Clutch slipping

[cactusjack]

I took my bike to the dealer today for its 24,000 mile oil change. Normally I leave the bike overnight and pick it up the next day, but things must have been slow and the technician pulled it right in and did it while I waited.

When he was done, he comes over and says that my front tire is getting thin and I told him I knew that, then he drops the bomb and says my clutch is starting to slip a little. Great. He told me that it isn't bad, and right now I'd probably only notice it under hard acceleration, but once it really starts to wear, they go quickly, and if it gets too bad, it can eat up some expensive additional parts.

So, I am going to be pulling a trailer to Custer, climbing over 6,000 feet to Flagstaff, then over the 10,000 foot continental divide outside Denver. Common sense tells me that I should take care of this sooner, rather than later.

I checked Cheap Cycle Parts, and a complete clutch assembly is $444.51. Do I have other options? I am going to call the dealer tomorrow and get a quote on the work, just to get an idea what I'm looking at. I have never done a motorcycle clutch before, but I am not afraid to tackle this.

Suggestions?

[blowndodge]

Answered you in a PM Scott. You need a new spring like from a meanie and maybe take the glaze off your old plates but thats it and its a real easy job. If you did it yourself it should cost about 50 bucks total.

[ringadingh]

BD's right, all you need to do is change the spring, its not that hard to do at all. There is lots of posts here already regarding that job, I did it a couple seasons ago with a Meanstreak spring and its still running strong. I rode mine probably half the season with it slipping a bit. It will slip going uphill or under heavy load and will gradually become more obvious. If you havn't noticed it yourself it most likely isn't very bad at all yet. But since your pulling a trailer and going on a long haul Id change it.

[cactusjack]

So at this point, all I should need is a meanstreak spring and a cover gasket? I thought they fixed the spring issue by the time the 2007's came out?

[cactusjack]

Based on answers here and some I received on the Delphi forum, I ordered the meanstreak spring, a cover gasket, and an exhaust gasket.

Then I did some more reading and found that the newer Nomads ('06-'08) supposedly have the meanstreak spring in them. So I also ordered a Barnett MT25 heavy duty clutch diaphragm spring from here: http://www.mobbley.com/page/61866202.

One way or the other, I'll get it fixed before Custer.

[Cajunrider]

Good luck Scott. Take some pics and keep good notes for those of us bringing up the rear.

[ringadingh]

That sounds like it will do the trick for you Scott, since I have a 1500 I also added the Judges washers to eliminate the slip factor and really liked the way the clutch feels, much more positive on takeoffs. On your bike Im not sure if there is anything you could do since your setup is very slightly different. Since youll be loaded up and pulling a trailer it may be something to look into.
Its a simple repair to install the spring, especially if you have a GOOD 1/2"drive impact gun. to remove the large nut. My gun wasn't strong enough, but the neighbours gun buzzed it off in a second. Doing it with a johnson bar would be a lot tougher from what Ive heard.

[dogdoc]

Scott, the spring for the newer Nomads is the same stock number as the meanie(Dennis Kirk) and cost less than $50. Seems you need a tool to jam in there to stop it from turning when you hit the air gun to it. Guess you could jerry rig something, like a beer can. let us know how it works out.

[egetaseb]

I am not very technical but I have started doing simple maintenance myself. I hope to gradually move up to more detailed and technical maintenance and repairs soon. I have a 2004 Nomad with a little over 20k miles.
1)How do I even know that I am losing my clutch without the dealer telling me? What else should I be looking into with the current mileage on the bike?
2) I have heard some people discuss repairs on the Cam chain tensioners - how do you detect that it needs repairs early - again without the dealer telling me.

Thanks

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by Doc (Lonewolf)

Scott, the spring for the newer Nomads is the same stock number as the meanie(Dennis Kirk) and cost less than $50. Seems you need a tool to jam in there to stop it from turning when you hit the air gun to it. Guess you could jerry rig something, like a beer can. let us know how it works out.

A beer can? I only have beer bottles!

[blowndodge]

I'd really like to find out how many have reported rather short clutch life caused by a worn out spring. Then ask those that have that problem if they sit at a light with their clutch lever pulled in with the bike in gear!?

I posted a while back that sitting at a light with the bike in gear puts the spring under it's most demanding moment of use, effectively flattening it to release pressure from the clutch plates. Anyone who has worked with metal know that heating metal is a way to soften it so it can be bent into different shapes.

Sitting at a light for a minute or two with the clutch pulled in, the clutch spring now under the pressure of release "flattened" in the extreme heat environment of the engine would have to ask themself is this possibly changing the shape or the tension built into the spring?

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by Blowndodge "Darksider"

I'd really like to find out how many have reported rather short clutch life caused by a worn out spring. Then ask those that have that problem if they sit at a light with their clutch lever pulled in with the bike in gear!?

I posted a while back that sitting at a light with the bike in gear puts the spring under it's most demanding moment of use, effectively flattening it to release pressure from the clutch plates. Anyone who has worked with metal know that heating metal is a way to soften it so it can be bent into different shapes.

Sitting at a light for a minute or two with the clutch pulled in, the clutch spring now under the pressure of release "flattened" in the extreme heat environment of the engine would have to ask themself is this possibly changing the shape or the tension built into the spring?

Guilty as charged! I almost never shift to neutral while stopped at a light, unless I need both hands to do something, like check my phone for missed calls. I am going to start shifting to neutral now, once I have determined that there's no threat coming from behind me that I might need to get away from.

[macmac]

The meanie spring is by degrees stronger and in time will wear out. Any Spring in hot oil under tension is in time with varried heating situtations going to get weaker.

The oil is at a heat that will "temper" hardened steel, and a spring is no more than spring hard steel.

When you romp on some throttle in higher gears, is where you will usually notice the engine rpm going up and you not going faster for it.

'IF' this happens once and you nurse the bike to where ever you will fix it, there will be very minimal disks wear....

If you iggnor the slipping, then you would need a set of disks and the new spring, which is far more costly.

Since this is a known problem it is a good idea to have the spring, a Judges washer if you can get one, and the gasket.

The beer can is to jam coggs up so you can get the basket locked up. A penny made in either zinc or copper would work as well.

You don't need air tools to do this and you sure don't want them to install.....

If you have a slipping clutch and already have the Judge's washer it would be re-usable.

The spring lives in a harsh envrioment, and gets softer due to heat...

[dogdoc]

But if you have air tools, it makes it rather easier to remove that large heavy torqued nut to get to the spring. then you can just torque it back. of course as heavily muscled up as Scott is, breaking that nut loose would be rather easy. :-)

[macmac]

Warl, air might work getting that big nut off, but you still need a Bull of the Woods to torque that nut ON by hand..

If the beer can lock fails by hand there is time to see it, before chatter can damage things..

I have 2 1/2 drive guns, that will spin most other guns backwards, but I am cautious telling folks to use air..

I have 2 air rachets, a buttfly, and other tools that run on air including a gasket scraper, but that scrapper was made for iron engines and will eat alloy right up....

On turned cast steel shafts, the wrong use of air will bust them right off faster that you can blink...

(kid with no torque wrench broke off the end of a cam shaft, tightening it will air) I just worry too much.