I posted this in the general chat area but thought to try it here, too.

The recent 2017 clutch recall got me thinking. Why hasn't Harley ever done anything to fix the whole grenade issue with Sportster clutches? It seems like a large enough issue that could go off in every single Sporty that has some miles on it, and a flaw Harley could easily fix by not using brass rivots on that one plate.

They have changed many other parts over the years to improve the bike. Why not address the one design flaw these have?

 

Likely could be several reasons. Frequency of occurrence, cost/benefit of occurrence, drive-ability issues of eliminating plate (increased customer complaints about "squealing clutch") in favor of alternative, engineering concerns that led to use of the spring plate..

I'd imagine the HD engineers would have eliminated it a long time ago if it was feasible for mass production and product satisfaction/drive-ability concerns. On the other hand, it makes you wonder how the evolution of the spring plate came about in the design of the Sportster. I would think there is a reason for it's design in the first place.

John

 

Drunk engineers.

 

Spit my beer on that pic, love it

 

Many don't put very many miles on their Sportster and they make it through the warranty period so Harley doesn't really care.

 

Here in HDF we live in a sort of bubble, surrounded by stacks of Harley 'stuff'. Most of the owners around the World live in innocent existence of things like 'exploding clutch plates' and probably never suffer from one - regardless of how many miles they ride. Why does Harley use that funny plate, or designed it in the first place? I have no idea! Mine is fine and I will deal with it if and when it gets trouble-some.

 

That's my philosophy about it too. Sure would be interesting to find out the real evolution of that plate. I'd love to know when, and why it was adopted. And why it's design works for what they needed it to. Inquiring minds want to know!

John

 

John, I used to use Dodge City H-D parts website, because they gave us details going way back to the 1940s, so we could have traced back in time to when that plate first appeared, but their website has disappeared in recent weeks. The other parts websites I know of have much fewer years available to us. Checking the H-D website there is no dealer in Dodge City called 'Dodge City H-D'. Strange!

 

 

Engineers are seldom mechanics, and it's not unusual for an engineer and mechanic to be completely unable to explain how something works to the other or why it won't work from the mechanic to the engineer; I saw that (did that) several times in my aviation career. The large majority of Harley riders I've known, and what seems like the majority on this forum, are mechanically minded, not engineer, so I doubt if we'd understand why the grenade spring plate even if the guy that designed it tried to explain. Just as he wouldn't understand why we think it's a stupid asinine feature that many of us (me again) just replaced with more standard plates and lived happily without.