Just looked at my clutch plates on my 916SP engine (now a 955) and they look very worn. It is a slipper and has the 8 2.5mm plate setup. Any recommendations on clutch manufacturers & suppliers who can supply me with replacements? The plain plates look ok, I just need the friction ones.
My Ducati Performance slipper in my 916 uses the standard friction plates. A tip: measure the total stack height of the whole lot when it comes out. I had to replace some of my 2.0 mm steel plates with 1.5mm plates to account for the brand new friction plate material as I couldn't get neutral stationary and had to hold the brake to avoid it creeping. I also find a bit of lithium grease on the steel plates helps with shudder.
measuring the height of what comes out including the worn friction plates will give a false reflection of what is needed...you need to either a measure the stack height complete with new frictions to achieve a given height as recommended eg 36.5mm or more accurately b measure the depth of the last plate to the inner drum lip to achieve 4-5mm for a more accurate way of doing business
I believe that OEM SPS friction plates are thinner sintered plates, thus there are more of them than standard. I had a Bucci/DP slipper in mine and it provided two different arrangements for plates/frictions depending on which type you had. I used the SPS arrangement and the clutch was always sweeeeeet as a silky thing.
Most get replaced because the tabs get worn, long before the friction material shows wear. If the tabs are fine, then chances are that the friction material is too.
I used a micrometer to measure them and many are now thinner than the recommended 2.3mm minimum. Total stack height is now 36.5mm instead of 38mm. If I could buy a few replacements I could get rid of the worn ones and I could get the stack back to 38mm. BTW it's a Fast-By-Ferracci slipper clutch which uses standard SP plates.
I believe some slipper clutches have a stack arrangement where a friction plate goes in first at the bottom of the stack. If you have that plus a basket with oem style curved ends at the bottom of the slots, that could explain why you could have worn friction material without having knackered tabs.