Clutch fixed!

I have fixed the clutch a while ago, but never got around to posting about it. A kind soul on www.xlforum.net (great resource!) has sold me their original clutch pack for $25 shipped! That's 8 friction plates, 6 steel plates, an undamaged spring plate (#!#$%%#@!!) and the spring diaphragm from a 1200 (stronger spring than an 883). According to the person who sent it to me, the clutch had less than 18K miles on it when it was pulled from a 1200XL for an upgrade to an aftermarket clutch. So, I had a choice of using the undamaged spring plate or eliminating it with a St-Fr-St combo. I chose the latter. No way am I putting back something so horribly designed and/or manufactured. This thing is guaranteed to fail in an ugly way. So, I used two steel plates and one friction plate from the donor clutch to eliminate the spring plate. I also used two good friction plates from the donor clutch to replace the two that got damaged by my failed spring plate. I did not use the 1200 clutch spring, though it was tempting. While the primary cover was off I repaired the threads in the clutch cable receptacle that I stripped a while ago. It was simple to do using a Helicoil kit. I used a drill bit of an appropriate diameter (it tells you on the Helicoil instructions what size to use) to drill out the damaged threads and then used a tap included with the Helicoil kit to create a new thread into which I screwed in the actual helicoil, which is a steel coil that is specifically made to fit the new thread and create the thread that was originally damaged. This time the thread is steel and not aluminum, so hopefully it will not get stripped so easily. The thread repair worked great and the clutch cable mated with the primary cover very securely and tightly. After I put the primary cover back on and adjusted the clutch, I filled the primary case with the last can of Sport Trans fluid that I bought on close-out a few years ago for $1/can at my dealer (!!). Fired her up and went for a quick test ride. It was drizzling rain, but the bike felt like it hasn't felt in a long time. I think I've been riding with this condition for a while because I forgot how positive the gearbox feel on the Sportster. Everything just clicked in place, neutral was easy to find, especially from 1st. Everything was just great. I rode about 6 mile loop and parked it back in the garage. It rained for the next few days, but when I finally went for a real ride I found myself grinning like I used to when riding my Sportster. I am back on the road! The feel of the clutch without the spring plate and with an extra friction disk is definitely different than stock. It engages much faster. I am still re-learning my clutching and occasionally will squeal the rear tire on 1st gear launch. It's way too easy to do. I guess the spring plate consumes some of the torque upon engagement of the clutch. Without it the clutch pretty much connects you to the rear wheel FAST! All the more reason to make that stupid spring plate more robust! Oh, well, it's fixed and it won't break that way again!

Clutch pulled and problem discovered

I borrowed a clutch spring compression tool from a local indie and opened up the clutch. I found a disintegrated spring plate in the middle of the clutch pack and broken rivets all over the place. Also, the neighboring friction plates were eaten away by the broken rivets. Also, a groove has been worn in the clutch basket by the springs leaves from the spring plate that were no longer held in place by rivets. Argh! Terrible design. Terrible failure mode. Fortunately, I did not ride the bike too much after the failure occurred. The groove is not bad and and the burrs on splines where  the groove is can be filed down, I hope. I have decided to eliminate the spring plate from my clutch by replacing it with a St-F-St combination (St=steel plate, F=friction plate). I measured the thickness of the spring plate and St-F-St stack and they are within 0.005" of each other, so I think I am good to go. I ordered parts from LSHD1.com (Lake Shore HD) and am waiting now. Also ordered a Helicoil kit to repair the thread on the primary cover where the clutch cable screws in. That's been on my list for a while, but I did not want to pull the primary cover. Now I had to pull it, so...

Pictures:

Clutch spring compression tool doing its job by compressing my clutch spring

Disintegrated spring plate

Friction plate damaged by failed rivets

Primary cover off and clutch out

Another view of failed spring plate

Clutch out of the basket

Groove worn by failed spring plate

Another shot of the groove and burrs on the splines

Clutch problems

Went for a ride the other day and realized that my clutch is feeling funny. It seems to drag. When in gear and clutch lever pulled in all the way the bike tries to move a little (no full clutch disengagement), neutral is very hard to find, shifting is very difficult. After some miles on the road the problem sometimes goes away completely and clutch behaves normally again. Easy shifts, neutral is right there where it should be and easy to get to. I tried adjusting the clutch (under the derby cover) to no avail. I thought I had my primary case over-filled, so I drained a bit of fluid. No joy. So I did some research and realized that it's a common problem and lots of Sportster clutches go after 30K miles or even way before that. My bike now has around 43K miles. Apparently, the Sportster clutch consists of 8 friction plates, 6 steel plates and one plate that is called a "spring plate", which is two plates riveted together with brass rivets that have spring leaves pushing outwards. This plate is not the main clutch spring, but is there right in the center of the clutch stack to take up some slack between the plates when the clutch is disengaged. Apparently, the brass rivets eventually fail and the two spring plates come apart and jam the clutch making it difficult to disengage. Also, they can do some damage tot he clutch shell and neighboring friction disks. The configuration, according to my shop manual is this:

F-St-F-St-F-St-F-SP-F-St-F-St-F-St-F

where

F=friction plate
St=steel plate
SP=spring plate

I stopped riding the bike now until I've sorted it out. I need to pull the clutch pack to have a look. For this I need a clutch spring compression tool. Argh! If the spring plate is in deed the problem, the solution seems to be to either replace it with a new part ($40) or eliminate it from the clutch pack by replacing it with two steel plates and a friction plate, which according to the people who've done it, makes up the same stack height (very important for proper clutch operation). So the new configuration will look like this:

F-St-F-St-F-St-F- St-F-St -F-St-F-St-F-St-F

This increases friction surface area making the clutch grabbier (good? bad? doesn't matter? takes getting used) and apparently no other ill effect is caused by this modification. I can also get a whole new aftermarket clutch pack with spring plate elimination already implemented. This is around $150 or so. I will consider my options once I know exactly what the problem is.