Clutch Question

I Bought this VFR750 that had been sitting for the past 7 years. Rebuilt the master cyl and slave cyl. I have great pressure in the lever. The problem is when the bike is in gear with the lever pulled, the clutch is not engaging. I have not removed the side cover to look yet. I'm thinking the discs could be corroded and stuck together. Any ideas of what I'm getting myself into??????

 

Pull the clutch cover and check the travel of the clutch and disassemble the plate if the travel is good and see if they are stuck together.Really simple thing to do.

 

The clutch is not engaging when the clutch lever is pulled? Mine works like that too and I sure am glad.

 

Gotta read between the lines from time to time.

 

I sometimes clutch at straws.

 

Mine was jacked up when I bought it, the "mechanic" that owned it had pulled the clutch basket and not realigned it with oil pump sprocket, everything felt fine on the lever but the clutch would not release (slip). I even pulled the cover, pulled the lever and the clutch plates were loose in the basket as they should have been, just no clutch.

It was a very simple fix after the 30 mile round trip to the shop to get the right size socket

I know my v45 Sabre is made the same way so I assume the ceptor would be too.

if you pull the cover don't forget to keep the bolts in order, there are a couple of long ones that I hear are a real pain to figure out which hole they go in if you get them out of order. Never tried it but it sounded reasonable.

 

Yea I guess I didn't word this one too well..... If I do pull the cover and cannot separate the discs is it a big deal to replace them? I have never dug into the clutch on any bike. This is and carbs will be my winter project.

 

You will be able to separate them, dig in and inspect the situation. Trust me this is very simple and straight foward.

 

Thanks, hopefully I will get a chance to work it this weekend.

 

Assuming you have fresh oil in the bike, get the rear wheel off the deck and run the bike in first while pumping the clutch lever for a quick fix.

Some of the good wrenches on here might have some ideas about a flush too. That's a long time for oil to sit in an engine.

 

Oh yeah, forgot an old trick I use to use on cars. In a safe place, running in neutral, push it and once rolling kick in first, you can get speed or stay in first your choice. Hold the clutch in and hit the back brakes hard while maintaining throttle. Assuming the plates/ disks are just stuck, rusted together it will generally brake them loose.

I don't really recommend this for a wet clutch for obvious contamination reasons but it should work unless some one pulled it and put it back in wrong.

 

Right now the carbs are off and getting rebuilt. I will try running it on the swingarm stand first, but I probably will order the gasket now!

 

Do cars have clutches too? Damn, what will they think of next?

 

The bike has 27K miles on it so it might just be best to replace the disks. I have seen disk and spring kits on e-bay for around $70.00. Is there a particular brand other than going to Honda I should look for?

 

If your discs are toast, then they should be replaced. Like was said maybe somebody ripped into the bike and the reassembly was faulty. The plates may be shot or dried out. Point being you don't know until you try to free it up or inspect the assembly. The gasket is a must. Maybe a fiver? Not big deal..

Ebay is Ebay is Ebay.. Your local Honda dealer will get to you for all they can. Lots of online suppliers of Honda parts to choose from. I have been happy with Bike Bandit.. Usually 2-3 days and no hassles..

I have nearly 70 k on my 91 and I did have to replace the pressure boot in the clutch master cylinder but the clutch is fine... 27k unless somebody is a clutch rider is nothing..

Clutch folks? Try Barnett... In biz for who knows how long.. years..

 

I generally go with Barnett, I've installed other brands for other people and they seem to have held up fine from what I've seen.

The biggest thing is that the steel plates are not warped or discolored (over heated at some point) and are in spec (thickness). If you've got a warped plate it can cause gremlins to reside in the right case cover.

I did run into a couple of gremlins on my Sabre clutch, even with every thing in spec it would slip at full throttle even after I replaced the steel plates. I ended up blasting them with aluminium oxide, problem solved. A year later I tore it down and replaced the slipper clutch with a standard set up from a Magna (knock a little off rotating mass) and checked every thing, there was virtually no wear on the friction disks and the steel plates were smoothed out but never slipped again.

 

I run stock plates with Red Line springs, bullet proof set up. I have had too many problems with Barnett plates wearing into the basket, they have been improved with wider fingers but never had an issue with stock plates.