New to Valkyrie’s and have a clutch issue

[Sleepy]

If y'all could, please be patient with me. I've never been on a forum before and this is all new to me. Ok, my story is I'm 49 and bought my first bike. It's a 97 GL1500 and I love it. It's just got clutch issues. I'm the 3rd owner, it's never had a new clutch and the fluid was the color of very strong tea until yesterday. I changed it praying that it would fix the slippage, but it didn't. I'm guessing that I'm gonna have to change clutches but I was really hoping that y'all could give me a cheaper alternative to that. Thanks

[dans2014]

Your in the wrong forum. Go to the 1500 forum

[bscrive]

The guys on the 1500 forum should be able to fix you up.

It could be that you need a new clutch.  If someone put synthetic oil in the bike and left it, the OEM clutch  doesn't like synthetic oil.  Especially, if the bike is not ridden much.  That is what happened to me on my 99 Interstate.  Changing the clutch is not a big issue.

[Sleepy]

Thanks guys. I just hit the wrong button and wasn't paying attention. Sorry

[srteach]

Now you are in the correct forum 

I thought I needed new clutch disks, too ....

If you watch the clutch fluid, you may see it become "tea colored" again soon, but not as dark. The clutch fluid (DOT4) on these bikes tend to hold water real well. The way to fix it is to open the clutch at the slave cylinder, rinse the slave cylinder, then bleed it once more. Or you can just bleed the clutch again ... and again ... and again.

... For me, about a week after bleeding mine, it darkened again, a little less than before. I had to bleed mine 4 times before deciding to get into the slave to fix it correctly.  This fixed my "worn out" clutch.

If this darkening is happening to you, remember that water in the fluid will expand rapidly and release the clutch pressure without you squeezing the handle. This can mistaken for a slipping clutch.

...And yes, you may need clutch disks replaced. Not a difficult job, just tedious and (possibly) costly.

[hubcapsc]

My buddy Henry's bike had theses globs of goo in the brakes that
wouldn't have come out with a simple flush...



-Mike

[srteach]

My buddy Henry's bike had theses globs of goo in the brakes that
wouldn't have come out with a simple flush...



-Mike

Perfect example!!! That is encapsulated water and hydraulic (brake) oil. It is what makes the new crutch / brake fluid darken as I was talking about above.