Subject: The clutch mystery continues
Author: Ian Adkins
Date: Oct 19, 2003, 6:51 AM
Post ID: 1714916202
Well folks....instead of riding in this beautiful fall weather Ed and I
decided to pull the engine from the White Eldo and see what we could find.
The grabby clutch was back and now a new twist...a binding sound coming from
the rear end (or transmitting to the rear end).
Of course as we pulled the tranny from the engine there was no indication of
anything drastic. Everything looked as it should. Clutch assembly was nice
and tight...no metal bits and pieces. No indications that anything was
wrong.
We pulled the ring gear and subsequent plates. Again....all looked ok.
Splines good....no indications of wear.....certainly it looked no different
than the previous time...about 300 miles ago.
I looked at the pressure plate and intermediate plate. The only thing that
gave me an indication of a problem area appeared to be that there were shiny
spots around the surface of the pressure plate...indication that the plate
may not be contacting the clutch plates evenly. I sprayed some graphite
grease on the surface and proceeded to turn a clutch plate on the suface by
hand...then another plate. Sure enough three spots of wear appeared. Could
this be the problem?? Hard for me to believe that something so small could
be the culprit. Nevertheless this appears to be the only anomoly in this
whole ordeal.
I called Mark (MGClassics) and he was kind enough to spend some time
offering advice and suggestions. Good to have an expert to bounce ideas off
of. I sure wish he was local....I would love for him to see the bike in
person and look at the bits and pieces.
Ed and I decided to have a look at the rear drive while we were in
investigative mode. Pulled the pinion and it looked great. Bearings rolled
true, drive gear was good and the sump in the rear drive was free of any
metal. Nothing....perfect.
OK....so where am I with all this you ask? Engine is good and strong. I
won't touch it. I will replace springs and clutch plates. I will have the
pressure plate, intermediate plate and ring gear checked and
resurfaced/replaced if neccessary. Ed and I will pull the tranny back plate
off and have a look next weekend. Swing arm, carrier bearing, Ujoint will be
reinspected.
I thought I did this the last time.....I guess I was mislead by the
simplistic nature of these bikes and thought that there had to be something
visually obvious to have a problem such as the one I experienced.
Hopefully this will be the last time I have to pull the engine for a while.
Thanks for listening.