Doesn't the grenade plate function the same as a steel? Shouldn't he use 2 steels?

The big issue with finding neutral is clutch drag. It loads the tranny dog clutch and makes it trany hard to shift..

Adjusting the shift pawl has absolutely nothing to do with it finding neutral. It's all about shifting to the next gear, up or down... Either the pawl is not grabbing in the shift drum or the pawl adjustment is allowing the pawl to pull the drum past the next gear and into a false neutral. Neutral is between first and second so it's not a full shift.

Go after clutch drag. it can be the clutch throwout bearing, clutch hub bearing, grenade plate, grooves in the inner/outer hub splines, warped clutch plates. uneven clutch spring, or too much/ incorrect oil in the primary.

If changing the tensioner fixes the clutch drag, The tensioner wasn't adjusted correctly in the first place.

For me , clutches that like to drag. I own a few, big motors, heavy springs, only 0.060" pressure plate travel. For 1, I try to get it into neutral coasting to a stop. Second, With the front brake on, I'll let the clutch out until it drags, forks compress a little then pull it all the way in quickly and try to bump it into neutral..

 

Yes, and no, since the spring plate does make slipping the clutch easier, and you don't get clutch squeal lock up on hard launches on heaver bikes without running the spring ring.
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As for back to the clutch basket bearing, if you have the clutch pack out, put the trans in to 6th gear, and spin the rear wheel to spin the trans shaft/inner hub ( if you don't want to have to remove the primary chain to check the hub bearing. What you are watching is the outer basket to stay true for a full spin, and not its front edge to starting to wobble in and out instead. Also, you can just start the motor with the primary case cover removed, to see if you have this problem as well.


If you do find that its wobbling/not seated true,, and if the bearing itself is not the problem, then could be that the bearing is not seated squarely in the outer hub channel. Hence there is a trick to loctite a new bearing all the way in true to the out hub channel, then shim between the bearing outer edge to C clip to keep it seating in place, or just replace the entire clutch basket assembly. Hence some times is not the bearing the problem, but the bearing channel in the outer hub just oval'd out instead.

 

No offense but what was the purpose of posting a photo of miscellaneous pieces from 2 totally different style clutches? (L'84-'89 and '90-'97)

 

And the idea was to show how the clutch bearing interacts with the assembly.

Inner hub will be riding on the trans shaft and its inner shaft section will be what is supporting the inner race of the bearing. So 99% of the time if inner spine teeth are still good, it going to be spinning concentric to the trans shaft.

Now we have the outer hub basket, which the outer part of the bearing will be pressed into its channel, and where is where you can run into problems, over just some light slop in the bearing itself. Hence any peening/ canting of the bearing to the outer hub bearing channel itself (hard launches), can cause the bearing outer section in the outer cage channel to no longer be concentric with the plane of the outer hub itself, and when the outer hub is spinning on even a good bearing on the inner hub shaft, its no longer spinning true to the inner hub.

So instead of a clean release of the clutch discs/plates from the pressure plate being pushed outwards via the lever, as the outer hub is spinning around via primary chain/ spinning very off axis to the inner hub, it ends up with point binding of the pressure plates to discs, since the pressure plate tabs are in constant movement against the U slots for them (over just being release at a fixed position in the outer U cage slots from pressure plate release).


So yes, even a brand new bearing will have some play to it, but when you free spin the outer hub on the inner hub, the outer cage should still be running close to concentric with the inner hub,. Its when the hub bearing is no longer seated concentric in the outer cage bearing channel, that you end up with the outer cage having major wobble against the inner hub as its spun on it instead.

So the point trying to be made here, is it is possible to get a new bearing to be re-seated in the outer hub bearing channel to be concentric with it/and stay that way, isntead of just trashing the outer cage at $440 a pop.

Simply, the way to check for this, is to either spin the inner hub against the outer hub via being stationary, or if you have the primary chain off, you can spin the outer cage against the stationary inner hub with the clutch pack out, and make sure that the outer lip edges all the way across of the cage is staying concentric with the inner hub surfaces .

Next, As for if a spring ring does come apart, trashes both the outer cage and the inner hubs beyond repair, then our looking at $440 for outer cage, another $164 for inner hub, then $100 for bearing since your going to damage it when pressure it out to begin with, instead of just replacing the clutch spring plate every 30K and which gives you are chance to check out the inner primary parts at the same time.

 

Purchased this 1996 Dyna FXDS Convertible several weeks ago. PO said he had trouble finding neutral, had to rev the engine up to find it. After my test ride, it w

as indeed difficult to locate neutral. I ordered and installed a hydraulic primary chain tensioner, and did a clutch adjustment, and replaced the fluid. Solved the issue.