Clutch question

Hi y'all.

I have a weird clutch issue. I replaced the friction discs and springs in hopes of solving a slipping issue I was having on my high mileage 99. It mostly helped. However, what emerged was twofold. First, when the clutch is cold, and I try and move the bike in gear, with the clutch pulled in, then I can feel the clutch grabbing and I have to give it a fair shove to get it to roll, then it's fine. Second issue is that when he clutch is cold and I get on it, it slips maybe once or twice, then after it warms up, it grabs. So for example, getting on the freeway and getting on it to accelerate up the on ramp, it will slip, then after it grabs, it will be fine the rest of the ride, regardless of length of the ride. I've bled the clutch, but I suppose I could do it again to eliminate any possible air. When I replaced the friction disks, the pressure plates were all uniform in color and I actually soaked the discs in oil for a couple of days. When I replaced them, I put everything on in the order it came off. I replaced it with an EBC set, with springs that are supposedly 15% stronger than stock.I guess I'll take it apart again and verify that it's all in the correct order, but I'm open to ideas.

Suggestions?

 

I have no experience replacing clutches, but it does seem odd that it both grabs and slips. Could one or more of the pressure plates be hanging up, or the basket have a nick?

 

bleed the slave, check it for leaks

 

As our Saskatchewanese member suggests above, something is causing your plates to sometimes stick together, possibly a result of air in the system, reducing the amount of clutch slave movement.

After the bike is warmed up and ridden there should be very minimal or no drag when pushing the bike in gear with the clutch handle depressed.

 

Lint, I did exactly what you did to my own clutch, new EBC friction discs and springs. As far as I can tell, my clutch works perfectly.

All clutches will be sticky when the oil is cold; the oil will stick the plates together, and you do have to break them loose as you describe, so that sounds completely normal. This is one of the reasons that the first time you put the bike in gear, you get a bigger clunk than subsequent times when it is warmed up.

Regarding your slipping clutch, that should only happen if there is some pressure in the clutch line that is preventing the springs from holding the discs together, maybe a little bit of crud in the master cylinder return port. So bleeding the system fully, and if need be cleaning the MC, might be in order.

 

Most of the time you replace both friction and steel. The steel usually goes first. Did you put them on a known flat surface and mic them for warpage. Max warp is only .012". I've never had a problem when replacing both. Always had some type of problem or noise with Barnett clutches. I've never used them on my stuff. Heard EBC was good but never used them. Most after market are not any better than Honda stock.

 

I'm willing to bet that your problem isn't with the clutch itself, but is in the hydraulic clutch actuation.

If you clean and refurbish the hydraulic actuator (both the master cylinder and the slave cylinder) I think you'll get a good result. Simply throwing new fluid at the problem (bleeding the system) may not help if there's a blockage (in your case I'm thinking it is not a full blockage but very nearly that).

I just finished cleaning and refurbishing the hydraulic clutch in my '99 5th gen and it was in horrible condition. It had a huge amount of old, solidified DOT 4 in it. There's a tiny little pressure bleed-off orifice in the very bottom of the master cylinder reservoir that was nearly blocked and I think this was contributing to my bike's odd clutch action, which was that it was sometimes slow to "take up" when I released the clutch lever. My clutch would slip and judder for a moment before the friction plates got a bite on the pressure plates. I think that partial (almost complete) blockage in my bike's hydraulic clutch actuation system was causing this odd delayed action.

The only other thing you might want to look at is the condition of your Clutch Lifter Rod (part # 22850-MBG-000 ). If it is corroded or scored or roughed up at all it may not slide back and forth like it was meant to do. If its surface is messed up at all I'd say you should replace it, the part only costs $12 at Hondapartshouse (just for an example).