I replaced my clutch at 35000 mi when I did the Hammer Kit conversion and it looked like new. Could clutch failure be attributed to abuse, just asking?

 

I agree. I'm sure it could not help. Definitely could be a factor IMO.

John

 

Well that makes me feel a little better then.

 

FWIW Alto Products makes an spring separator plate PN 095763 that is supposed to be better quality and stay together...do not know if this is the case but am going to try one in my 08 to avoid future problems, about $50....

 

Even if they left the plate, I don't see a reason why they can't make it out of stronger materials that don't fall apart aside from cutting production costs.

​​​​​​However, if I was to put on a tinfoil hat, I'd say they left it there as a way to sell more screamin' eagle clutch kits.
​​Think about it, $200 kit + whatever labor +whatever else it takes out should it grenade....

EDIT: I just remembered when I called up a few Harley dealers asking for a quote on the job. When I mentioned the "spring plate in the center of the pack" most of them essentially said they're not sure what I'm talking about. One just said "oh yeah that thing" but not much else.
It's funny, you Google "Sportster engine failure/engine blew" you get almost zero results. Google "Sportster clutch" your bandwidth gets wrecked

 

Post from 08XL above on aftermarket spring plate is interesting.

A co-member above answered that the plate offers a wider friction zone.

To me that implies a "trade off" to experienced riders vs. leaners.
If that is the case, then this aftermarket/ better quality plate would not help many riders here.
Eliminating the plate makes more sense.

If the spring plate does something else, perhaps this aftermarket product is a winner?

I will be looking forward to xl08 report/ comments about the aftermarket installation.

 

From the tales told on this and other Harley forums, I don't see an arrow pointing at one particular issue. I'm more inclined to think it's a quality control issue where the plates are made. Even if hammering it aggravates the problem, failures from under 10,000 miles to no problems over 60,000, and the relatively rare times they do fail, seems to me more of a manufacturing issue than how it's used. You know a lot of those 60,000 plus and the vast majority that never have a problem got their fair share of hard use, too. Could be something as simple as not calibrating the riveting machines often enough; even a few thousandths of an inch in sqeeze could have a big effect on service life. Some of these could have been been used a couple days too long before tightening up the clearances, and spit out a few hundred plates that just aren't strong enough. Good companies redo or scrap a lot of stuff when their quality control catches issues like that, even call back what might have shipped out.

 

I got 60K out of my first one and forget how many miles were on the second before I pulled it and went without. I do mainly highway miles so the clutch really gets used very little. Someone driving around town a lot would use it significantly more and get significantly more wear. And if they are abusive to the clutch it will wear even more.

However, keep in mind how many Sporties are sold each year. In 2017 they sold 50,000 Sporties (and Streets but I suspect only a small percentage are Streets). In 2010 they sold 40K Sportsters. Making the assumption that 40-50K have been sold each year since the rubber mounts first came out there are probably over 600,000 Sportsters running around. While we see many threads about the "grenade" plate or spring plate, have there really been that many people complaining? Are there 1,000 complaining? 5,000? That really isn't that many in the grand scheme of things. I suspect that is the reason why it hasn't been redesigned

As for the problem not existing for pre-rubber mounts, is it possible that they simply were not ridden as much as the rubber mounts? Yes, I know some were ridden more, but how many?

 

We were there in 2018. They were in the process of changing hands, surprised to hear they are not back up in operation.

 

Dont you find it a bit ironic that an engineer would take a proven concept since day one for a spring and pressure plate design and start tweaking it with all kinds of so called improvements and end up making a bigger piece of garbage.