I have no way of knowing. I have not had the clutch apart since I have owned the bike (about 1 yr.)
Rex
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Hale" <ray.-@sfcc.edu> To: <Loopfram-@topica.com> Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 3:24 PM Subject: RE: Grabby clutch reappears
Rex, Do you also have the "Sureflex" components? Ray
rccla-@comcast.net wrote:
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.