On Saturday I decided to replace my worn out clutch since it'd been slipping for quite awhile. Ordered OEM replacement friction discs and spring (EBC) from bikebandit.com. I now have all the parts in and the bike back together, but I cannot get the clutch to disengage. Even with the clutch lever completely against the handlebar I can still feel a slight drag on the motor. A quarter inch or so out from the bar and the clutch graps hard enough to pull myself and the bike forward.

First thing I did was bleed the clutch maters cyclider and replaced all the old fluid. Didn't help at all. Next I decided to open the case back up and use a torque wrench (not previously available to me) to make sure the springs were tightened down properly. No change.

I'm not sure how I can fix this problem but I know that I need to because it's not the safest bike to ride at the moment.

I was thinking of perhaps taking everything apart AGAIN and trying to reuse the old springs....? I did break a bolt for one of the springs but was told that 4 out of 5 is okay to use and shouldn't hurt anything. If anything, I would think that a missing spring would make the clutch EASIER to disengage and more apt to slippage.....

any help much appreciated.

 

The December, 2006 issue of Motorcycle Consumer News has an excellent article on servicing dry clutches, as used in Ducati and others. They say to lay a straightedge on the six springs to see if they are even. If they are not all exactly the same, it says to replace them all. Can you now see what one missing spring of five is doing?

 

Did you only replace the friction discs (fiber) or did you also replace the driven plates (metal). You need to replace all of these as a set since they wear into each other. One thing you could do is take out the clutch again and use some medium to high grit sandpaper or a media blaster on the driven (metal) plates to remove the "haze" from the surfaces. While they're out, lay them down seperately on a flat surface and hold them down while sliding a feeler guage between each plate and the surface. The service manual will give a spec. on how much warp is acceptable in each plate, but zero is ideal. And just go to a hardware store and get a new bolt to match the other five, grade 8 preferrably.

 

Yeah, springs are KEY for our tannys, might want to look up the specs on how those should be.

MDFF

 

The clutch will not operate properly with a missing spring. Start to fix that before doing anything else.

 

Do any of you know how to remove the basket from the bike so that I can have the old bolt drilled out by a machinist? It looks to me like I need some sort of special tool, or maybe just a special socket?

 

If you remove the four remaing bolts and remove the pressure plate, would it be possible to remove the broken bolt with a plier or is it broken too deep in the basket?

 

Same thing happened to me when replacing clutch plates on my VFR800. Those bolts seem to have a weak spot just under the head where the washer sits, because they have a smaller diameter there. That's my excuse anyway. I was hardly applying any torque but one of them broke. The shaft of the bolt was a couple of millimetres down in the hole but fortunately it was quite loose. So I carefully put a slot in the top of the shaft with a small chisel and plastic hammer, and managed to turn it out with a small screwdriver. replaced it with a lovely allen-headed bolt (from a bicycle brake set I think).
Could you do that?

 

Hopefully you are using a downloaded manual, Honda Manual or Haynes, which says to unstake the clutch center lock nut. Then use a 30mm 12-point socket and a special tool to hold the basket from turning. The tool I've used has a Vice-grip handle with two wide tangs for fitting into the outer teeth of the basket. Someone else can probably recommend other ways to keep the engine from turning.

 

To stop the clutch hub from turning get 2 pieces of 2mm strap steel about 1 & 1/2 foot long and 3/4" wide. Make an X out of them and drill and bolt through the centre of the X. Then drill a hole through 2 ends of the X. Put a bolt through each hole and then into the bolt holes on the clutch hub.

Hold tool and use the socket to remove the centre nut.

But the centre nut is a real ***** to remove, so I would get a quote on a bike shop using an easy out with the clutch in place.