Couple of more questions for you...
Did you have to remove the motor to replace the clutch?
What problems did you have that you had to call for help?
Joe
"Anyway, several hours (and lots of cussing) later " ???
please ... tell us all about that part ...
just so we'll know what to look forward to ...
Alright, you inquisitive young minds you, here goes:
You do not have to pull the engine. You can get to everything from underneath. We took off the side covers, the center cover and the gas tank to maximize both working room and available light. Removing the gas tank makes a big difference in being able to reach some of the bolts. [Side note: Disco and I have taken our tanks off so many times in the last six months that we have the hoses trained. When we snap our fingers, they jump to the nipples like nursing puppies.]
Drain the oil. You'll still have a cup or so run out of the clutch cover when you take it off, so be ready.
After removal of the body panels and tank, jack up the bike by lifting under the engine only. You can't use a lift adaptor, so you're only going to get the front end off the ground.
Then, unbolt the kick stand assembly from the frame and bungee it out of the way. It's a knuckle buster because of the arrangement of the bolt head placement. An impact wrench helps A LOT.
Kickstand out of the way:
Next, bungee the clutch lever to the grip. Then remove the clutch slave cylinder. You do not have to drain the system. Just move it out of the way.
Once you've done this, there are 14 bolts spaced around the clutch cover that need to be removed. Most can be reached from underneath, the highest 4 or so are best reached from above or the sides. I don't have a picture of this, but you can see what I mean using the parts fische:
http://www.hdlparts.com/fiche_section_detail.asp?section=148069&category=MOTORCYCLES&make=HONDA&year=1998&fveh=3466With the bolts out, the clutch cover pops off. You may need to insert a putty knife in the seam to get it started. Set the cover aside -- you'll need to scrape off the old gasket later.
Refer to the fische:
http://www.hdlparts.com/fiche_section_detail.asp?section=148070&category=MOTORCYCLES&make=HONDA&year=1998&fveh=3466There's a bearing plate bolted to the clutch assembly with four bolts. Remove it.
Underneath is a 31mm nut that is staked down (peened). I used a 1 1/4 socket and the impact wrench to spin that bad boy off. It's torqued on to about 97 ft lbs, so you either need to build or buy the hold-this-sucker-in-place-while-I-tear-a-bicep-using-a-breaker-bar special tool, or use an impact wrench.
Once the nut is off, the clutch plate stack pretty much slides right out of the basket. Here's the old clutch stack. Looks pretty good, huh?
Look again. The damper plate has started to separate, which means some rivets have failed and the remaining ones are under even greater stress.
Three of the rivets were gone from the damper plate.
What was left of the nasty buggers was found in the case.
The inner parts of the damper sandwich are these spacer blades that are freed up when the rivets go.
I'm glad I did the work when I did. The clutch basket does not show sign of excessive wear, scoring, or other mayhem as a result of the rivets coming apart.
So far, starting with the oil drain and body part removal all the way to holding the clutch plate stack in our greasy paws, we've invested about two and a half hours, and part of that was searching for the elusive fourteenth cover bolt (hint: it's inboard of the u-joint boot.)
We trucked off to the dealer so that they could use a special compression tool to unspring the thing and stack in the new plates. (I know, I know, I could have jerry-rigged something, but time was of the essence, as they say.) While the dealer did the work, Disco and I strolled next door to the Smokehouse restaurant, and dined on some of the best ribs I've had in these parts.
<INTERMISSION MUSIC PLAYS HERE FOR ABOUT AN HOUR>
Now comes the part that interests John: The cussing and call out.
Those little ears on the plate stack need to be lined up straight. Usually the dealer pulls the clutch basket, stacks in the basket for alignment, then takes out the stack and re-installs the spring. But that basket is held on with a lock nut that requires a 46mm, 12 point, deep well socket and is on there at about 134 ft lbs. I didn't want to search hither and yon for such an animal if I could help it, so the basket stayed on the bike.
The dealer used a straight edge to line up the plates (simulated using the old plates):
OK, this is going to be a breeze, says us. We go to insert the plate stack. It pushes back. I take it to the bench and nudge some of the ears into better alignment. It goes in further. Lather, rinse, repeat, until finally we're getting in about to where the splines should start to engage. It won't go farther. It slides right in then stops with a "clunk". No gradual tightening, just a sudden stop about 2/3 of the way in. Curse. Try again. Curse. Call out to The Jet. He says it has to be alignment. "But they're lined up!", we wail. "It has to be alignment", The Jet intones.
Time for a closer look at the "alignment." While they are all lined up OK, are they perpendicular to the baseplate? Nope. When we used a square to check them, it turns out that they ran at a very slight angle. When inserting them, they were acting like screw threads, but since the slots they were running it are straight (and unforgiving), the stack was rotating imperceptably and cocking slightly off center, halting further progress.
Use of a carpenter's square (simulated here on the old plates) to adjust the postion solved the problem:
It didn't insert itself after this, mind you, but it slid in far enough that running the nut on with the impact wrench seated it once and for all.
After that, it was a matter of re-assembly in reverse order.
There's a noticible difference in clutch lever resistance, which I assume is the new spring. There also seems to be more positive pull especially in first gear, but some of this could be perception on my part.
All in all, it's not a hard job. I'm guessing that once you get the first-timer fumbling we did out of the picture, it's a 3 to 4 hour job. It was good experience, I saved a lot of money doing it myself, and I've got a lot more peace of mind.
