I guess I should have said the clutch has been TOTALLY replaced. Many here have followed this ordeal over the last month or so, and it has finally (I hope) concluded. A couple of weeks ago, after the dealer had tried all of the adjustments I had tried over about a 5 hour period, they concluded I was correct and something was messed up inside the clutch assembly. They didn't have all of the parts that could have possibly been the problem, so they ordered everything to rebuild the internal clutch basket.

At this point, I should point out that the dealer is about 80 miles outside of Nashville. There are 7 other dealers that are closer to me, but this is the only one I have found to understand the "service" meaning in "Service Department". After 2 weeks of waiting on parts and an available time for them to work on the bike, I returned last Wednesday morning. I was planning on a few hours there, and a return trip home, well before Sunset.

When they opened up the clutch basket, it was unbelieveable!!! The spring plate had completely came apart. All of the little pieces (about 20 of them) that hold the spring plate together were just floating around inside the clutch assembly. Hummmm...well, that explains why the clutch sometimes would grab, other times it would slip, and in general it was dragging. All of these pieces of metal floating around in the clutch had totally screwed up both the clutch hub and the clutch shell. They had not ordered those parts, and I couldn't blame them, I would never have thought those parts would need replacing.

They said the had put out an order for the parts and put the status of the bike, and repair ticket in the category of "down bike". This is a status for when a biker is out on the road, and the routinue is "suppose" to be that the parts are overnighted from wherever in the country has the parts. So, now I was stranded. I called one of my Patriot Guard buddy's in the area, and asked if they had a place I could stay for the night. No problems there.

The next morning I was at the dealer pretty much as they were opening. The overnight stuff arrived about 10:00am. I gave them a few minutes, and then wandered into the service department. The Service Manager looked at me, and looked down while shaking his head. I could see a clutch hub there on his desk, and it appeared to be about the right size to be for my Sporty. Indeed it was!! Yea!!!!! "Not so fast my friend". Turns out they shipped the hub, but not the shell. After a few phone calls, they found out there wasn't anyplace in the country that had a Sporty clutch shell. They had removed one from a new bike at one of the assembly or storage facilities, but by the time they had done that, they missed the overnight shipping cutoff. So, it would be the next day before the rest of my new clutch was in Cookeville, TN.

[font=arial]I really didn't want to stay with the same folks from the previous night. They were nice enough to put me up, but I don't really know them well enough to ask again, and frankly, I don't like them all that well. I had a business card from one of the management folks in customer service in Milwaukee that I had met during the TN State HOG rally. His card even has his cell phone number! So, I called him, and he finally agreed that since HD had failed to get the overnight parts delivered they would reimburse me, up to $100, for a hotel room that night. Well, you can get a pretty nice room in this small town for $100. The parts guy at the dealer gave me a ride down the road to my hotel, and told m

 

good luck with the new clutch.

my clutch just exploded and i have no warranty. its with a mechanic who is taking it apart to see what went wrong, hopefully i get a call from him to tell me what went wrong and how much i need to pay to fix it.....

 

Damn, what an ordeal! I'm sorry we missed out on hooking up for a day on the Dragon but at least you finally got this PITA resolved and better yet under warranty. I had one great week up in your neck of the woods, logged 1250 miles on twisties, even with 3 days of rain.

By the way, who was that guy that told you a month ago that your Spring Plate was shot?

 

Sounds like it might have been bad right from the beginning...

The clutch setup is usually very reliable. I've had to replace clutch packs before, but never had one fail like you described.

 

He was a pretty knowledgeble guy. The guy that said the dyphram spring was shot was also correct. The only part of the entire clutch that wasn't shot was the ball and ramp assembly, but they replaced that as well. C ya in the Spring, if not before!

 

I forgot to ask, did the dealer in Cookville make you put the HD (Citgo) pi$$ back in the gear box?

 

Glad to hear your up and running again

 

Good news bud!

 

Huh, Cookeville, TN. That's quite a little distance from Nashville. I have been there once. Drove there seriously considering buying a new vehicle, since they had exactly what I wanted. Strange name for a city.

You must have rode that bike there. Doesn't sound like you trailered it like you said you might have to. Glad to hear your rolling again.

 

Nah, Cookeville is only 80 miles outta Nashville. Just a short hop over there. As I said, there are 7 other HD service departments that are closer to me, but this is the only one I have ever taken my bike to where I was satisfied. Most of them, I'm totally pissed when I leave.

And Yes, I rode the bike over there, I have a trailer, but it is reserved for mulch, top soil, appliances, lawn mowers etc etc etc. NOT MY MOTORCYCLE!!