Hey everybody! (skip down to the *** if I start loosing you, though the title kind of says it all) lol I don't know where to start. I guess with my bike, I have a 99 cbr 600 f4 just past 38,000 miles on it, bought it with around 30,000 last year. I live in NYC and this is my first motorcycle. I use it mostly for commuting to and from school, though I've done a decent bit of traveling with it too.

Anyways
A few weeks ago (about a week after an oil change from synthetic car oil to honda motorcycle oil) I noticed it just felt really weird pulling off from a stop kind of like it was bogging out. It wasn't feeling as responsive on the highway and was just generally sluggish. I thought maybe having switched from synthetic motor oil to petroleum based motorcycle oil was making my friction disks slip because of viscosity... and cork... and molecular bonds... or something IDK lol. So I ordered new friction plates (OEM) and a K&N air filter and an OEM fuel filter (not knowing when they had been changed last) hoping it would fix my problem.

So When I finaly split open my clutch (after weeks of riding on it knowing something was off) I found that 2 plates were completely shattered (luckily they stayed in the basket), and that all of my clutch disks were horribly blued. I only ordered the friction disks and relying on my bike for transportation I just threw it together as is with the blued steels, and without a torque wrench (I know, I know). I figured waiting a week until I had the time and the clutch plates wouldnt hurt any. that night (last Thursday) I ordered new steels, springs, screws, pretty much everything except the cable.

Friday I got new tires in the mail so I rode to the local shop to have them put on and "check everything out", he said everything was perfect other than my old tires. Even with the blued clutch disks the clutch felt amazing! It was grabbing like never before. I put around 60 miles on it that night and brought it home happy as could be. It felt like a brand new motorcycle to me.
The next day, it felt sluggish and weird again. I thought it was just in my head and had a friend test it and he thought it felt kind of odd but still really good.

***The day after that lol (yesterday, 110ish miles into the new clutch) I'm riding through particularly bad traffic on a pretty hot day, nothing too out of the ordinary. I stopped at a red light, shifted into neutral. Then went to touch my clutch lever (which I properly adjusted according to my mechanic), and it was suddenly 80% freeplay! I put my clutch adjuster all the way to its end at it was still over 50% freeplay. The clutch still fully disengaged but was slipping hard. I could barely get it to pull off from a start having to ride the clutch for a really long time at 5kish rpms before it started actually going anywhere, once engaged it felt weird and rough. I also felt as if the bike was pulling to the left (hopefully my imagination). I called a friend to meet me and follow me home in his car. I was able to make it the full 12 miles home but it was hard work, and me and my bike weren't happy about it.

So I tore open the clutch again today, thinking Id find disks shattered and sprayed all over the place... and everything looks fine, I have no idea what caused all this freeplay and slippage. I checked the cable, and it seems fine (I did order a new one anyway lol). The only thing that looks bad to me is maybe the clutch basket (which I cant afford!). I kept reading about grooves in peoples clutch baskets and I had no Idea what they were talking about or where they could possibly be... But I found them. Though in my opinion theyre not that deep (ill break out the calipers tomorrow). You can see them, and you can feel them but I would say they're under 1/4mm.
Does anyone have tolerances on the basket or have an idea of how much ware is within an acceptable tolerance? Could this be my issue? I'm having a really hard time imagining how these grooves would drastically and instantly change my clutch's point of disengagement... I'm really hoping its the cable. or not torquing down the springs properly (I'm going to try and find a cheapish torque wrench capable of doing 9 ft lbs tomorrow). I just really don't want to put everything back together just to have to rip it apart again. And have to change my oil for the 5th time this season (its adding up quickly!)

https://cbrforum.com/forum/cbr-900rr...estions-36146/ it sounds like he had a similar problem but his didn't disengage fully, and its an unresolved thread
https://cbrforum.com/forum/cbr-954rr...roblem-145812/ and this thread mentions putting the friction disk with the green tab on the outside and the purple on the inside. I ordered all OEM plates and recieved 5 with green tabs and 2 with purple, did I get the wrong plates sent to me? and also the OEM clutch plates dont have the little dots I though they were supposed to, is that ok? they're just plain old stamped steal from what I can tell, they look really cheap to me.

I think I'm done lol, hopefully you made it through!
Thanks for reading! I could really use some help!
Thanks again... I'm going to try and post some pictures of everything too... well see if I can figure that out lol

 

Thanks for giving lots of details it helps to understand whats going on.

Here's what I can input. The clutch disks and the friction disks need to wear in together. When the old clutch burnt out this can over stress the friction disks and make them too smooth, so to speak and weaken them. The friction disk need to create friction (hence the name).

So, what you can do is either take out the friction disks and on a very flat table lay down some sand paper around 220 grit. in a circle motion sand the friction disks so they are all uniform. Clean them very well make sure they do not have anymore excess sand or steal. This will allow the new clutch to wear in properly with the friction disks. Or get new disks. I personally would get new disks.

If you have a harbor freight near you, you can pick up a torque wrench for cheap, quality tools for the DIYer!

Post pics that would really help to see if we can spot anything!

Hope this helps.

