| Hi all,
My 72 Eldorado does exactly the same thing as Joe describes and has since I bought it last fall. I had just decided it must be a quirk of the bike and have lived with it. It does not vary depending on whether bike is hot or cold. It has been consistant as long as I have owned it. So I am interested too. Also mine has a tendency to jump out of first gear while idling with the
clutch disengaged such as at a stop light. Other than that trans operates fine. Does not jump out of gear under a load. When I bought it it did it
regularly. I changed trans fluid and put in a semi-synthetic gear lube and it stopped jumping out of gear for a period of time but has gradually began doing it again. Any ideas. Thanks as always.
Rex Clark
| Ian, I have the same problem with my V-7 Sport. I replaced the clutch hub with the 4mm spline unit & replaced the friction plates with the Sureflex items, all sourced from MG Cycles. I also changed out the springs. My bike doesn't lurch forward like the clutch is either off
or on, but when warm it hooks up pretty fast & sort of shudders, not smooth & progressive. My pressure plate, intermediate plate, & ring gear
were smooth, and I took great care to clean the splines inside the flywheel spotless-no notches there either. I lightly lubed the hub & flywheel splines with BMW spline grease & made sure there wasn't a trace
of contamination on the friction surfaces. I have no trouble with disengagement-I can easily slip into neutral when stopped & it will easily go into 1st hot or cold. The only thing I can think of is the friction charicteristics of the driven plates. I look forward to hearing
what the list has to say.
Ian Adkins wrote:
| Hey All,
Well....after 200 miles, and what I thought was a good fix to my grabby clutch woes on the White Eldo, the problem is reappearing. The good news
is that I now have some experience with the progression of this problem and
can come to some concrete answers. Let me know if you folks agree with my hypothesis.
When I first bought the bike the clutch was VERY grabby...almost unrideable. As I would ease out the cluth, trying to feel for the plates to make contact, nothing would happen and then all of a sudden it would grab and lurch forward (hey...maybe the bikes new name :-)). This problem was less evident when the engine was cold. The bike operated fine once rolling.
I pulled the engine but there were no noticable indicators of something wrong. The splines of all components looked good....the clutch plates had lots of thickness. There was a fair bit of clutch dust in there but nothing gummy. I replaced the clutch plates....realigned the flywheel (it was off), lubed the splines and bolted everything together.
When I first ran the bike everything was nice and smooth. Clutch plates engage evenly and the bike worked like a dream....until 20 miles ago. After spending a good day with my buddy Ed....riding about 80 miles the grabbiness is reappearing...getting progressively worse. I can feel the uneveness of the plates making contact as I engage the clutch. The grabbing appears to be consistent with engine rotation.
The clutch operates smoothly so I don't think there is any binding in the cables. If the problem was with the tranny I think it would have been evident as soon as I ran the bike after the apparent fix. I don't think the problem is in the splines of the tranny hub. I replaced the clutch plates but not the intermediate plate.....
My thinking is a warping intermediate plate as it gets hot. I have yet to retest the bike when cold but will do that sometime today.
Any thoughts?
...Ian |
Joe in St Louis |
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