Seeing Not Ed's post below about upgrading clutch springs reminded me of this. A good friend that I ride with has a 14 GW with 13k miles on it. Last week we were riding and he noticed his clutch slipping in 4th and 5th gears. He took it to the local Honda shop assuming the warranty would cover it. Not! He was told that wear was not covered under warranty.

Now, we ride the same places the same way. I have 14k miles on my 14 Ultra with zero problems.

The Honda shop is charging him $800 for the clutch replacement! In fact, the clutch rings are sold separately by Honda. They do not have a clutch rebuild package like Harley does.

I have nothing against Jap bikes. I have owned several and do now with good results.

Harleys have their issues and cost more, but I seem to notice better warranty support out of Harley compared to what my friends have with the other Asian bike mfgs. At least in my area.


BTW, I'm wondering since his slipping issue started while in 4th and 5th gear, maybe he is going too slow for the gear when he accelerates? Because that engine has a lot of torque, I could see where he is putting the clutch under to much load without realizing it. It's making me consider downshifting more on my Ultra and not leave it in a particular gear at low rpms just because it can do it without downshifting.

 

Could he be using something other than motorcycle specific oil? Another thing is my Honda manual specifically warns not to use any oil with "moly" yet Honda makes MC oil with moly in it because I almost bought it by mistake. Something like GN4 w/moly and regular GN4. The moly oil may be used for certain models I suppose. GW may use a slipper clutch, I can't recall for sure, but I know it increases frictional clamping force with revs.

 

Having had two GL1800's I'm pretty familiar with them. The boxer six is an amazing engine, but it shouldn't be able to slip the clutch in any gear unless something is wrong.

I seem to recall hearing some guys who had a leaking clutch slave cylinder cause clutch slippage. If that's the case and he's under warranty, it should be covered.

Two other things to check are:
1. Did he use the correct oil in the engine/tranny? It needs to say Jaso MA.
2. Is the clutch fully engaging? There is a return port in the master cylinder that can cause issues if plugged up. There's a picture of it in this thread http://gl1800riders.com/forums/showt.../topics/619506

My two GW's had around 80k miles combined and I never had a mechanical issue with either. I certainly never replaced the clutch.....they generally last a LONG time.

Wish your buddy luck.

 

I asked about what oil. The oil was changed by the dealer every time since new. They are replacing the slave cylinder under warranty but not the clutch.

I will show him your post dgreen.

 

Pre "Wasser Boxer" RT's, prior to 2014, often had clutch repairs of $2,500 as the bike literally had to be split in half to get to the clutch. You pays your money and you takes your chances.

 

His bad choice. Oh well...

"Jump a Motorsickle over half a dozen Hondas..."

 

Shame on Honda. My dad has a GW 1800 and has 60K trouble free miles. Anytime he had a issue Honda didn't hesitate to make it right. Hope you buddy can find a way get Honda to cover it. I would be on the phone with their consumer affairs department right away.

 

I would bet that Honda will take care of the repair. The dealer was probably to lazy to make a call on the customers behalf for a goodwill repair, especially since the guy has the bike serviced at the dealership. That's the least the dealer can do is pick up the phone.

I've seen a couple of Goldwings that had over 200,000 miles and the engine, trans and clutch were never touched.

 

There is a post on here the other day about a premature Rushmore clutch taking a **** and HD not covering. Its a crap shoot...

 

If the Dealer is replacing the Clutch Slave Cylinder under warranty I would have to ask; "Why?" What exactly was wrong with the Clutch Slave Cylinder? It does seem rather curious that a warranty failure of the Clutch Slave Cylinder would just happen to occur at the same time as a non-warranty Clutch failure . . . . H-m-m-m-m-m-m-m I would absolutely give Honda Customer Assistance a call. Either this dealer/mechanic doesn't know what he/they are doing (incompetence) or they are billing for what amounts to essentially the same job/labor twice. Once to Honda for the Clutch Slave Cylinder and Once to the Owner of the Bike for the Clutch itself. Nice work if you can find it. I also own a Goldwing, I know lots of folks who have Goldwings with well over 100,000 miles (some over 200,000) and I don't think I've ever even heard of a Clutch failure on any of them.