 

thanks for the quick response! I have a hard time finding the mean between too much detail and wayy too much detail sometimes lol.
The friction disks were the first thing I replaced, and the only thing (other than the fuel and air filters) up until today. Should I take sand paper to them or get new disks even though I only put 100-120 miles on them with the old clutch plates?... I probably should lol They got a lot of wear yesterday . But they look and feel fine to me.
I still have it all apart because I want to be as sure as I can everything's okay before I seal her all up again :/
Again thank you for your reply and listening to my ramblings! lol
OH I forgot to mention! My neutral lights been acting up ever since this whole clutch thing staretd. It flashes on and off randomly and sometimes when I pull the clutch in. Also if the light is off and its in neutral the bike shuts off when I put the stand down. Not sure if this is related but I figured its worth mentioning.
Closest harbor freight from me is about an hour, but I took the trip there last year for the digital torque wrench adapter, which I never even opened until last week lol only to find that its lowest setting is around 50-60 Nm (while specs say around 12Nm) and that it fits on to a half inch socket... which I apparently don't have! lol

 

 

Thats a pic of my new friction plates as of today. What do these A prefix codes mean? are they important? and those are the old steals in the pic, the new ones dont have the little dots :/

Those were my old plates from last week.
I can take pictures of anything else and post them tomorrow if that would help.

okay seeing the pictures this big I'm definetly not putting that last plate in the right spot, and those grooves look horrible!!! lol Could it please just be the last plate being put in wrong? could/would that cause what happened to happen? And I really am a bad person for not cleaning the case before splitting it, but it was killing me not knowing what was going on in there :/... everything looked soo much better in my dimly lit garage in the pouring rain.

 

Okay, so I made sure the last plate was installed correctly, barely bolted down the bolts at all, and put everything back together without hondabond and without oil, just to see if it would get rid of all the free-play in my clutch... still 50% freeplay, I put the bottom adjuster on the cable most of the way out and was able to make it feel normal with the adjuster on the lever at the halfway point. The bike shifts fine and the clutch seems to be working (at least with the bike off and dry). I'll be getting my new cable in monday, so I'll be tearing the old one apart then to look for fraying, and check its length against the new one.
They also just recently opened a harbor freight that's on my way to school so I'll be getting a torque wrench on monday as well. 22 bucks! (lots of bad reviews though lol)

 

Not that anyone cares lol but I got my cable in today, bought the torque wrench from harbor. Took a look at everything
And I think I may have found the problems...

I guess a new lifter arm is in my future :/

 

... This is really getting old.
so last night I replaced my clutch cable, torqued all the brand new OEM spring bolts down to spec. Two of the heads sheared off at under 9 ft-lbs, I replaced them with the old ones (wish I didnt use any of the new ones), then I replaced the lifter arm, its spring and washer. Honda bonded the whole thing up, put it back together; threw my farinings on (cuz what could possibly be wrong now?) let it cure for the recomended 16 hours for 75 degrees 50% relative humidity (it was around 78 with 45% humidity lol), put oil in let it sit for two more hours to make sure everything was sealed well. and then went to try it out.

It started up no problme, 30 seconds later I hear some not very good soundning clanking. Only a few clanks, but more than enough to smash my dreams! lol. I did a quick inspection of everything. I put it through all its gears let the clutch engage a little in each and notice a kind of weird "bouncing" feeling (as in the bike is bouncing up and down) in the friction zone, and really sub-par engagement in general. It felt as if it was pulling left again which really makes absolutely no sense to me at all. I just rode it around the block once, deemed it unsafe and got on with my day.

I really dont know what to do next. I'm wondering if the other bolt's heads might have sheared off and that was the sound I heard, and the uneven pressure/weight distribution on the clutch is throwing of its center of gravity, sort of turning my clutch into a vibrator (makes sense in my head at least lol). Either that, or I somehow chipped a tooth on a gear (or more likely one of the "feet" joining the gears together... But I dont see how that would cause the "bounciness" I'm feeling.). Or I'm just not used to the OEM clutch and its just not as grabby as whatever clutch was in there before and the bounciness and pulling and everything else is just in my head and I'm loosing my mind... which I definitely am!... just not sure THATS the problem...

I really dont know what to do, my plan as of now is to try it out tomorrow, I read some "technique" of deglasing friction plates without opening anything up (probably should have sanded them down as froasty recommended). I guess I'll do that, ride around the block a few times, see if I can get a friend to try it, see what they think. Then more likely than not, tear every god damned thing apart again... I can change a clutch in under 20 minutes now! lol. I guess I'll be hoping to see sheared bolts, if not I'm gonna be pretty upset cuz all the other things I think can be wrong with it are really going to be hardd work and certainly not cheap .

If anyone has any input at all that would be amazing... even if the input is that I should just trash it lol. I'm really just getting defeated by this whole process, and my pockets are running dry... oh and I haven't had the joy of riding a functioning motorcycle in over two weeks I believe now ... cars suck!

... I really dont want to do a whole transmission job. I hope it dosnt come to that. But my hopes are quickly being shattered. I dont even know if that's a feasible option money wise, skill level wise or tool wise.

Wish me luck, I really really need some. And if anyone has some hope to spare that might help also!

 

Okay, I took it out yesterday for the first time since I Went around the block once, I only did like 30 miles but, everything seems to run really, really, really well 95% of the time. I'ts just 5% of the time it engages really bad, and it occasionally "bucks" or jumps when accelerating.
I'm fairly positive at this point its the clutch basket groves. I'm waiting on a few tools and parts to take it out and file it down (cant afford the 350-500 for all new clutch basket parts) and see how it runs. But I may not do this for a few weeks. It runs pretty damned good most of the time, I just think sometimes the plates sit in the groves and don't want to move.

So now I just have to figure out the staking and unstaking of nuts...