Yamaha Drive Differential Failure

[YDrive]

Originally Posted by dbmachine

Since you have it apart do you mind taking a picture of the governor fork? I've never seen what it looks like on the inside of the transaxle. I hear horror stories of the governor fork falling down into the transaxle and the little weights that are attached to it.

DB I almost forgot, I did take a few pics of the governor fork for you.

[dbmachine]

I'm scratching my head wondering what the governor fork touches that limits top speed

[YDrive]

I believe how it works is that governor fork sits up against the backside of the collar on the input shaft.

Then the weights are shaped like "L"s and when they fly out due to the centripetal force they push up the collar and in turn push the governor fork. Essentially the fork goes around the shaft where the arrow is below.

If this is wrong, anyone feel free to correct me.

[dbmachine]

Gotcha. Threw me off with the input shaft removed from its proper location in the pics. Thanks for your time.

[YDrive]

Since I had some more time over the long holiday weekend I took a closer look at the various components in the differential.

Aside from the wear on the input shaft collar there is also some noticeable wear on the spider gears as well. The teeth are not worn pointy or anything, but there are some rough patches on the mating surfaces. I have never seen one of these golf cart differentials apart before, but that wear on the surfaces would be cause for concern in a larger rear end.

Based on all this, do any of you guys have any thoughts on putting it back together with Yamaha gear lube and some Lucas and seeing how long it goes for? Between the cost of spider gears and the associated time setting up shims etc, coupled with the input shaft I would be over halfway to a new one.

Any thoughts good or bad about this approach? Or about the spider gear mating surfaces?

[dbmachine]

Personally I would get a complete new transaxle just for the piece of mind. Like you said looks like the fluid was neglected and never changed. You might end of putting it back together then something else have issues. Next would be brakes. No telling how much the brakes were used and from what I understand the brakes can be quite expensive and require another tear down to change. Just bite the bullet and spend the 800$ that way you can maintain it properly and should last you a lot longer than the current did. jmho

[YDrive]

That is what I am leaning towards. I still have a bunch of things I want to do to the cart over winter, so I have to get it mobile again sometime soon.

I might just put this one back together and stick it in since it only takes about an hour. That will give me some time to save a few pennies and get a replacement to swap out early spring next year.

I wonder what some of the old ones that have never been taken apart or serviced look like inside. If this one is showing the signs of early moderate wear, wonder what ones that have been driven for hours per day for 15 years look like inside without oil changes etc. I know they do not all use this setup, maybe they wear better than the Team setups, or maybe people do not know what they have?

[dbmachine]

In 07 yamaha went from g22 model to the g29 drive. Main changes were the clutches by team industries and the team industries transaxle that have the brakes inside for more durability. Fast forward to the middle of 2012.5 and yamaha had enough complaints to switch the clutches back to a similar design from the g22 and earlier. In 2015 yamaha went a step forward and changed the rear end back to the Dana style with external brakes like the g22 and earlier. I guess they learned that change wasn't always a great thing or a way to cut cost one way or the other.

[YDrive]

That is interesting, I knew they had made some changes from the G22's but was unaware they switched back to a similar design to that recently.

I also read up a lot on the clutches before buying and pretty much planned on getting the Plowman setup to alleviate those issues. The differential seems to be fairly well built inside. I imagine if I get a new one and keep good oil in it and change at regular intervals it should last a long time with campground and around the house usage only (no off roading or anything like it).

[dbmachine]

That's right. Clean fresh oil should last you the lifetime of the cart.