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Re: but I notice that at high RPM and higher accereration loads the clutch was slipping..'

The new one, right?

I don't see that you soaked the plates.

Does anyone ever NOT soak the plates? It's a MUST as far as I know.

Otherwise you get the slipping you talk about...and, I'm afraid, the plates are usually damaged to the point of being no good.

Please say you soaked the plates.

Yes... you MUST soak your plates!

My bet is he didn't. Slipping under load? And still slipping after the first ride?

Any takers for some cash on the barrelhead before he gets back to set the record straight?

...it's not funny!!!

I soaked them for a half hour and then left the bike for another half hour as I bolted it together. I looked at the package after my ride and it said, "soak for several hours."

Uh-oh.

Rick

I would guess that if you look at those brand new friction plates you will see evidence of the 1/2 hour soak...abraded spots, burns.

Them sitting IN oil under pressure is not the same thing as PRE-soaking them with NO pressure.

I've known of I think two riders that either didn't soak the new plates at all, or not enough. In those two cases there was no option but to replace the plates. They never did 'seat' 'work out' 'break in' ..however you want to say it.

Maybe yours will be completely different!!

I just got back from dumping out the old oil. After two rides, the once-golden Chevron Supreme is now a murky gray with, as my daughter said, "Look, Daddy. Those shiny speckles are pretty!!"

Oh, well.

I poured some new Chevron in and eventually got around to taking the bike for a spin. I did several bodaciously high acceleration runs through the gears. No more slippage.

I've probably put half a year's worth of wear on the plates in one weekend, but it seems to be okay.

Yet another semester at Wyle E. Coyote's School of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Yet another tragedy averted.

Rick

Rick Rick Rick...The University of Hard Knocks (UHK!) will be giving you your PhD diploma and tenure! I did the same thing on my Bultaco Pursang when I was 14 and it cost me a months worth of lawn mowin money to buy another new set of plates. Did I learn? Nope! A few years back I threw in new plates in my XR-250 without soaking them and had to tear it apart and soak em before I ruint them. I am learnt now! But I only have a Masters @ UHK

Do you think I should take them out and soak them some more or just leave it in there and have it slowly burnished?




Rick

I don't know that it matters at this point. I don't know that it would do any good.

But I'd take them out and soak'em.

You may be in for new steels, too....now.

Maybe it'll be just fine...being an ACME clutch and all....right?

I'm sure that's where Wile E. Coyote got HIS last clutch.

BTW...for a soaker? Cut the top off a gallon milk jug, use the bottom. Big enough to fit, not so big as to take quarts and quarts of oil to submerge all of 'em.

HEE HEHEHee A Purtaco Bullslang? I had a Purtaco too. I used to like it till I got my Seize Zee 400. Now that was a bike. Riding that was like being a cruise missile test pilot.

Ooops.

Correction. It still slips, but not as much, and only when cold and under heavy load. I ran it through the first three gears without detecting odd revviness, then I backed off the throttle to slow down a few MPH and gunned it. It slipped (wee-ahhhh). Once it warmed up, I couldn't detect any slippage.

I'll have to tear into it on Sunday. Could be the oil, right?

Right?

And, that angled band of spring steel that fits next to another flat band of spring steel in the clutch basket. Which is supposed to be closest to the plates an which way does the angled one angle? Could that be an issue as well?

Rick
Not a clutch player.

I wrote that down someplace so I would remember it....but I didn't.

The flat spring goes toward the plates. The spring spring I'm quite sure fits with the larger diameter to the plates, the smaller to the outside.

**Someone needs to verify this..correct if need be.**

No. I doubt that's the issue. When the clutch is disengaged (pressure on..engine hooked up) those bands don't supply extra grip. They provide extra PUSH when you engage the clutch (pull the lever, UNhook the engine from the tranny)

I'm afraid your problem is not soaking the plates. If you had soaked them the first time you felt it slip you would have been much better off..had a better chance of making it right.

After three rides...?? And all those pretty shiny sparkly bits?

I would guess that you need a clutch.

Of course, it could be the way I've adjusted my clutch cable?

Rick

Speaking of "extra push"...

I took my clutch out for inspection.

There is nothing out of the ordinary by visual inspection. The friction plate thickness is right were it should be right in between the high and low values.

The new clutch springs, on the other hand, are right at 37.2 mm (I'm giving the 0.2mm as a gimme), which is at or just below the manual's "service limit."

What's the chance that new, in-spec springs will do the trick?

Perhaps that, along with my use of the Chevron, is the culprit. I'm soaking the plates overnight in Maxima gear oil (using CC's milk jug idea).

Perhaps Monkeybutt will have some good springs for me. The ones from the kit leave me even less inspired than do my mechanical abilities.

*edit* I spoke with my neighbor about the "soak for several hours" thing. He was a bit amazed, and rather than say it, he walked over to his new clutch kit for his Yamaha 350 Banshee: "Soak in transmission oil for ten minutes."

On the other side of me, my KTM-neighbor said, "Yep, soak it over night."



Rick

I missed my window of opportunity last week to install the clutch plates, so they've been soaking in Maxima for nearly a week (with occasional agitation).

No word from the kit manufacturer so I just installed everything per the manual (and I think I actually got everything in correctly, including the two spring-bands that go around the hub). I had to guess at the clutch nut torque specs because I couldn't get the mechanism to stay locked -- so gave it a minor hit with an impact wrench and called it good enough.

I bolted the rest up and filled it with more Maxima (700cc, this time as that was what was left after my one-week soak).

I fired up the bike and all functioned. No slipping, even when cold. I was even able to adjust the clutch to function with the 10-20mm of lever play this time.

It still restricts my in-gear kick-starting just a bit, but I'll live with that until I take the time to attempt to adjust it out.

Time to ride tomorrow.

Rick

You keep this up, and I'm gonna have to drive down there and hurt you, ya gloating bastid. It was -5° here today.

Colorado Mike wrote:You keep this up, and I'm gonna have to drive down there and hurt you, ya gloating bastid. It was -5° here today.

UGH!!

It got up into the 50's here in Louisville KY today but rain, rain, rain . . . more rain on the horizon

Well, we've been having some cold fronts move through which has brought some sprinkles and lots of below-average cold here in Phoenix (actually, the hills above Phoenix +1 or 2K feet).

It will be 32F at ride time (9am) and won't get above 42F by noon. This might sound like utter wimpiness to y'all, but since having transplanted from Ohio 22 years ago, I'm a low-desert-dawg and can't handle much below 50F anymore.

BTW, we like it when it rains here because it keeps the dust down and improves the traction in the dry sand washes as well as all this decomposed granite we ride on.

Oh, and thanks for the congrats you gave me for figuring out my clutch...

"Bastids," indeed. !!

Rick

My parents flew to yuma? Arizona today, from the Cincinnati area to check out a future retirement spot. Dads not happy. Its warmer here.

Somehow I got tangled up with a group of A and B riders on Sunday.

Let's just say that the KDX and clutch got a good test over 50 miles of foothilly single track and goat trail. I was absolutely exhausted when I was done, but the clutch performed well. I even found a sweet spot for when I have to feather it for loose, gravelly hill climbs.

And I broke a spoke off the rear wheel.

Rick