clutch basket

[Anonymous]

Are you saying that you are not going to measure the old disks first. dont just keep changing parts.
Your problem sounds screwy. Maybe thats why no other folks are getting into the act.

This whole business doesnt sound correct to me. are you Joking with me??

[Anonymous]

woah, slow down there slopoke... i'm not pulling your leg. the metal plates aren't warped (i checked that w/ a piece of glass and the feeler guages)... the only thing i could gather was that they were thicker than the 2mm specified in the clymer manual (i measured them with vernier calipers... they're about 2.5mm each) looking through the old service records, i saw the previous owner had the clutch changed, and used non-genuine suzuki parts. i also noticed the old springs were thicker than the new suzuki ones i ordered, so i'm guessing he had heavy duty ones put in. also, the metal plates weren't "sided" like people said on the site (the teeth look the same on both sides... there's not a "sharp" side and a "rounded" side).

[lhanscom]

If anything, I would think what you just mentioned would cause the clutch to not disengage. Engagement should be fine, unless something else is goofy. There may be an adjustment on how the clutch engages, but I'm not sure, I know there is one on the 750's.

[Anonymous]

i don't follow... engagement = clutch connecting engine and transmission? and there may or may not be something that affects that, other than the springs & pressure plate? like i said earlier, disengaging the clutch is not a problem... shifts are smooth and easy. i think there's somthing weird going on here too, which is why i've been posting for the past few weeks on it (and, slopoke is right, no one's been able to help other than tell me my clutch is slipping)... other than the high rpms, is there a way to tell if it's slipping? the manual says i'm not supposed to be able to start from a dead stop in second gear without stalling the engine, and, if i can, it means my clutch is slipping. well, i can still start in second just fine (though it struggles a little more than before i replaced the asbestos disks). and since i just replaced those disks, it seems like the problem has to be with the metal plates. but, since those plates aren't warped, it doesn't make sense to me that the clutch would still slip. but, i guess it has to make sense, as that seems to be my only option...

[lhanscom]

You can usually feel the clutches slip, there will be increased rpms, and decreased acceleration. What I've experienced is when I shift I'd let go of the clutch and the rpms would climb, but acceleration would be slow until I backed off the gas a little, then you would feel the clutch grab, and you could accelerate again. That may not be what happens for everyone though. When you switched the fibers did you put Mobil 1 in immediately? I'm wondering if you fixed one problem by replacing the fibers, but then the mobil 1 caused the new fibers to slip. That said, I thought that Mobil 1 was ok to use with wet clutches, just trying to narrow it down.

[Anonymous]

no, i've only had the catrol in her since the fiber change (and before the change... right before that, though, i had the mobile one in her, but just for that one change... i don't know what she had before that, but i think the previous owner told me he had been using a 50 weight oil instead of the recommended 40)... i intially thought that maybe it was the mobile one that caused the problems in the first place, but then i realized, like i said, that the problem was there when i first got the bike, so that couldn't have been it. but, now that i mention it, do you think it would make a difference that i switched to the 10w40 when it was running 50 before? i can't imagine that it would. but, then again, i couldn't imagine that it's still slipping...

anyhow, thanks again for the help...

[lhanscom]

50wt is good for higher temps, 40wt is better for colder, but neither would be causing your problems. Not sure if this was already covered or not, but is your clutch cable adjusted properly?

[Anonymous]

i'm pretty sure it was adjusted properly... i had the right amount of free play at the lever. i dunno... i'll just wait and see what happens with these new metal plates... if those don't do it, well, that's when i really start pulling my hairs out...

[Anonymous]

once my shift mechanism slipped when i was on the road in a rain storm and i rode 80 miles just using 5th gear. that business in ther book is hogwash i think.
I have run out of thoughts on this problem. i believe it would be nice if one of us could get some hands on with that problem. It is too crazy to be a dificult thing. It has to be some obviously stupid thing. like the clutch disks being the wrong ones or something.

[Anonymous]

A crazy thought. 8O 8O the gear on the crank is slipping somehow??????????? Is that possible
I switch from synthetic to dynasour and back with the season and nothing slips in my clutch.

