I've been so buried the last few years at my shop, I've hardly had the chance to get the bikes out. Fixing that now.

This post is about my 1990 Electra Glide.

The problem I'm having is with the clutch. A few years ago after coming back from a run to Texas, she puked trans oil all over the garage floor. That led to a bunch of things (new drive gear, new front belt pulley, etc) and one particular "as long as I'm in there": The clutch was still factory, and I'd heard horror stories about the rivet plate grenading on those, so I decided to open it up and have a look. The rivet plate looked ok, but it wasn't perfectly tight. With hand pressure, you could get the front and back plates to shift just a smidge. Decided not to take any chances, and I replaced the clutch with a Barnett kevlar clutch pack (Part #307-30-10011).

That thing ran like butter for the first couple of months, but then all of the sudden, it started giving me trouble. From a standing start, it slips and squeals (loud!) and shudders and generally makes a nuisance of itself. Real PITA. Almost makes the bike unrideable. Once the bike is rolling, you'd never know there's a problem. Doesn't slip or make noise or anything like that.

I dug in and got it this far apart:



I was hoping there would be something obviously wrong inside the clutch pack, but there isn't. At least by visual inspection, all the plates look tip top.

The only thing that's iffy is the clutch adjuster thingy:



But even it was tight (with the jam nut, that is) when I took this apart. Got a new one of those on the way anyway.

I ran this past @WP50 over the phone, and he thought maybe look on the right side of the trans and see if anything is fubar there. My buddy Mark (guy with the bike repair shop) had the same thought. He suspected the clutch cable was dragging.

Well, I got that apart and there's no sign of any trouble. The cable moves freely. The clutch actuator rod looks fine. The throwout bearing/oil slinger thing looks fine:



So I'm stumped.

Any advice/experience/thoughts on this? I'd truly appreciate any ideas you might have.

PS: Just got off the phone with dude from Barnett. He said to clean the clutch plates thoroughly, give them a light scuff with 100 grit sandpaper, verify that the steels are flat with a piece of glass, and put the whole business back together.

 

Did you pull the clutch rod out completely and inspect it? Any chance it’s got a tore up tip that intermittently sticks or grabs to the next piece?

No idea how a 90 is in there.. assume it could be a 3 piece clutch rod. Did it have the correct amount of fluid in there? What fluid was it? Was the compensator nut tight, any play? Was the inner primary chain adjusted correct? Was the chain wet, or soaked? We’re the clutch plates soaked or mostly dry?

I only say any of the above as a Hail Mary from warped clutch plates. Follow Barrett’s advice, but check what I mentioned.

 

My Barnett Scorpion will screech like crazy only when I'm taking off from a start, pull about half throttle and slip the clutch to feather a hard launch. So I know their material can make noise, but only under the conditions I stated for me.

 

What are you running for primary fluid? Full synthetic?
Years ago I had a 97 f150 with a limited slip rear differential. I changed the oil in it to a high dollar full synthetic.
Whenever I turned a corner the rear end would shutter. I had to add a friction modifier pack to the oil to get the rear posi clutches to settle down.

 

This was my thought as well. What you describe sounds like friction grab/shudder, and the two most common causes for that are uneven or hot-spotted steels, or fluid compatibility with the frictions.

 

While you have it apart, inspect the clutch hub splines where the steel discs make contact. There may be worn areas that are causing the steel plates to hang up and not move smoothly. Less likely because it's steel, check the clutch basket splines where the fiber discs ride, there may be some damage, just make sure these areas allow the plates to move freely without binding. Also check the clutch basket bearing, see if it wiggles or is loose, that may also cause engagement problems.

 

You can also conservatively file the hub splines a bit. Just remove what may have bent into the way or the very peaks if it’s serrated.

 

To answer some of the questions:
- Running plain old ATF in the primary. It was full, and the clutch pack was soaked when it came apart
- Three piece clutch rod all looks good.
- Comp nut (and everything else for that matter) was tight coming apart.
- Primary chain tension was good. (I've been running a spring loaded auto-compensator that @texashillcountry sent me years ago)

I'll give the clutch basket a good look to check for wear. Didn't see any at first glance, but didn't look too hard either.

 

I recall when you installed that adjuster. You had a ton of shims under the springs/shoe. Please put a new chain in there if you haven't already. That should leave you with a one thin shim and won't have the chain hitting the top bar.

 

I dunno, Jeff. Slips, squeals and shudders. And you have a broken adjuster end thingie. I'm always one for fixing what is known broken, but I'd hate to have to tear it all down it that wasn't the only problem. I also seem to recall having issues with Barnett clutch sets over the years, so I always go with OEM parts. As I mentioned, I put all OEM parts in my bike about 20 years ago with an extra plate. My notes say "screaming eagle clutch." The original disks were right at the minimum wear thickness at the time, 66K miles.

So, back to slips, squeals and shudders. Sounds to me like something is out of round, that is, not flat. Plus the broken adjuster. But I'm guessing here.