Courtesy of Steve Bell
Clutch Plates
Life is never easy.
When I first bought my VX a year ago I noticed that on the odd occasion, when I opened up the throttle and put the engine under stress, the clutch tended to slip a little. Over the year it got worse and worse. It never got to the point where it was dangerous, just to the point where it was annoying.
I decided to change the clutch plates.
I bought the clutch plates from M&P for £32. They could not however supply me with new clutch springs despite their magazine saying they could !
This is how I went about it.
Soak the new clutch plates in new engine oil for 24 hours.
Warm the engine and empty the oil from the engine. Let the engine cool.
Remove exhaust pipe on the left hand side.
Remove the rear break lever. (This gave me the chance to copper grease the break spindle because it was very dry)
Remove engine cover
Remove the 8 spring loaded bolts that hold the clutch plates together - noting where the bolts came from.
Remove the top pressure plate.
Remove the old clutch plates and replace them with the 7 new clutch plates.
Re assemble everything . (steps 7-1). Note that a new gasket seal will be needed on the engine cover, unless, like me you use silicon gaskets from a tube.
Put new oil in the engine.
Adjust the clutch using the clutch adjustment locking bolt beneath the rear right hand (nearside) engine cover plate. I found that unscrewing it until there was no back pressure on the clutch lever then tightening until resistance was found and then locking the bolt in place.
Warm the engine up again and leave to run for a while, changing gear whilst the bike was on the centre stand.
Test ride !!
The steps 2 - 12 took me 3 hours of steady work. It was so easy.
The result of the clutch plate change is (1) No clutch slip at all. (2) The clutch engages when the clutch lever is closer to the handle bar.
Comparing the new plates to the old showed that the old plates were very worn. The new cluctch plates were about 3mm thicker than the old.
Engine cover removed to show clutch. Note the 8 spring loaded bolts and the silver pressure plate.
Bolts and pressure plates removed showing the old worn plates.
Clutch adjustment is made from the locking bolt on the nearside.
And a photo of the old cluch plates in case you didn't know what they look like. (I didn't !!)
March 2000
UPDATE APRIL 28th 2000
After a 1000 miles the clutch began to slip again !
I bought some new clutch springs (£14 from a Suzuki Dealer) and took the bike apart.
Inspection of the old springs against the new springs showed that the old springs were 1mm shorter than the new ones.
I also found that the retaining bolts that hold the clutch together were not evenly tightened a mistake from the original clutch plate change and the outer clutch plate was slightly uneven in its wear pattern.
After putting the new springs in and swopping the paltes around I found the clutch was even better than when the new plates were put in.
The moral of this story is (1) change the springs when changing the clutch plates and (2) make sure the bolts are all at the same torque.