1978 Darmah Cush Drive Problem on the Road

[mb848]

Hello! So I decided to take my 1978 Darmah on a northeast road trip and rode it from Virginia to Rhode Island over the course of the last 2 days. The last 50 miles or so of my journey to this point I thought I felt some subtle weirdness in the drivetrain, but was tired and tend to be paranoid anyway about any little noises I haven't noticed before.

This morning I was giving it a look over and realized that the rear wheel and sprocket/cush drive carrier have a *little* play between them. If I turn the wheel even with it in neutral the cush drive carrier will lag behind it maybe a 1/4" as I move it back and forth.

I figure I need to remove the rear wheel and check everything inside that hub, probably replace the cush drive rubber while I'm in there... My real question is, is this something I can be gentle on the clutch and shifting with to ride another 500 miles home, or is this a "good lord stop riding and get a Uhaul" problem?

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[mb848]

After finding some pictures of the wheels and how the cush drive carrier should be screwed to the wheel and shouldn't be able to rotate separately at all.... I think it's time for a U-haul I don't know what it's holding on by, but if it's wiggling then those screws are broken/loose and I don't know what's bearing the load between the carrier and the wheel itself... Doesn't seem like a "limp it home 500 miles" type of problem.

[BevHevSteve]

hey man - As I said when I called the morning this happened, you need to take the wheel off, pull the sprocket carrier and rubber cush out and see whats up. The several screws that hold the cush drive plate thing onto the wheel itself are prone to becoming loose. hopefully all you needed to do was to tighten them back up to get home then really see if its time to get more serious about the thread repair that might be needed. at least use loc-tite when you tighten things up.

[BevHevSteve]

hey man - As I said when I called the morning this happened, you need to take the wheel off, pull the sprocket carrier and rubber cush out and see whats up. The several screws that hold the cush drive plate thing onto the wheel itself are prone to becoming loose. hopefully all you needed to do was to tighten them back up to get home then really see if its time to get more serious about the thread repair that might be needed. at least use loc-tite when you tighten things up.