Hello,

I have an 05' FLHT w/Vance & Hines true dual exhuast, stage 1 SE filter and recetly installed some SE204 cams. Took it for a ride and noticed the clutch seemed to be slipping in 5th gear, around 70MPH. Stopped at the dealer and said it was common and sold me a different diaphragm spring, pn 37951-98. Went home and installed the new spring, went for a ride and the bike does the same thing. Any other ideas on what to check? Cann a re-adjust of the clutch fix this?

I have a PCIII installed as well, but haven't had it tuned since the cam install. Could this cause the issue? I run redline primary oil in the primary and redline clutch fluid as well. I can't see a stock 88" w/cams making that much HP to require a different clutch install, but ??

Any help or ideas would be great!

 

You didn't say how many miles on the bike. Clutch plates do wear out. With a good set of clutch plates, a properly adjusted clutch, and the SE spring, there's no reason it should be slipping. I'm running a stock clutch and SE spring in my 107 ci Street Glide and it doesn't slip.

 

I had an 06 with a stage 1 and 510 gear drive cams and my clutch slipped until I replaced clutch spring with a screaming eagle 1 , worked fine after that .

 

Spring is the 340lb spring correct?EDIT that is the 380lb spring. That is more than enough to hold your output.EDIT That spring can EASILY hold your output So first thing is to adjust the clutch properly, making sure you adjust free play "loose" enough on cable. 2. Make sure you are you using a primary fluid not some super synthetic oil, if it's slippery enough to lower engine wear it's slippery enough to make your clutch slip, I use rev-tec primary fluid, I have no experience with Redline so if it were me I would use a non-syn primary fluid. 3. If it's still slipping pull primary and inspect clutch pack as per manual, if I was going this far I wouldn't even inspect, I would replace fibers and steels(Your clutch is 6 years old) and then adjust all clutch components as per manual.

 

so you're using Redline primary oil & you did not have this problem before doing the cams & other mods. Did you adjust your clutch to the HD Service Manual?
adj. clutch at room temp.
add freeplay to cable (make sure you have a lot of freeplay at clutch lever)
loosen jam nut on clutch adj screw
turn adj screw in until lightly seated
back out screw 1/2 to 1 full turn
while holding adj screw tighten jam nut 72-120 inch-lbs
squeeze clutch lever to max limit a few times to set ball & ramp mechanism
turn cable adj until slack at lever is eliminated at lever
pull on the cable ferrule away from lever bracket so you can check free play & adj to 1/16 to 1/8 in. between ferrule & clutch lever bracket
tighten up jam mut 120 in-lbs

 

I had this same problem of the clutch slipping (last year) in 5th gear at about 70 MPH, as well. In my case I replaced the clutch spring, changed the primary oil back to a non-synthetic oil, and solved my issue. How ever as others have stated, your clutch pak may be worn and need to be replaced, and you would have never noticed it (at least for a long time) if you hadn't changed the cams and increased your low end torque.

I picked a spring in the middle (the 37871-98A) and have no problems now. I did notice a bit of an increased pull, but it is not anywhere near what the SE spring feels like. Where I really notice it, is in heavy traffic when I am working the clutch a lot, other than that, I forget I even changed it.

Here's a list of some springs with some tension specs. (borrowed from iclick).

37882-06 (117 KgF) 2006-88”, 2007 thru 2010-96”
37871-04 (135 KgF) 2004-05 88” and 2010 Limited
37871-98A (145 KgF) 1998-2003
37807-03 (165 KgF) 2007 thru 2010-103 ”Police"
37951-98 (175 KgF) Current SE

 

I changed the clutch springs in my 05 Ultra to the heavier one and installed the HD eazy clutch and no more slipping, clutch is very smooth and "eazy" to pull.

 

Another vote for non syn in the primary. I run formula + and 98A spring, no probs.

 

Make sure you are adjusting the clutch at the clutch hub correctly if you only backing off 1/2 a turn this maybe your problem mine was doing the same thing started backing it off 3/4 a turn wahlah no more slippage! OH yeah I had run the redline also I am only using Primary + anymore since I changed to the SE Comp. The issue though was the adjustment.

 

Thanks for all of the input. I will start with adjusting the clutch again as that's the free option. My bike has 24,000 miles on it and never had any clutch slippage until I added the cams which is the frustrating part. Thanks for the adjustment instructions as well. The manual isn't always the easiest to understand :-)