Welding the Clutch Basket

[Boozy Creek Beast]

Since I am going to have my crank welded and have the entire engine apart I was wondering about the Clutch basket. I have herd comments on the subject and would like to know a little more about the procedure. Is it a necessary addition to the life of my clutch and or engine. Is it difficult and expensive to have done. I little back groung would help.

Thanks
The Beast :twisted:

[massakins]

Beast, the fundamental weakness in the GS series clutch hub results from the helical gear. As the load increases (power and/or traction increased) the helical gear tries to move axially away from the hub; only the interference fit of the OEM rivets resists this movement on the OEM hub.

One upgrade would be to weld the perimeter of the rivet to the steel backing plate; if this is done using a TIG process without filler metal added, i.e. fusing the pieces, there will be minimal change to the balance and significant strength increase. Cost should be less than half an hour at a local weld shop.

The next level up is to replace the OEM springs that are found in the backing plate (3 soft and 3 hard from factory) with 6 heavy ones, install larger diameter rivets and weld as described above to the OEM steel backing plate. A little more expensive, usually performed by a specialty shop (MRE, Star, Falicon, etc.) but stronger yet. I've used this in many a street bike with good success.

Next step is to repeat the second option listed above but also replace the OEM steel backing plate with a thicker one. The heavier one is almost double the thickness of the OEM one and adds a lot of strength. I've used this on my turbo'd dragbike for several years with great results; bear in mind it only has a 7" slick, but the heavy weight, wheelie bars and 1.35 second 60 foot times still load it pretty good.

Additional modifications include billet hubs, straight cut gear conversions, etc. if your situation warrants it. I recommend contacting a specialty shop for more information on this. Jay Reagan at MRE has always treated me right, as have others.

Good luck.

[Big Jay]

Don't bother with welding the stock rivits to the stock plate. You will still have a weak assembly. At the very minimum do the heavy duty springs and rivets welded to the thicker steel plate.

It is all explained here:

http://gszone.biz/clutches.html

Jay

[Jon]

Cluthing at .............. clutches !!!

Gooday,
I had my clutch basket rebuilt with a billet steel backplate and heavy duty springs. This works really well. It handles the extra power of a Wiseco 1170 and 33mm Mikuni smoothbores admirably without going over the top for an everyday streetbike.
Cheers
Jon.

[Hoomgar]

Another thing that "yes" you will want to do while your at it Greg

Although this work can be done anytime as it does not require the cases to be split.