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I have read, on here, a lot about the spring plate issue, and with my bike near 17K I am planning for a clutch in the not too distant future. Going with the extra plate and steel would be nice, but I also read a lot of folks saying they are grabby. Is there one out there that is NOT grabby? Low speed turns are tricky for me anyway and I don't need something to make it worse.
I'd be surprised if you need a new clutch at 17K. I slip my clutch a lot, have 22K on the bike and just had my clutch apart. Measured the disks and they were well within spec, the spring plate was flopping around a bit, but none of the brass rivets had broken yet, so I replaced it with an extra friction disk and two steel plates. Brand was Alto. Now it is grabby and squeals as it engages. I don't know if a whole pack of plates and disks from Alto would squeal, but mixing them with stock sure does.
My daughters 1997 883 had about 42,000 miles on it when the clutch hub bearing went out. When I pulled everything out to replace it I measured the disks, they were almost to the replacement point so I put in a Barnett Extra Plate Kit. #307-30-20011. It is not grabby or squealing.
I did the two steel plus friction deal with stock HD parts, it was a bit grabby plus got a VERY annoying squeal on takeoff like many others. Did some research and came up with a better fix (IMHO ;-) used the three XR1200/Buell XB clutch parts shown to replace the first friction plate, then recycled that plate along with two steels to replace the spring plate. Takeup is smooth and zero squeal, total cost for the five parts is about $70.
So was that $70 on top of regular clutch plate pack? That is using the old noodle.
Didn't need any other parts, my original clutch parts were like new with 10K, though the spring plate already had loose (though still intact) rivets...so total cost was $70. FWIW bought a new primary gasket and didn't need it, no leaks when I put it back together with the original.
I made a tool from an ABS pipe cap, easy to do and lots of plans out on the web...did have to put a piece of steel across the top to make it stiffer. Very crude but worked OK and parts were maybe $10 or so...
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Clutch replacement questions
