Hydro clutch

[officerbill]

I bought a GL1200 in January, rode her home and it snowed. The snow melted and rode her to work, the clutch slipped, would not go into any gear and she left me in town. The next morning I went to get her and the clutch problem was gone. How curious. By the time I was turning the last corner to get home my RPM were through the roof while my MPH was dropping off fast. I got her into the garage and that's where she is now.
The Honda mechanic says bleed the slave cylinder change the hydro fluids and change the oil. That sounds reasonable since the bike only moved 1,100 miles in the last 11 years and only has 70,700 miles on here now.
Has anyone got other suggestions that do not involve removing the engine from the bike? Or selling it and getting a nice GS 1100 GK instead. Thanks in advance.
Bill

[Steve]

We discussed this a bit when we spoke on the phone a while back, but bleeding the clutch will not keep it from slipping.

An air bubble in the clutch line will, however, keep it from disengaging enough to put it into gear from neutral.

Since changing the clutch springs on that bike involves removing the engine, try draining about a quart of oil then adding a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil. Run it for a while, put on 50-100 miles, if you can, then change the oil. Make sure the oil you put in does NOT say "Energy Conserving" on the back. I believe your Wing calls for 10w-40, like the GSes, so that should not be a problem. Like the GSes, it will work very well with Rotella diesel engine oil, either the "dino" 15w-40 in the white jug or the "synthetic" 5w-40 in the blue jug.

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[officerbill]

Steve I should have said that we'd talked. When I spoke to the Honda mechanic he was not at all in favor of the mystery oil idea, and believes flushing the slave cylinder is a more fruitful suggestion. This is not to say that if one doesn't work I won't try the other, but I was planning on keeping it simple before doing the entire clutch replacement as has been suggested by the HD mechanic. Just another reason to dislike Harleys.
Bill

[Steve]

Go ahead and try flushing the clutch hydraulics first, by all means. Sometimes just putting in some fresh fluid will free it up and allow it to move.

If that does not keep it from slipping, though, you will know it's not the master or slave cylinder that is hanging it up.
Like our GSes, it might need new springs, simply because they are old, but the MMO will help de-glaze the clutch disks as a last-ditch effort before pulling the engine.

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