Subject: FW: Grabby clutch....no....lurching tranny
Author: Ian Adkins
Date: Oct 27, 2003, 8:56 AM
Post ID: 1715008595
Not sure if this went out. Here it is again...sorry for the wasted
bandwidth.
| -----Original Message----- From: Ian Adkins [mailto:ianad-@linkamerica.net] Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2003 8:55 AM To: Loopframe Cc: Ed Flanagan; Frank Wedge; Doug Adkins Subject: Grabby clutch....no....lurching tranny Hey all, Finally a solution to my "grabby clutch". By the way I am no longer going to call this a clutch problem because Ed and I feel that the problem was in the tranny. Here are the details and my thoughts on this. I would be interesting to hear what you think of the logic: The two problems that I was facing on the white Eldo were a "lurching" as the clutch was engaged and a "binding" noise that was heard when the bike was on the center stand and idling in gear. We thought that the sound might be a bad pinion gear but all was clean and tight in the rear end. As I have mentioned many a time....the clutch assembly looked good with no apparant wear in the splines. No metal bits.....no real sign of anything wrong. The tranny felt nice and smooth...shifted through all the gears....felt as though everything was nice and tight. Ed and I decided to pull the back plate off to have a look inside....just to ok the tranny....we had done everything else! As I removed the nut holding the layshaft (one coming out of the tranny...hooks into the ujoint) I thought something didn't feel right. It undid very easy and was binding a bit as I backed it off. Weird I thought. As we pulled the back plate I noticed that the speedo ball was sitting out from the recess. There was also definate signs of scoring around the nut. Interestingly the ball bearing was fine. I should have taken pics but I did not bring the camera...damm! Well...Ed and I discussed the idea of what would happen if the ball was out and why there wasn't more damage to everything. We didn't really know until we put everything back together and were running through the gears before tightening the nut on the layshaft. As we were running through the gears we noticed that the layshaft would shift back as we changed gears. Here is my thought on the binding...the lurching: Whomever worked on the tranny.....the either did not put the speedo ball in the correct recess (there is only one) or it popped out as they tightened the nut. At any rate as the nut was tightened against the ball bearing and once the locktab was knocked down then it was set in position....too loose. So why the "lurch"? Well....as I said earlier...I noticed the layshaft moving as I shifted through the gears. Well....if the layshaft could not shift as it was inserted into the ujoint then as I engaged the clutch the layshaft could slide on the helical gear...essentially "jumping". I am thinking that this "lurch" was caused by that.....the helical gears sliding a bit. As for the binding noise.....I am pretty sure that the ball bearing was the culprit for that. As to why this did not destroy things? I think the gears could stay engaged and under normal loads shifted to a position that did not place undo pressure on the ball bearing. The problem all seemed to be associated with engaging the clutch.....putting load into the tranny that would caused this apparant shift in the layshaft. So....all the gears looked perfect in the tranny.....the ball bearing is back into its recess...the lock ring is nice and tight. All that is left is to reinstall the engine and test the bike. Thoughts? Will get back to you all as I get into testing....Ian |