The lever moves up as the pack shortens or the rod wears.

The reason I come off all patient and easy to get along with on this clutch thing is I was a short rodder originally (yes guys, rub it in rub it in, you love it) until I did it myself and took pictures as to where the rod pointed in each case.

Now I am a very patient long rodder type feller, and I agree that you won't trust the answer until you do it yourself.

You have to pull the lever-to-eccentric slop out of the system using a steady even (same same) very light load to make the judgment about where things are pointing.  You can see from my pics I used an elastic strap that was a mild load placed the same in both trials.

While you have your unit down, check for very free and loose rotation on the ball bearing in the thrust plate assembly.  If that ball bearing gets some trash in it it can stop cold on you and all the rotation/friction is transferred to the push rod which begins to heat up and wears very rapidly.  This is a bad thing.  So, always take a moment and check your rod throw out ball bearing in that plate real good.   I spin mine with a wooden pencil in a drill and blow air through it and then oil it and spin it in some more while pressing on it -- that's the job it does, being pushed on while spinning.  If it can't be pushed on while spinning fast without locking up on trash or damage then the bearing it needs replacing.  

Note: there is some mild drag on this ball bearing from an "O" ring that is mounted on the inside outer surface that mates the main shaft ID to make an oil seal for the gearbox lube system, so don't mistake the drag for damage -- you want to make sure it can spin under load though.

I'd certainly never think much about what motivates a repair shop -- fear of an in-warranty return on repair certainly helps motivate them to use a lot of new parts.   The 30% mark up they get on the parts certainly doesn't stop them from slinging lots of "new" in there any chance they get.

Carrying your bike to a stealership for them to tell you what is wrong with it is always a recipe for a big repair bill.  Lots of the folks who post clutch questions are doing it after the fact anyway -- the bike is already there and they are just looking for information

(and for them who are already screwed -- always ask for your old parts back -- I want them)

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I dunno, how much $$ value to you attach to your free time?  

Me, I am "working retired" now, so I guess I could say my time is free since I look for things to do to fill up the day anyway on days that I don't work.

Some of us are living right close to broke, so we always look for ways not to spend any money.   Substituting time for money always seems to be a thing poorer folk need to be good at.

Sometimes you do it simply so you understand it better -- the clutch is an excellent example of where I originally didn't understand it (and will freely admit my current understanding increases with each experiment that I do).

Heck, if I got it right each and every time I wouldn't have to correct my tech listings as new stuff gets discovered.


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Long term I will be posting me a Yoda High Performance Clutch mod as soon as I wear enough room in my basket for an additional  fiber and steel plate.   Once I can show you how to do that, then I will admit to understanding the Savage Clutch pretty much completely.

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 06/16/10 at 07:45:44:


The rod wearing and the pack wearing are two complete separate issues. If the rod wears you will definately need a longer one. If the clutch pack wears you will need a shorter one.  

already did. Hope you do as well.  

The most important thing is to make sure there is freeplay in the release arm without the cable hooked. If there is no freeplay there it will hold the clutch from engaging all the way. If it's within the marked area there should be, but be sure to check it. Not sure why these clutches are so weak. In all my years of working on motorcycles I've never seen a weaker clutch. Very poor design IMHO. I'm gonna try those heavier springs and hopefully it will help.

BurnPgh wrote on 06/16/10 at 23:18:38:

Oooops I mis spoke. There should be freeplay if it's within the marks.

Just to make it clear. If the arm is within the marks... automatically there should be freeplay.

Now we are really gonna time & date stamp all you guys -- with a fractured fairy tale like you used to get on Rocky and Bullwinkle in between the main cartoon sections.  
(you do remember Rocky and Bullwinkle, don't you?)



Once upon a time there were three little push rods  piggies......



They lived inside a gear case cover that had slop inherent in its construction.   The slop came from clearance between the eccentric gear and the shaft that drove it (and a little smidgen from the fit up connection of the shaft to the lever on the outside, but just a little smidgen)

The three little pigs industriously and precisely quantified the amount of incidental slop and transferred the markings carefully to the outside of the side cover so they could easily see what exactly was going on with their slop.   They did this by trapping the eccentric flat against the case with thumb pressure and then moving the clutch arm on the outside of the case so they could study and mark where the slop started and stopped.

(slop is important to them little piggies -- they do get right hungry at times you know)







Then the little piggies carefully transferred these marks to the outside of the case with a permanent black sharpie pen.  To keep their minds straight, the three little piggies marked the start point of the real push rod contact motion with an "R" and the start of the waste portion of the incidental clearance motion with a "W".   They knew to ignore anything between the W and the R, but to  pay attention to the R point as the rod is in play compressing the clutch springs past that point.

The slight tension applied by the rubber band should eventually wind up right at the "R" mark as the various push rods are trialed as that is the start of the ideal push rod contact (when the rod is just barely in contact with the eccentric when all the waste motion slop is taken out of play).


============




First the shortest little piggy climbed into the gearcase .....  and found he had no surviving adjustment left to push in the clutch at all.  He wasn't able to push on the rod at all because he was too short.  Not even getting close to the "R" mark meant there was still an air gap between the rod and the eccentric.  This little piggy was dead meat and the big bad wolf came and ate him for a bacon sandwich for his breakfast.


============




The middle length little piggy climbed in next, and the lever moved to the very top of the good range, permitting just a little bit of possible adjustment range with the lock nuts and handle bar thumb screw.   Heck, he was barely able to push on the rod much at all.   There was some wasted air gap still involved in his motion as he missed resting on the "R" mark by a little bit.  The hungry wolf decided to wait around since the middle length piggy didn't have very long to live and would likely be pork chops by dinner time.


============




Finally, the longest little piggy got into the case and the lever moved to the very start of the good range, giving the maximum possible adjustment span to the lock nuts and thumb screw.  The "R" mark showed that the rod was in light contact with the eccentric but was not pushing in the clutch springs any at this point (obviously that rubber band isn't strong enough to depress the clutch springs any).   This is an optimum clutch rod length for this particular bike at this point in time.   The big bad wolf threw up his hands as this little piggy looked very very healthy and he wasn't gonna wait around all that long as there were other bikes and other clutch rods that were gonna be lunch meat long before this one.


And the longest little piggy went wee ... wee ... wee ... all the way up to the Dragon at Deals Gap to play with the rest of the boys at the Dragon Run


     


Like I said, having a sense of humor about these things is always helpful

Rich, I just did.  

The shortest little piggie was the rod provided by the factory.

The middle rod was my first custom rod  that parked it on the perfect spot about 5 months ago, which has some length wear on it to be sure because it really wasn't perfectly hardened.

The longest little piggie is the M-2 HSS custom rod I just finished making to get everything all copasetic for the Dragon run.

No, it isn't a perfect progression as rod wear takes place on the things which does muddy up the water some, but I think you see the way progression is going don't you?

Next time I tune it I'll post a pic of the four little piggies, sitting in a row -- but that's gonna be a while I am afraid.   I hope the new lathe tool bit quality rod doesn't wear very much so the foggy murky doubt should be gone on that one.


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As to adding a friction and a steel plate to the pack, first I have to have enough room in the pack for them to fit.  Logically, the pack height (which has shortened) will then go back somewhere close to the original pack stack height and the first rod would be closer to working again.  

But I'll wait until after I have done it before theorizing very much about it.








hee hee ....  sound a bit like Gort, doesn't he?