I’m new to the Gem world. I have a 99 2 seater and compaired to my EZGO the gear whine on the pull is out of this world. It is silent on the coast. Is this normal. I drained the oil and replased it with 90 weight. The oil was dark but there were no metal particles.
Is this whine normal, whats the cure. It’s impossible to listen to the radio.
Early GEMs had noisier gears. This is usually improved by putting in 90W gear oil. Have never tried the 140W oil like I use in railroad equipment. Heavy stuff.
Daniel
Hmmmmmmmmm I might try that Going to try the cork bit first.
Ok the cork helped. 140 SAE is on the list next. Then W/cork. Will report back later.
What is meant by “cork”
Means to add cork to quiet the gears.
I changed the oil 10 SAE 140 Gear oil and added Cork - not silent, but now in the liveable range.
80 square inches 1/16 cork gasket material cut up in 1/4 " squares. (added in 2 doses of 40 square inches) Might add another dose later.
Ok added 3rd dose. It’s as good as it’s gonna get. Big reduction in noise under power, no letoff noise, and no noise in coast. Happy happy happy.
Wow - forgive me for saying so but adding cork to the transmission to quiet it is NOT something I’d care to do.
I’d think the cork would get quickly chewed up by the transmission and almost certainly plug up any internal oil circulation holes. Think I’d go with the heavier oil and live with the noise.
The cork gets chopped up so fine it passes thru anything. This is a simple differential not an engine with small passages. The 140 oil with the cork is what did the job.
[quote=ARandall;18514]Wow - forgive me for saying so but adding cork to the transmission to quiet it is NOT something I’d care to do.
I’d think the cork would get quickly chewed up by the transmission and almost certainly plug up any internal oil circulation holes. Think I’d go with the heavier oil and live with the noise.[/quote]
Understand that the cork eventually gets pulverized. Having never take apart the transmission, I can’t say for sure that it does or doesn’t have any oil distribution lines to get plugged. OTOH if the cork gets chopped that fine, then I guess I don’t see what it does except to make the transmission oil more “sludge-like”. Like I said, not something I’d want to do to my GEM - I’d rather live with a bit more noise.
Check the input shaft for play. It’s not a hard thing to check or replace the bearings. I do not think cork is a good idea. Some of the bearings are open bearings that require oil.
If you have oil at the input shaft(on the outside) you better replace the seal too. Big o ring. Part number are listed in earlier posts.
Terry
I replaced the motor and input shaft bearings and rubber plug.
Changing to 140 gear oil and adding 120 sq inches of 1/16 cork cut to 1/4 inch squares (In 3 doses) reduced audible gear noise over 50%.
These units don’t have small internal passages and the cork ends up being ground to miniscule size. Ground cork has been used to quiet differentials since the advent of the automobile.