How exactly do you diagnose your clutches?

[Heliarc]

I have an 88 EZ-GO marathon and I am suspecting that one or both of my clutches may be on the way out. Completely gutless up a hill, yet I remove the rear cover and watch the CVT while going up a hill and it is in fact in low ratio. I can watch the drive clutch and the belt, and the belt seems to be moving much slower than it should be as if the drive clutch is slipping.

At high speed I get a vibration through the whole cart as well.

I've had the cover plate off, but you can hardly see jack in there. So, what's the rules to determine if I need a new clutch? The engine itself is a fresh rebuild and runs great. I've put on a shorter drive belt as instructed by members of BGW. I don't want to chuck money at this thing, I want to fix it properly.

[jtkaaa07]

Is the primary clutch releasing all the way? if so I would look into secondary clutch spring, maybe stretching it out will help , also I like to put a dry film lube on the internals of my secndary, and make sure it has a cover on it to keep dirt out. Mine was doing this last week, and it ended up being my pimary clutch, spring was shot, so I put a comet clutch on it, and holy crap it grabs now! In my opinion the factory style clutch was a bad design, to many parts to wear out, but remember these carts were never intendid to be performance vehicles. I love the Comet clutch, it's a great upgrade,they are well worth the $200 trust me

[Heliarc]

Yea, it's shifting all the way down but for some reason it's gutless on a hill. I had some smoke come off the belt once and I'm sure the belt is slipping. I'm a hairs width away from jumping on a nice Duster for it but I need some way to confirm if it's the clutch and which one it would be.

As old as this cart is and as hard as it was run(the main crank bearings literally fell apart when I tore the engine down)I'd bet the clutch is shot, I'm just not willing to bet $200.

Also the cheapest I can find a Comet is almost $400. If I knew for a fact this was the problem I'd go for it but $400 is too much for even an educated guess.

[Heliarc]

Need answers guys. Do I have to go to Buggies Unlimited?

[rusty shackel]

in the primary there is a stuck arm that is the vibration and part of you problem

rustys

[Heliarc]

Thank Rusty. Does that mean a new clutch or is there a way to get in there and knock it loose? I can hardly slip a screwdriver in once the cover is off.