You're out of your depth, not listening either, take it to someone who knows before you cost yourself more money.
You do need to read up on hydraulic clutches. Pulling the lever pushes a column of fluid from the master cylinder to the slave cylinder. The slave cylinder in our Ducatis pushes a pushrod which lifts the pressure plate, releasing the clutch by taking the pressure of the clutch springs off the plates and allowing them to move apart. The differential sizes of the master and slave cylinders gives mechanical advantage over the clutch springs, so that a large movement at the lever is translated into a smaller movement at the pressure plate, effectively a form of gearing. Any air in the column of hydraulic fluid impairs the efficiency of the system because air compresses easily, so some of the movement of the lever is not translated into movement of the pressure plate. The more air you have, the worse it is. So, the small movement of the pressure plate gets even smaller. For these clutches to work well, you need to get as close as possible to no air at all. The clutch lever is adjustable for span. If this is adjusted so you have more than a tiny amount of free play, this will restrict the total movement of the lever, again translating into even less movement of the pressure plate. Sitting at idle with yor clutch pulled in is a bad thing, you should do this as little as possible, even with a healthy clutch, as it wears the clutch release bearing. With a dragging clutch it is a really bad thing, as the friction of a dragging clutch will quickly lead to the symptoms you describe - smoking, smelling etc. So you need to check your stack height, make sure you only have seven friction plates, maybe bleed your clutch or get it bled and put your bike in neutral at lights.
Check your aftermarket lever. On some it is possible to go beyond max and this reduces the available movement instead of increasing it
did i read you have an aftermarket pressure plate. does this have the lead teeth removed from it compared to a standard one.. this will also make getting the stack height accurate more important whereas with the standard cover like the picture above its not so important....
Is the bearing in the pressure plate working? sounds like you could be spinning the pushrod which is gonna royally fuck things up!
If it's not a spinning pushrod, air in the fluid or the clutch lever span but due to an over high clutch stack, I have a suggestion. Some people have done the quiet clutch by reordering their existing plates, in fact someone I know has done it. Take one of your friction plates out and put it at the bottom, then put the rest of the plates in alternately. That should cure the drag and give you a quiet clutch in one fell swoop. Make sure you have a plain plate at the top though.
Of course if the clutch is dragging and your holding the bike still on the brakes it will get extremely hot, do it for long enough it'll certainly smoke, you're probably cooking the friction plates :Wideyed: Sounds like a slave or master cylinder issue providing you've got your stack height corrected.
it just doesnt add up...all i did was install a NEW clutch friction pack, and ive ditched the quiet mod. nothing is different, everything is fitted in order as per the workshop manual. i have 7 (SEVEN) friction plates in my clutch pack, i am not retarded guys. i know how hydraulics work, and i can assure you, i haven't touched the clutch hydraulics at all. so no air was introduced into the loop... if there was air in it already, shouldn i not have had problems BEFORE changing the clutch pack? to clarify, when im on idle, i was NOT pulling the lever... there was still smoke and smell of ceramic though. when i go onto first gear, and pull in the clutch, the bike does not drag... the bike only drags after the temp on the dash gets to about 91+ degrees C. at that point i have to pull up, turn the engine off, and wait for it to cool down, about 5 minutes is enough. until it starts to happen again, (takes about 10 minutes) the after-market pressure plate has the teeth on there and its matched up correctly.
The normal test of dragging is if you can engage 1st gear from neutral with the bike at rest and the engine running. If you can, you're doing well for drag and your clutch won't need bleeding. Maybe you have got a spinning pushrod, like @andyb suggested... Btw, Andy wasn't questioning if you had teeth but, I think, how easily they can engage the hub compared to a standard pressure plate. You'd need a standard pressure plate to compare to of course but I think he's suggesting it may be more critical to get your stack height perfect with your aftermarket plate,so if this is new, that affect things
ive always had this pressure plate on, the firs thing i did was get a different pressure plate when i bought the bike. and yes, i can engage 1st from neutral, but when it gets hot etc. and the bike starts draggin i cant change gear, untill i stop, let it cool, and start again. what can i do to fix if the pushrod is spinning. or how do i detect it
With the engine turned off, and the gearbox in neutral. If you pull in the clutch lever can you spin the pressure plate by hand??
There's a bearing in the centre of the pressure plate it should spin freely if not it will spin the pushrod
Some light reading: Avanti Race Parts - Ducati Parts and Accessories for Road and Race Motorcycles. Services for Ducati Motorcycles. Race prep, Paintwork, ECU Repairs, Anodising and more!
Don't know if this has already been mentioned, to late to reread the whole thread, but the friction plates can come in different thickness, apparently.
