Use of a thicker gasket in effect shortened the rod which is the way you go when your clutch wears.
Seems to me that a thicker gasket props the cam away from the rod, making the lever have to travel farther
in order to contact the rod. Shouldn't go down.
Here's a quote from the famous clutch war.
Sorry about the lack of images. They don't want to show up. Just follow the links.
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...... http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/3_rods.JPGThey 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)
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/First_mark.JPG http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Second_mark.JPG http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Transferred.JPGThen 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).============
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Short_rod1.JPGFirst 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.
============
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Medium_rod.JPGThe 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.
============
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Long_rod1.JPGFinally, 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
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