[Hoomgar]

A crazy thought. 8O 8O the gear on the crank is slipping somehow??????????? Is that possible

Mine was worn to that point before we tore it down this year Dom. You wouldn't have know it by the way it fit on there but when we looked at it thats what was going on. That's why I not only got a new basket but that end of my crank needed replaced with a new one when Falicon did my crank up. It is very possible!

[Anonymous]

A crazy thought. 8O 8O the gear on the crank is slipping somehow??????????? Is that possible

Mine was worn to that point before we tore it down this year Dom. You wouldn't have know it by the way it fit on there but when we looked at it thats what was going on. That's why I not only got a new basket but that end of my crank needed replaced with a new one when Falicon did my crank up. It is very possible!

Thats amazing Mark I was just grabbing at the wildest thing i could have thought of. the gear on the basket cant slip because it is rivited in place. maybe the small gear on the crank IS the culprit. are you saying that you had the same symptoms Mark???

[Hoomgar]

A crazy thought. 8O 8O the gear on the crank is slipping somehow??????????? Is that possible

Mine was worn to that point before we tore it down this year Dom. You wouldn't have know it by the way it fit on there but when we looked at it thats what was going on. That's why I not only got a new basket but that end of my crank needed replaced with a new one when Falicon did my crank up. It is very possible!

Thats amazing Mark I was just grabbing at the wildest thing i could have thought of. the gear on the basket cant slip because it is rivited in place. maybe the small gear on the crank IS the culprit. are you saying that you had the same symptoms Mark???

That is exactly what was up with mine Dom yes. My clutch slipped when I would stand on it and we figured it was plates etc... When we tore it down we expected to find a worn clutch basket because it was so noisy but we also expected that the plates would be worn too. The plates actually looked fine although I am putting all new everything in it anyway because I am rebuilding it. But the culprit was the splines where it slides over the end of the shaft. Both basket and shaft were shot.

Rock on!

[Anonymous]

hoomgar, how could you tell it was the gear from the engine (the crank?) that was shot? did you just look at what was going on when you took off the clutch cover?

as for wrong plates, i thought maybe that was it too, but i measured all the new ones and they're the right thickness, and the teeth are the right size (and they all had the correct suzuki part number on the sealed bags they came in), so i think those are fine. but, one thing i did notice... do these plates deteriorate with age? about 4 of the new plates seemed like they were NOS (the labels were definitely old and faded, and the teeth seemed to have a fine layer of rust forming on them...)

another thing, which may or may not be relevant... the pivot arm (the little arm that the clutch cable attaches to). before i replaced the plates, i was able to pivot the little arm manually away from the engine (opposite of the way it moves when you pull the lever in) freely. after replacing the plates, the arm didn't pivot like that anymore. is that an indication of anything?

as for someone else getting their hands dirty and taking a look, please, feel free to stop by and see what you think (when this d@mn rain stops). i'm located in nyc (in brooklyn)

[Hoomgar]

hoomgar, how could you tell it was the gear from the engine (the crank?) that was shot? did you just look at what was going on when you took off the clutch cover?

as for wrong plates, i thought maybe that was it too, but i measured all the new ones and they're the right thickness, and the teeth are the right size (and they all had the correct suzuki part number on the sealed bags they came in), so i think those are fine. but, one thing i did notice... do these plates deteriorate with age? about 4 of the new plates seemed like they were NOS (the labels were definitely old and faded, and the teeth seemed to have a fine layer of rust forming on them...)

another thing, which may or may not be relevant... the pivot arm (the little arm that the clutch cable attaches to). before i replaced the plates, i was able to pivot the little arm manually away from the engine (opposite of the way it moves when you pull the lever in) freely. after replacing the plates, the arm didn't pivot like that anymore. is that an indication of anything?

as for someone else getting their hands dirty and taking a look, please, feel free to stop by and see what you think (when this d@mn rain stops). i'm located in nyc (in brooklyn)

We didn't know that until we tore the bottom apart for rebuild. We knew the crank was twisted but the clutch slippage was due to uneven pressure because the basket could wobble around on the end of the shaft. We could really notice that much until we tore it apart as it only moved a little bit. But once apart you could really see it. Sometimes the clutch was better than other times. This was why.