First time bike mechanic having good fun with clutch.

[Anonymous]

I've worked on cars here in the States and over in Japan, but this past week is the first time I've ever played with bikes. I bought an '85 Suzuki 550E with 18,000 miles and a new paint job, with a parts bike to match, and have been anxious to get it out on the road. The clutch was grabbing pretty good, so I swapped the clutch out from the parts bike(which seems to be in very good shape, with only 24,000 miles itself). Well, I get the new clutch in, and tested it, but it's not disengaging all the way with both the clutch cable adjuster all the way out, and the push rod adjuster all the way in. Now somebody mentioned to me that the 6 spring-loaded bolts holding the clutch in are meant to be the main adjustment for the clutch, and I need to know how far to let those bolts come out, and what holds the bolts in when they're loosened for adjustment? Any and all help I can get on this would be greatly appreciated, really looking forward to riding this bike. My email is rbeck316@hotmail.com. Thanks.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

I'm not familiar with your model, so I can only suggest what works on the earlier 1000/750/550 models and many others.
Those 6 bolts you mention must be torqued to the factory spec's. They should be tightened gradually too, in a criss-cross pattern. Don't over or under tighten them.
As for the clutch action, when installing the cover, make sure the clutch release rack and the pinion gear teeth mesh correctly. The pinion gear should turn in and out smoothly. Tighten case screws.
Then I always turn the pinion gear clockwise until it stops under finger pressure. At this point, I install the cable arm pointing at about 9:00 and tighten. I adjust any middle/under tank cable adjuster about 1/2 way. I then adjust the cable adjuster down by the case so most of the slack is taken up. Allow about 2-3mm of slack at the bar lever. Any future adjustments should be able to be made at the bar lever.

[Buffalo Breath]

clutch

You should have put new plates in the old cork plates you put in may very well be swollen from age and useless, causing drag, the six bolts are meant to be tighted all the way down, only the brit bikes and HD's are adjusted using spring preload witch also keeps them from backing off, go back over the cable set up and release arm to make sure you haven't over looked something, also if you didn't soak the plates in oil and just put them in then the drive and driven plates will stick togeter and cause drag, if it was a parts bike my guess is the where shot to begin with

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Re: clutch

the six bolts are meant to be tighted all the way down, only the brit bikes and HD's are adjusted using spring preload witch also keeps them from backing off

DrDoot, sorry if you have any confusion about how to tighten the clutch spring bolts because of two different kinds of advice.
I see no reason your clutch spring bolts would be torqued any differently from other GS's. The factory manual says about 9 lb/ft. for these bolts on a GS1000. So it's not " Brit bikes and HD's" as BB thinks.
They also need to be torqued gradually as I said. If you don't believe me, make another topic specifically mentioning the correct bolt procedure.
If you tighten them all the way down, you'll have more problems than you do now.
The rest of his advice is fine. I would still try the basic check pinion gear/cable adjustment. Would only take a few minutes. If it doesn't work, then try oiling or replacing parts.

[Anonymous]

new problems

I tightened it down all the way, and it seemed to be doing pretty good. The bike died after about half an hour though and isn't starting back up very easily. What in the hell did I do now. Just before it died, the throttle was sticking and it was revving up to about 5 RPMs by just touching, literally, the throttole. So now the bike isn't starting and the clutch may/may not be overtightened. The thing about the bolts being tight, I do seem to remember them being on there a good ways when I was taking them off, so if they weren't all the way down, they were pretty close. Why wouldn't the bike start now?

[Buffalo Breath]

bolts

once again they tighten all the way to bottom and they final toque to 9lbs, if they did not go to bottom then you would have to set the run out with a dial indicator

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Re: bolts

once again they tighten all the way to bottom and they final toque to 9lbs, if they did not go to bottom then you would have to set the run out with a dial indicator

What do you think I mean when I say torque them to 9 ft/lb?
"Bottomed" or whatever you want to call it, when you've reached the torque spec', stop torquing.
How could you ever reach the torque point if the bolts weren't seated yet?
When you first said "tighten the bolts all the way down", you didn't mention any torque setting at all, or the correct tightening pattern. I took this as a possible over torquing situation.
Seems like we just used different words to describe the same procedure. That's all.