After spending some time with the X-Man to get a better
idea of what this issue entails have is an explanation of what is happening in
our oiling system:
The oil pump currently delivers oil to an orifice under the rear cylinder at the
base of the crankcase in an oil galley that is literally a recessed set screw
(part no. 3299-0008) with a .040 hole in the middle of it; it doesn't look like
much and you wouldn't know what and where it is unless someone pointed it out to
you. Oil passes through this orifice into the oil galley and bushing holder
holding the Input Shaft Bearing and the start of this shaft holds the fifth gear
cluster. The center of the Input Shaft Assembly is hollow to transfer this
pressurized oil to the gears and clutch and second Output Shaft Assembly through
a secondary oil galley located across the way on the primary cover side in a
plate called the Cassette Plate Assembly (sorry but my Parts Catalog is revision
3 and has no part number for this part).
However, because it is a pressurized system it has to push the oil to the end of
the run, before enough pressure is achieved at the beginning of the run (the
beginning of the run is the fifth gear cluster). If you were to take a drinking
glass with a hole in it and drew water from your faucet, but the water pressure
in your house did not allow you to top off the glass because the hole kept
evacuating just enough water that no matter how much you tried the water never
quite filled water to the top of the glass, this would be similar to what we are
dealing with inside the transmission. Although like the top of the glass the tap
water passed by it first, in our case the fifth gear cluster, the oil is not
achieving enough pressure in its end run, where oil and oil pressure then starts
building up and pushing oil back to the beginning of the run (or fifth gear).
The clutch is getting too much oil from the orifice supplying its needs leading
to one of the reasons our clunking into first gear on a cold start results.
Also, the reason we blip the throttle to get into neutral easier is caused by an
abundance of oil in the clutch plates that increased engine r.p.m.s slings off
the plates. One of the upgrades is reducing the size of the bushing orifice
delivering oil to the clutch thereby reducing excess oil to the clutch, which
should lead to two things: 1) easier shifting and getting into neutral 2)
allowing the pressure to travel back to its beginning and therefore aiding in
the oil delivery to the fifth gear cluster. Also just off to the side of the
clutch assembly is long oval slot leading to the engine cavity where the oil
puke hose is attached. Since there is too much oil on the clutch it is
constantly being slung at this slot.
Another upgrade it to replace the current gear cluster bushings with oil
impregnated bushings to give the oil delivery system a head start and for better
longevity.
The Retaining Rings are being replaced with a closed Retaining Clip versus the
typical open sided snap ring.
There are two roller bearings in the transmission, one has a washer it abuts to
that is larger than its outside diameter allowing oil injected into to fill the
roller bearing cavity (from an orifice in the shaft), the other abuts a washer
approximately its size letting oil travel around it versus forcing into the
roller bearings this washer is being replaced with a larger diameter washer.
How the factory tried to increase the back flow of oil and pressurize the fifth
and fourth gear clusters:
Starting with Super X serial number 1740 they increased the size of the set
screw (part no. 3299-0008) orifice from .040 to .060 in an attempt to deliver
more oil to the system. This also brings up a very good reason to replace the
Scavenge Pump Coupling (part no. 3599-0075) because should the factory one fall
apart, as has been the case, its pieces can potentially lodge into the orifice
and there in only one orifice supplying the oil! Another good reason to change
oil frequently along with your oil filter.
In addition Super X's starting with the serial number of 1747 had the Oil
Pressure Relief Valve (part no. 3599-0056) increasing oil pressure to 60 lbs.
Plans were to pursue increasing pressure to the entire oil delivery system, but
that was then and this is now. I for one prefer a system delivering a higher
volume of oil at lower pressure versus a higher pressure system because of
potential gasket leaking and hey it's a big V-Twin and I would like to keep
things as simply as possible.
I was shown where X-Man products are manufactured and introduced to an engineer
working with the X-Man on the transmission issue. The shop is quite impressive
producing high-end aerospace parts. I have posted pictures of the shop in the
PHOTOS section.
