Dealer says leave out these clutch parts?

There are two metal bands amongst the clutch friction plates. They are

"Spring seat" (p/n 16007-1162)

"Coned Disc Spring" (p/n 92144-1522)

I have a few questions about these (my bike is a '96 KDX 200). First, a little background. The this link is to a pic of my clutch before I took it apart.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rushbe/basket2.jpg


Whoever did it before me either a) knew some tricks that I don't know, or b) did not have a clue - because as you can see from the picture, the last friction plate that's supposed to be offset from the rest in it's own little notch was not installed that way. Anyway, the "coned disc spring" was at the bottom of the basket (nearest the gear) and the spring seat was sandwiched in front of the last friction plate. This seems to be pretty far from where the shop manual thinks they should be! Having said that, I should also say that the clutch has always worked well. Here's where it gets interesting, I mentioned this when ordering some parts from my dealer - who is the owner/mechanic. His response was "I don't really think they are necessary, and I usually leave them out when I rebuild a clutch". So I thought I'd throw it out to the group here in CDave's forum. What do you think? Do these parts serve a purpose and if so, what?

The other thing I wonder about is whether it matters that the last friction plate is offset or not. As someone pointed out to me recently, a Hinson basket does not have this offset arrangement so maybe it does not matter?



[This message has been edited by BRush (edited 03-21-2001).]

Porter, I too am puzzled by the purpose of these parts. What did you finally end up doing to yours? I just got my repaired basket back from Fredette, along with a new set of friction plates and some new springs. I've been doing some dry fit ups to see how it looks. My theory on the "coned disk spring" is that perhaps it is meant to spread out the engagement band. It would seem to provide a little "give" as you let out the lever and perhaps make the engagement less abrupt. I wonder if it is a solution in search of a problem, since a lot of folks are telling me to leave it out. One day I'd like to see a disassembled stock clutch after a season of use. I'm thinking that the last plate would have a strange narrow wear band from that disc spring. The other odd thing that Kawasaki does is to offset the very last friction plate. There is a special notch in the basket for this purpose. I don't like it because in my test fit up, it seem to prevent the last friction plate from fully contacting the metal plate next to it.

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96 KDX 200