reepicheep
Member
- Apr 3, 2009
- 670
- 2
I worked it out, but the archives are a bit ambiguous on this topic, so I thought I would post my experience. Lots of people have this problem, pop up and ask questions, and then never post back with what did or didn't fix it.
Anyway, the last step on my "KDX from the grave" project was to deal with the fact that my clutch slipped, and that the basket was badly grooved. Actually, grooved is far too kind a word, it was NOTCHED. Maybe 1/4 inch or more. Curiously, it still shifted fine and engaged and disengaged fine.
It slipped though, and those notches had to go. This was a 95, and the 95 and 96 models both had soft clutch springs from the factory, so that was probably a factor... and the clutch was no doubt (like every other part of the bike) badly worn.
In my assembly and disassembly of various parts, I broke a couple strands on the clutch cable, so I needed a new one of those as well.
Lets start with the easy part... I got the cheap Dennis Kirk cable, and shouldn't have. I should have gotten the premium cable. The cheap one will work, but the better one would be less flexy and a lot smoother.
For the clutch, I just stalked ebay for a while until I got an entire pulled clutch assembly, inner and outer. The seller of course said "worked when pulled", which means little, but it makes you feel better. I let a couple of auctions go by at $100 or so, and finally got one for about $90 to my door. The standard "buy it now" price is something like $125, which isn't bad compared to kawasaki prices. The 95 and up 200's and 225's have the same clutch (aside from the weak springs on the 95 and 96).
So the clutch came, and looked good. I was getting sick of taking that inner cover on and off, so I did it this time with just the outer cover. It makes a little harder to work in there, but not much, and you don't have do deal with draining coolant or disconnecting the kips. For that matter, you don't technically need to even drain the transmission fluid, you can lay the bike on it's side and work that way, but my petcock and carb did a slow drip the whole time and stunk up the garage. That also makes it a headache to immobilize the rear wheel, so when I had to re-do it, I just drained the transmission fluid.
I installed the new (used) clutch and cable, and of course when it was all put back together, the clutch would not disengage, and the movement of the plates (as felt through the lever) was kind of stiff and wooden.
There was of course lots of here and there and assembly and disassembly, but the short version of the story was that I fixed it by:
1) Taking the entire clutch pack apart.
2) Soaking the plates in ATF type F for an hour.
3) Reassmbling the entire pack.
4) Putting the pack in a vise with a big freaking socket and manually making sure it would engage and disengage smoothly, and that when it was compressed that the plates had some play.
5) Reassembling into the bike.
That solved the problem. I didn't pay a lot of attention taking it apart, as I knew I was just going to put it back by the book regardless. So it is possible the pack was misassembled, but I didn't notice anything obvious, and all the parts were there.
I know you have to soak new plates... but this was a used clutch pack, still with old transmission oil. I figured that and soaking the whole pack assembled (which I did) before install was good enough... but it wasn't. I tried dropping it into gear a few times when it was stuck, and left some nice dark patches of my new knobbies as streaks on the driveway, but that sucker didn't move.
There were lots of little annoyances putting the thing in and out, lining up those inner and outer splines was a headache. It was much easier with the bike upright so you weren't fighting gravity one way or the other. It was also much easier to line up all the plates on the workbench, and tighten down the four bolts inside the four springs there, and lock it all in position before walking it over to the bike. Trying to do it on the bike was really annoying.
I left the shim on the pusher assembly in. The goal is to have that arm sweep through 90 degrees to the cable about half pull, and this put me pretty close. Adding a shim pushed the rest position further away from where the cable comes from. Removing the shim pushes it towards where the cable comes from.
I'm just running ATF type F, and it seems to be working well. Cheap and easy to find as well...
Thats all. The boyesens are in now, I jetted down from stock a little (open airbox and Eric Gorr 225 kit) and it still looks a little rich, which gives me a little safety margin, and the bike is running great. A big difference from my old KLR-250... it's weird being able to wheelie in the first three gears, or wheelie while standing on the pegs...
Anyway, the last step on my "KDX from the grave" project was to deal with the fact that my clutch slipped, and that the basket was badly grooved. Actually, grooved is far too kind a word, it was NOTCHED. Maybe 1/4 inch or more. Curiously, it still shifted fine and engaged and disengaged fine.
It slipped though, and those notches had to go. This was a 95, and the 95 and 96 models both had soft clutch springs from the factory, so that was probably a factor... and the clutch was no doubt (like every other part of the bike) badly worn.
In my assembly and disassembly of various parts, I broke a couple strands on the clutch cable, so I needed a new one of those as well.
Lets start with the easy part... I got the cheap Dennis Kirk cable, and shouldn't have. I should have gotten the premium cable. The cheap one will work, but the better one would be less flexy and a lot smoother.
For the clutch, I just stalked ebay for a while until I got an entire pulled clutch assembly, inner and outer. The seller of course said "worked when pulled", which means little, but it makes you feel better. I let a couple of auctions go by at $100 or so, and finally got one for about $90 to my door. The standard "buy it now" price is something like $125, which isn't bad compared to kawasaki prices. The 95 and up 200's and 225's have the same clutch (aside from the weak springs on the 95 and 96).
So the clutch came, and looked good. I was getting sick of taking that inner cover on and off, so I did it this time with just the outer cover. It makes a little harder to work in there, but not much, and you don't have do deal with draining coolant or disconnecting the kips. For that matter, you don't technically need to even drain the transmission fluid, you can lay the bike on it's side and work that way, but my petcock and carb did a slow drip the whole time and stunk up the garage. That also makes it a headache to immobilize the rear wheel, so when I had to re-do it, I just drained the transmission fluid.
I installed the new (used) clutch and cable, and of course when it was all put back together, the clutch would not disengage, and the movement of the plates (as felt through the lever) was kind of stiff and wooden.
There was of course lots of here and there and assembly and disassembly, but the short version of the story was that I fixed it by:
1) Taking the entire clutch pack apart.
2) Soaking the plates in ATF type F for an hour.
3) Reassmbling the entire pack.
4) Putting the pack in a vise with a big freaking socket and manually making sure it would engage and disengage smoothly, and that when it was compressed that the plates had some play.
5) Reassembling into the bike.
That solved the problem. I didn't pay a lot of attention taking it apart, as I knew I was just going to put it back by the book regardless. So it is possible the pack was misassembled, but I didn't notice anything obvious, and all the parts were there.
I know you have to soak new plates... but this was a used clutch pack, still with old transmission oil. I figured that and soaking the whole pack assembled (which I did) before install was good enough... but it wasn't. I tried dropping it into gear a few times when it was stuck, and left some nice dark patches of my new knobbies as streaks on the driveway, but that sucker didn't move.
There were lots of little annoyances putting the thing in and out, lining up those inner and outer splines was a headache. It was much easier with the bike upright so you weren't fighting gravity one way or the other. It was also much easier to line up all the plates on the workbench, and tighten down the four bolts inside the four springs there, and lock it all in position before walking it over to the bike. Trying to do it on the bike was really annoying.
I left the shim on the pusher assembly in. The goal is to have that arm sweep through 90 degrees to the cable about half pull, and this put me pretty close. Adding a shim pushed the rest position further away from where the cable comes from. Removing the shim pushes it towards where the cable comes from.
I'm just running ATF type F, and it seems to be working well. Cheap and easy to find as well...
Thats all. The boyesens are in now, I jetted down from stock a little (open airbox and Eric Gorr 225 kit) and it still looks a little rich, which gives me a little safety margin, and the bike is running great. A big difference from my old KLR-250... it's weird being able to wheelie in the first three gears, or wheelie while standing on the pegs...