The clutch "went" recently and when I stripped it down last night I discovered it was seized in that about half the plates were fused together by rust, probably because the bike is my daily rider so it lives out in the yard, plus it has an open clutch cover and we have had proper biblical levels of rainfall recently. I freed the plates and cleaned them up and reassembled the stack in the same order it came out in (I think). When I came to test the operation of the clutch I found the lever pulls back to about the two thirds point but no further as it is goes solid. I am a little hampered at the moment because unfortunately when I went to strip it all down again, the hex head on one of the bolts on a spring post rounded out so I now need to extract it. On top of that, I think the last person to tighten the bolts holding the slave cylinder on must have been on steroids as it is impossible to shift and so far I've snapped two Allen keys trying to free it. I have doused it in WD40 overnight and will have a go at it with a blowtorch tomorrow. I should also add FWIW, when I took the pressure plate off, the pushrod remained stuck in the bearing and so it came out with the PP and was re-inserted with it but seemed to slide back into place ok. Any ideas for things to try ? I am well aware from previous adventures of this nature that there is a bit of a knack to getting these clutches to work correctly, so teach me your ways o' wise ones. Thanks.
Not uncommon for the push rod to come out with the pp as its a snug fit in the pp bearing. There is a lil o ring on it that you should check is sound , apply a lil grease to the push rod and re- insert carefully. Strange that a retaining screw would round off as they shouldn't be done up tight at all.. is the pressure plate correctly engaged/lined up ?
Just a thought, did you or anyone operate the clutch lever whilst the push rod was out? Also have you bled the clutch?
Thanks @chizel and @Harry Bell I’ve managed to get the rounded off fastener out but only by sacrificing a spring post cap in the process. The screw extractors wouldn’t budge it, so I cut a slot in it with my Dremel and used a flat head screwdriver to back it out, but as the head of the fastener was recessed in the “well” of the spring post cap I couldn’t avoid cutting that too. Thankfully I have some spare caps somewhere but I’m sure, as is the case 90% of the time, I won’t be able to find them so I’ll buy some more on eBay and then they’ll turn up once the new ones have arrived. Anyway, this is how things appear at the moment. The clutch pack looks like it’s been at the bottom of the English Channel but all the plates are moving freely and the basket isn’t badly notched. The pushrod bearing seems to be seated correctly. One thing I did notice when I had it all apart yesterday is that the pack contains additional thin steel rings that fit inside the inner radius of the plates, which I haven’t seen before in other Ducati clutches I’ve dismantled. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo. Right....I only came back in to use the WiFi to post these pics so I’m off out again for a fiddle. If those pics raise any obvious issues please post comments/advice. Thanks
I used to always have the same problem finding "stuff" until I bought two of these. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tool-Box...var=630972988819&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 I still have the problem, but now there are 72 things I can always find!
I already have one of those Borrowers filing cabinet thingies but unfortunately all I ever seem to do is frantically open and close all those tiny little drawers looking for something I will eventually mysteriously find in around 6 months time in the pocket of a pair of jeans I have never worn while working on the bikes
Update This time I pulled the whole stack out and found that I’d been wrong when I thought that only the top half of the plates were seized. So I freed the remaining plates cleaned everything up and reassembled it (drum roll)......... The remaining seized plates Stack seems a bit chunky. IIRC, shouldn’t it be 38mm? One of the two thin steel rings which sit inside one of the friction plates. ........only to find the problem remained
Sorted it. When refitting the PP again after the first disassembly I couldn’t find the usual dot that is on the OE PP and which you need to line up with the slotted post. It’s an aftermarket DP item and so I just assumed that the absence of the dot must mean it doesn’t need to be lined up with any particular post. Wrong. Purely by chance when refitting the PP after a further unsuccessful round of experimentation, I found a notch on the outer rim of the PP, lined that up with the slotted post and “presto hey”, it all works again. Thanks for the input Chiz, Harry and Jez
On the subject of finding things..... After I sorted the clutch, the b@stard bike wouldn’t start (I eventually traced the problem to the neutral switch wire) but while investigations were ongoing, I lifted the tank and lo and behold, there were the keys to my RS Bandit 12 track bike which had been missing for days
Crikey the drum and plates look amazingly shit and corroded! Not surprised the assembly was corroded together. Time for a non-vented cover?
The outer friction plate looks too near the outer edge of the basket to me chap, that leads me to conclude that your stack height is too high. The friction plates in your pic's look like Red Barnett items to me, some Barnett clutches used a plain steel disc with a larger ID, inside this plate were located a pair of smaller discs that are actually dished springs that should be fitted opposing each other. If you find yourself stuck I've plenty of steel spring cups going spare, just PM me and they're yours for a drink and the postage. Steve R
As @Steve Robins says above, the stack height looks too high. The distance between the drum face (green) and the first plate face (red) should be around 5mm.
Looking again at your clutch pack/stack, you have a very thick (Barnett part) steel plate. Loose that part 1st to get the pack down to a workable level. You should start with a friction plate and then alternate them with the steel/driven plates, ending up with a steel one. If the stack ends up too low then you can add an extra steel one. In my collection of parts I've a HUGE pile of steel plates in differing thickness', 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm and convex/dished spring plates to shuffle any clutch pack to get it too a working height. I've had a few sets of Barnett plates over the years and some have come with that very thick (3-4mm) plate, I've never found the need to use one yet?? Steve R
Thanks for the further replies chaps. Once I had the PP lined up correctly it all worked fine again despite the fact that the plates looked like they'd been salvaged from The Titanic before I cleaned them up, and the stack is 43mm rather than 38mm. I think it's definitely time for a tarp and a closed clutch cover though.
Not for 4 bikes it aint! I did have Carla the S4 Special in my living room at my last place but it's not possible here due to awkward turns immediately after both the front and rear doors. Two, soon to be three, bikes live in the summer house, now workshop, at the end of the garden, but the S4R lives in the yard. This is because getting a bike out of the workshop involves unlocking several locks and chains, a 9 point turn to get it into the area by the door then backing it down the ramp, then performing another 9 point turn to get it facing the right way, re-securing all the locks and chains, wheeling the bike down the garden and then squeezing it through the narrow garden gate into the yard. It's major faffology, basically, and discourages me from riding, so I wanted to be able to just jump on and ride at least one of them, and as the other 3 bikes are respectively 2 show pony customs and a track bike, they get used less regularly so getting them out of the workshop isn't such a bid deal.
