In the words of precious from come fly with me... Me got radial master cylinder 16x me got new Oberon clutch slave cylinder Ne got right way up gearshift again. But, me cant find neutral! I sit in traffic, I go first, I go second, but I find it difficult to find neutral. I fear for my clutch's life! Have I missed something? I remember clunky, but I always could find neutral :/
Not unusual it's a Ducati thing Could never get neutral on my SS Unless it was when I was changing up and down gear at speed :-/ then it liked neutral Try selecting neutral before stopping
Lighter pull slave/master cylinders reduce the amount of travel/seperation of the plates. If you have adjustable span on the lever set it to it's biggest setting, also I find it helps to have a slightly thinner clutch pack as it allows for more seperation. Depending on the overall pack thickness, try swapping a 2mm plain plate with a 1.5mm...
i find i gotta snick up into neutral b4 i stop,or its no go,then kill switch-neutral-fire back up,it does break the boredom at the traffik light grand prix then its fistfull of gas and dump ze clutch-yahoo !!!!!!!!
Yeah mine does this too. I sometimes also find it is in neautral but the light doesn't come on which confuses things further. There is a definate knack to finding neutral at lights which takes a bit of 'feel'. Mind you the lights have usually changed by then so stomp down and off you go!
Try turning in the adjuster screw on the master cylinder a turn or two, also check the stack height it should be 38mm, dukedesmo suggestion is also a good one, I had this problem on my ST4s but sorted it out, it's something you should not accept, its not a Ducati thing...there is something simple amiss.
A few clutch / gearbox related things I've found on my 1995 900SS (14,000miles) after six months use: I can always find neutral from first gear (either rolling to a stop, or at a stop), but it will not go in from second. If you're not really smooth (or really brutal) with the clutch, it complains (feels "graunchy"). There's a false neutral between fourth and fifth gear (just need to be careful changing between these two). I think there's a lot of research over on .ms about finding a clean neutral: Ducati.ms - The Ultimate Ducati Forum
Mine (Monster 600) will not go in if I've stopped, have to kick it in just before I stop or it's turn off to get neutral. I also can get a false neutral between 4th and 5th if I'm not forceful enough with my toes on that change.
I have to go from first to second then tap it down (as if going back to first, but not as hard) and hey presto I get neutral. Occasionally I can get to neutral directly from first, but only occasionally.
Thanks to all of you for the advice, I'm going to try the span adjuster first, then i'll start messing with the plates themselves.
In my experience the number one cause of issues is the rider (me). It can seem like you have a gearbox full of false neutrals yet still not be able to find neutral at lights. To avoid false neutrals be sure to be positive in your gear changes. To get into neutral you need to be much more delicate. Poor chain or clutch maintenance will make things more difficult but the biggest cause is the ridder. Once I had a few thousand miles on my as I have found the gearbox easy to work, a couple of times when I've not ridden her for a while, once after replacing the clutch pack, I've thought the gearbox difficult. A moments reflection and remembering the above two statements and all the problems went away, it really is that easy.
Thanks, and yes it was probably user error, however, taking DrDukes advice and Duke Desmo's advice I took the span adjuster all the way out. That and El Toro's and she finds neutral without a problem. I'll still measure the stack height thought to satisfy my curiosity. So thanks to all.
