Just to finish off this thread for anyone else reading it in the future @Expat Jack sent me some photos from The Red Baron’s Desmo book which show how to identify the dished plate and where in the stack it should go. Mine is presently in the middle so I’ll rejig it to make it the first after the first friction plate as per the photo.
I use a mixture of 1.5 and 2mm plain plates to reduce the pack thickness to under 38mm, otherwise get drag and selecting neutral is tricky. I also don't use any dished plates, don't see the point in having a plate that doesn't make full contact? Both my bike's clutches work perfectly.
when the clutch is in drive it is making full contact.....when you pull the gear lever in it helps control or slow down the engagement and disengagement reducing noise and graunching.
No graunching and clutch engages/disengages fine as it is, but surely a dished plate won't flex enough to completely flatten so not all the plate will be in contact unless it wears a taper into the friction plate? Either way I've been using all flat plates for years with no bother.
Are you 100% certain they’re all flat? The difference is imperceptible. Without examining every single drive plate individually, both ways up, against the stack of others could I ascertain it. It is supposed to have a dot and I couldn’t see any dot on any plate. However, having found which of mine was the dished plate the other day when I rejigged them earlier today to get the dished plate into the correct place I found, hidden under some caked on clutch dust the tiniest of dots. clearly you know your bikes the best but there just might be one hiding in there you’re unaware of
Yes, 100% I took the dished plates out, initially as an experiment and when all was OK I ditched them completely. I have quite a selection of plates; 2mm flat, 1.5mm flat and 1.5mm dished (with the dot), the dished are in the box of spares on the shelf.
