360 Auto 1st gear clutch hub

Getting my "new to me" bike ready today for this weekends Vinduro so I pulled the 1st gear shoes to regroove them using a Dremel cutting disc, that all went well and then when I went to refit them and clean up the hub I noticed the inside mating surface has quite a bit of corrosion. I have to assume this would cause the brass shoes to wear quicker or at least cause the grooves to lose their "edge"....so to my question...is it possible to resurface the inside of the hub? Does anyone know if the inner surface has a coating or special finish??
Otherwise I'll trade some blinker fluid for a good used hub.....or Ill pay the going rate for an NOS hub

Next question relates to the "neutral lever" on the LH crankcase, how far should it return under its own means? I have freeplay in the selector cable where it hooks into the RH crankcase lever and therefore the LH crankcase lever moves outwards when the handlebar lever is disengaged, but it feels like the clutch is only 1/2 engaging sometimes and makes a bit of a racket...or is that a symptom of my pitted 1st gear clutch hub?
I fitted a 56T rear and 12T countershaft to gear the bike right down so I can keep the gearbox engaged as much as possible
And yes.... Im running fresh Univis
My only other Auto was a new 430AE that I owned back in the early 90's and I never had to do any auto tranny maintenance on that bike..and from memory once it spooled up and engaged 1st gear it was away and roosting....

The corrosion inside the drum won't help with the wear ! If it were mine, I would be looking for another one soon. I would say it's ok to use for the moment.

The lever on the LH case is a brake. It is pulled by the long spring attached to the main neutral lever on the RH case. The idea is to slow the main drum in neutral. I am never sure how well this works, if at all. If you are having issues with clunking and other horrible noises when engaging gear, look at your idle speed. It must be waaay low to engage quietly. If your tick over is nice and low, and it still does it, then pull the main shaft and inspect the small dog gear on the end. These will wear fairly quickly. There is a kit available to replace the worn gear, spring etc. If you leave the cable under tension when you park it up, it will stretch. Always leave the lever in drive, except when starting. The cable needs to be adjusted to the specs given in the book.

Just a few comments.

There is a process, metalizing or something of that nature that the piece is put into a lathe and an oxy acetylene device is used that heats and sprays a powder. There are many choices of the powder. Then the item is machined. I would think if done properly a better surface could be obtained as the material for a drum like that has to be able to be formed either via press and die or on a spinning lathe. Whether the risk of having the coating come off is minimal compared to the benefit I can not say. There most likely are more modern methods to accomplish the same thing.

I see a bolt on drum in the picture. I know my 420 stuff the drum is welded to the gear/hub. Any idea if what you have is original or replacement. I think the grooves in those bronze? shoes is on a slight angle to distribute the oil. It is hard to tell from the picture if yours are on an angle. Nice job on the grooves, I have a manual of sorts somewhere that showed using a hacksaw. I think the design is best suited to winter conditions, the time I smeared out my first gear shoes was far from winter conditions.

You may not be using that first gear clutch much depending on how slow you go in the vinduro event.

The early 360/390 1st gear drums are bolt on Fran. The later welded ones are much better though.

I don't think that corrosion will cause much harm especially if you ride it like you stole it. Pottering about is not the best way to ride Autos. Y

I wouldn't worry about that drum . The only time its doing any work ( slipping) is from stopped to rolling at idling speed . The rest of the time it's locked .
And it's not like the brass shoes can expand out into the cavities or the steel has high spots on it
If anything it will make less wear as there would be oil in the cavities .

So I ran the bike on the weekend at my first Vinduro event (also ran a 1982 PE175Z and a 1976 XR75) and did a 6 mile loop no problems. When I went out after lunch for another loop on the Auto it started to disengage and rattle at low speeds and by the time I got to the grass track section at the end of the loop the bike was dropping out of gear and going into neutral and making horrible crunching and rattling noises, by giving it big on/off fistfulls of throttle I could get it to engage and what felt like 2nd gear and get me back to the car.
So I pulled the mainshaft tonight (my first time dismantling an auto) and found the following:
The brass shoes on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th clutches are pretty smoothed over so Ill use my Dremel with a thin cut-off wheel to clean up the grooves like I did on the 1st gear shoes prior to the ride
I suspected the "neutral gear" would be worn as the bike has probably been put into gear with too many revs too many times by previous owners and a few times by myself.
The corners of the 4 x internal engagement splines on this gear are worn and the mainshaft has some wear as well.
When I bought the bike last year I paid extra to get the spares that came with it: 4 mainshafts which appear to be new or near new, 3 new OEM "neutral" gears (the first gear on the mainshaft that engages when you release the handlebar lever) as well as a barrel, 4 kickstarter shafts and a new kickstart gear.
So my plan is to fit another mainshaft with a new neutral gear, clean up the all the brass shoes' grooves and put it together and fill with fresh Univis.......so I welcome any hints or tips..
I recall seeing some lo-res scans of an Australian magazine article which went through a whole heap of Auto maintenance and repair tips, does anyone have a copy they could email me or point me to the link??

Difference between the gear that Ive removed and a brand new one..





The 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear clutch shoes..

Do you have a part number or supplier for the "kit" ?
I have the part numbers for the individual pieces and I was wondering about the tension of the spring that keeps the gear engaged on the shaft. If this has lost its "factory tension" then would this allow the gear to move outboard on the shaft and then loose all drive? As has been happening with my bike...
Its is cool learning about these autos...however another Husky Auto owner at the weekends Vinduro with a very nice 390 was going crazy because he has replaced everything in his transmission, but it still jumps out of gear when it gets hot and he's an auto mechanic by trade so the bike i doing his head in...... :-(

It is an article by Paul Rooney about maintenance on a 500 ae, but can fit also in some ways for 360 ae.
Send me your email, so I can send it to you.

That is good , also !
http://www.teamnorrland.se/Renovera AE.htm

If you need a clutch hub to replace the one you have with the corrosion on it message me we can do some swapping ,I have a couple of Nos ones and some perfect used ones

It is very good but refers to the 420 type of gear engagement which is different to the 360/390. I always try to change the shaft and gear together. Strange the 390 jumping out of gear when hot, that will take some thinking about, see if you can get him to post on here, I'm sure all us Auto chaps would be very interested.

I have stripped and rebuilt my box this week. I did think about doing a "how to" set of pictures. But didn't
Next time then ....
Roon ..... see PM.

You will need to replace your main shaft also. If the first gear spline is worn then the shaft is also. Forest Stahl here in the US welds up the shafts and gears and re-cuts the splines and install a new needle bearing in the gear. Be sure to check all the free wheel bearings also to at least clean all the brass pieces out of them.

Marty

Freewheels are gone...plus corrosion on some of the shafts... :-(

That's a b#####d!!

That is really bad! looks like you will be looking for a complete all new/different transmission. Just the free wheel bearings new will be $500.00-$700.00. I feel your pain.
Marty

i think you can still contact Paul Rooney, he is in sydney ... (i believe)

Does anyone know where I might get seals for Koni shocks fitted to a 1981 AXC 420 auto