It finally happened .   My clutch started slipping .   Yep , a sudden burst of power in fifth gear results in the clutch slipping.  

I've got the new friction pads and springs in the shop now.   I'll soak them in fresh oil tomorrow and put them in Tuesday .    

How about that pushrod different sizes stuff.   Long as it has a little slack to get off the throw-out-bearing all is well ain't it ???

Its been a few years since I had to get into clutch repair stuff !  



 

As OldFeller said, I did the same. New fibers and EBC 10% springs. Made a "small" difference. But the real change was the push rod. My stock one I pulled out was 45.5mm or w/e standard length was. I machined a new one 1mm over to 46.5 and it made a night/day difference. The bike feels normal again. BUT!!!! I still have clutch slipping in 5th gear when you do some hard accelerating. I think that's nature of this bike. Too much thumper power for the little clutch on this bike. I'd do as others have and extend the rod and add in another steel plate.

friction modifier

You may be right Dave.   You putting T-4 in your bike ?  I have run T-6 before .  

How about T-4 w/redline ?  or T-5 ??  

The friction plates were well with-in spec's.  It might have been the oil I was using (T-6).  OR    The springs might have gotten weak ???    Either way it was "Slipping" on command with a quick twist in 5th gear.

I've go some T-4 I'll put in on reassembly .   I'll also slide it together with out form-a-gasket to try different length pushrods .  

OldFeller those fiber plates are yours if ya want them.  The new springs were a lot longer than the factory ones and were smaller dia. also.   I didn't measure them yet but they look small dia. wire also , could be they are tuff material in comparison.

Rot 6 full synthetic changed formulation over a 4 year period, as the PPM of ZDDP went down (and it did, from 1300 PPM to 1200 PPM to 1000 PPM) the amount of moly oil went up (from 0 to 20 to 40 to 70 PPM).

Rot T dino was at 0 PPM on moly oil when I did my change over experiment, and at the change over the clutch slipping STOPPED instantly.   No change to clutch adjustment, no change except the oil bath in the engine.

Remember please, I can't say shite about what T-4 will do until I try some, and also remember whatever the results are is COMPLETELY EMPIRICAL because we don't know what is in T-4 even today, after a half a year.   I find this complete lack of data very very curious, as if Blackstone Labs has some legal agreement not to test the stuff.  

I greatly protest government enforced  "secrets" on oil composition.

I did note that when the Rot T got old, minor cold start slipping returned and my oil consumption rate went up -- but this is NOT unusual and has been reported by other Rot T users in the past.

It is my thought that more moly oil is being used to give back some of the protection properties that used to be handled by the larger PPMs of ZDDP that used to be in Rot 6 full synthetic.

Our clutch pack is flat assed MARGINAL in design, and that is why I have asked Dave, Lancer and Versy to look at the baskets and the front spring driven cover to see if enough room could be created on Dave's lathe  to allow an extra fiber and an extra steel to be added.

I got things back together today and tried it out a little.   I didn't take the entire basket out like the book said too , only the center part and it worked great.   Next time I'm only doing springs ... the plates were well with-in spec.   The springs are so much longer I had to compress them a little to get the bolts started . and the clutch feels weaker at the pull leaver.  
But It pulled me up to the house from the shop so I tried a burn-out on my tar-and-chip driveway .   All went well , it spun till the bike got up to about 20 mph and I let off the throttle.     Only left a little trench  

I'm adding a spring in-between the cable and the clutch lever by the motor to keep the cable tight and still let me have plenty of room off the throw-out-bearing .  

I made a clutch rod out of a piece of 6mm spring steel from an old rake tooth.   I started with 48mm and stopped when it was 47mm , that put me right in-between the marks on the crank-case.   All is good  !  

If I was doing it over , I would change the rod and springs and leave the pads alone --- I'll bet they would go 100,000 miles with no problem.

I put pure T-4 Rotella in and the engagement band is extremely narrow compared to what it was .

The clutch is slipping again !  


I put strait T-4 in it .    It stills goes , but in 5th it slips on command .  :'(


So , the original springs are .110" in spring material size ...
     the  replacement spring material is  .095" dia.  but longer spring


Today , I went to the hardware store and bought some .125" dia. springs to cut to length  .    

I'm thinking :  use the length of the original springs but with the .125" material
Also...
I suspect that T-4 has friction modifiers .  

MM....where is the clutch arm in relation to the index marks on the case?  Maybe you have an issue with the length of the rod?

Did you lightly sand the steel plates to remove the shine?

Justin is asking if functionally do you have your clutch lever partially "pulled in" all the time now ???

Me, I too am curious about this extra spring you added to your cable run "to take up  the extra slack", as to what that spring might be doing to you.

Our system is "cable sloppy" and that might be a bit on purpose, you know.

I know, because I check for it periodically, that poor adjustment can cause slippage.  The equivalent of a pinky finger's worth of force can make our clutch slip some.

Since I got me a slipper too, I am going to pop my side cover and investigate some.  My clutch is on its fourth episode, third clutch rod (two custom cut rods and the longest Suzuki rod, all worn short) and I want to see if my fibers have ever wore out of spec yet .....