28-06-14, 09:41 PM
I've finally managed to get my gearbox to work smoothly, I was getting really fed up with the stupidly clunky gear change on my bike so decided to have a look inside the clutch to hopefully find out what the problem was. I'd read about the little core plug on the end of the clutch shaft coming out allowing the oil to bypass the clutch plates, but mine was still in situ so that ruled that out. Next I took the clutch plates off, I noticed there wasn't much oil on them with the inner most plates almost bone dry, so much so, the steel friction plates were slightly blued with heat. As standard they are just not getting enough oil, there are little oil holes in the basket that are supposed to allow oil onto the plates but they are not sufficient.
While the plates were off I left them soaking in oil. To improve the oil supply I drilled some additional 4mm holes around the basket between the teeth near the base to get some oil to the driest plates.
I assembled everything and now if I take the oil filler cap off with the engine running I can see oil being flung off the clutch which I couldn't see before.
I went for a run and the difference is amazing, I'd say its 95% better than before. There's still a bit of a clunk going into first from neutral but it's a huge improvement, changing gear up and down is far smoother and now I can get nice slick shifts.
The picture shows a core plug that has popped out of the shaft, if you look at the clutch you can see the oil holes at about the 4 o'clock position. I drilled the additional holes every second tooth, one near the base and one near the middle.
I've only covered about 600 miles so far but the difference is amazing.
Jim.
While the plates were off I left them soaking in oil. To improve the oil supply I drilled some additional 4mm holes around the basket between the teeth near the base to get some oil to the driest plates.
I assembled everything and now if I take the oil filler cap off with the engine running I can see oil being flung off the clutch which I couldn't see before.
I went for a run and the difference is amazing, I'd say its 95% better than before. There's still a bit of a clunk going into first from neutral but it's a huge improvement, changing gear up and down is far smoother and now I can get nice slick shifts.
The picture shows a core plug that has popped out of the shaft, if you look at the clutch you can see the oil holes at about the 4 o'clock position. I drilled the additional holes every second tooth, one near the base and one near the middle.
I've only covered about 600 miles so far but the difference is amazing.
Jim.