best to do the clutch spring another day.
When I finally do the clutch & siezed nut I'll be using the Snap On cordless rattle gun that puts out more torque than our 3/4" air rattle gun. Hopefully it'll budge without an angle grinder.
I did discover though that the nuts are put on with Loctite in the factory (at least they use Loctite on critical parts) and yes both engines do have washers fitted behind the nuts too.
As already noted in this thread, heat or thread un-locker may be of assistance to get the tight CVT nuts off. Failing that a die grinder, dremel or angle grinder may be needed...
After the weekend, I'll update my review on the Sahara 150 I posted in the Mini Buggy Review section.

Thanks, Karl

Posts: 1005

glad you got it going,i'm sure there was a few Censored!

words going on while working on your buggy. Laughing

i guess you can look at the upside now you have a extra engine,
so you won't have to weight on parts now.
buggy on pud

Posts: 18

Maybe I got REAL lucky, but my '06 Crossfire mod operation(s) went off without even drawing blood - a rarity for me!! I used a DeWalt 18v Impact gun on the fan nut; Had to bust out "Old Faithful" on the clutch- DeWalt DW290 Corded impact gun. Rocked it a few times back-n-forth; came off no muss, no fuss. My cordless is pretty tuff normally; batteries are kinda old though. Just thought I'd throw it out there.