Red: Clutch Slippping? Part I

 

So on a ride last week after a nice long cruise, Red started hesitating as I rolled on the throttle.  Low speed in first seemed fine, but anything beyond that she'd hesitate and lose power.

At first, thought it was yet another carb issue.  But in idle in the garage, there was no hesitation at all as I rolled on the throttle.  Quickly realized it felt much more like the clutch was slipping under power.  

Silver lining in that theory would be that if the clutch plates were already on there way out, maybe it would explain why she never felt as spunky under acceleration even after the big bore.

So went down with the goal of at least inspecting the clutch and then taking it from there.  Had spent a lot of time on the carpet building up a new one, or at least preparing a second one, but realized there was no point in a straight swap without taking the time to really investigate the current one.

At first, everything was almost too easy.  Pegs, exhaust and kick pedal all came off quick and easy.  Right cover came off no problem (probably thanks to that anti-seize).  

Popped out the clutch and got it disassembled.  Was pretty pleased to find what I was expecting which was a set of very smooth friction plates.  These were the type with the "wide" sections so probably the best of some old ones and not the new "narrow" section ones from recent eBay purchases.

Measured them both at about 2.5mm which was almost at the limit.  Oddly though, the new ones were almost almost the exact same width.  Thought that would be a bonus though since it wouldn't affect the overall thickness.  Soaked them in oil and got the whole thing back together easily, even the small springs which I just pushed in using a flathead and downward pressure with the thumb.

Clutch was even all aligned on the first try and slotted right into place.  Still too easy...

Got ambitious and decided to do the right thing mechanically and swap out for a new right cover gasket.  Had to peel off some old gasket along the upper edges but not so bad.  Ended up changing the outer clutch cover gasket as well and those screws were almost frozen.  Used the Husky along with the 7mm wrench and got them out without having to resort to the impact driver.

So got everything all put back together only to be totally and completely stymied as now the clutch cable was waaaaay too short.  Pretty much impossible to get the cable installed with the amount of slack present.

Having gone through all the prior work on the carpet, realized that something had changed the position of the basket such that it was now pushed out much too close to the actuator.  The arm now had absolutely no free play (it was basically engaged just at rest) and had way too far to travel to ever be able to attach to the cable.

Since the friction plates themselves were exactly the same width, the only other thing that could have changed was the thickness of the gaskets (though the weird thing is that the replacements would have to be thinner than the ones they replaced to cause this).  Or maybe they both contributed a small part to the entire problem.

But following clutch logic, 2 thicker friction plates should force the basket closer in toward the engine, thus allowing more play in the arm before it engages.  Only one way to find out, I guess...