Clutch won’t disengage

[taber hodaka]

The bottom line is that it's nice the clutch works. -----------------Clarence

[viclioce]

Well Clarence, the clutch didn’t work. It may have been the wrong model. Yesterday I found an older Ace clutch with 3 steel plates & 4 friction discs. I’m pretty sure it’s an Ace clutch because it still had slotted screws instead of phillips!

Pulled it apart, removed old plates and friction disks and did the recommended blueprint filing. Re-assembled with all new plates & friction discs. Tightened all screws.

Had dinner, then went back out and dig up my spool of safety wire and installed the wire. It was cold and windy today and rained off and on. So hopefully, I’ll get the newly rebuilt clutch installed tomorrow. I’ll post how it worked out. Victor

[viclioce]

Question about the clutch disc spacers, for clarification.

Am I correct that you would use more spacers with a new clutch pack than with one that had significant use? In other words, the more wear the clutch has on it, the less number/thickness of spacers are needed behind the clutch disc?

And, is the amount & thickness of spacers needed, since there are 3 different thicknesses, all just a test and see situation in order to maintain a 3/32” free play action?

Since this is the first clutch I’m rebuilding I haven’t needed to deal with this before. I always just cleaned & lubed the existing clutch and used it as is with the spacers installed with the clutches. So this is something I need to know. Thx! Victor

[thatsjefftoo]

So, when you squeeze the clutch lever, you lift the clutch lever arm, which pushes the "Throw out bearing" small steel actuator sleeve, and that intern pushes on the clutch disk. So it you add washers under the clutch disk, it will move the clutch disk closer to the steel actuator sleeve thus taking out more slack.
More washers would cause the clutch to compress and slip
So removing washers would increase slack
I believe this is solid but if i am wrong please let me know

On my bike, i have no slack, this is bad, and I have no extra thrust washer in there either
I have the 2 mm inside (944016) which goes next to the crank case and the Outside thrust washer which goes towards the case cover (904015) just under the Clutch rotor gear ( .33mm? its thin) and that's all standard

And i am using a genuine cardboard clutch cover gasket with would also effect the free play
Ideas?
Jeff in Texas

[Dale]

Could be worn clutch discs. The clutch moves outward as the discs wear and therefore require that spacers be removed over time. If you have no spacers then either the discs are worn out or possibly dealing with a clutch pack assembly error.

[Bullfrog]

For "Jeff in Texas" - you report having no clutch lever freeplay (lever at the engine). This would result in the absolute maximum of "throw-out" when you activate the handle bar clutch lever - and could cause (actually, would tend to cause) clutch slipping all the time (since the clutch is not being allowed to fully engage). Since your clutch won't release even with this extreme situation, it is clear something is wrong inside. Time for clutch dissassembly, inspection, re-build. And yes, selecting the proper shim stack thickness after the rebuild is a "trial-and-error" process. NOTE: Experience and history has confirmed that 3/32" of freeplay at the end of the engine clutch lever may be an un-neccessarily "tight" specification. Some racers set-up at nearly 3/8" of freeplay - and then abuse the living heck out of the clutch. As the friction disks wear and the clutch assembly moves "out", freeplay is reduced - but with this "racer spec.", the rider should not experience clutch slippage due to loss of freeplay during a race. (using the tighter 3/32", he/she just might)

Ed

[ossa95d]

Jeff in Texas, I think we may be assuming that your clutch won't disengage because of the title of this pre-existing thread. Your assumptions seem to be correct, but given the subject line I have to ask, does your clutch slip or disengage or is it always fully engaged?