installing Rekluse questions

[zio]

IThe installation guide says to use a torque wrench to tighten the screws that hold the lower assembly to 96 inch pounds. I don't have a torque wrench, and just blew all my money on this clutch. Can I use my trusty "good n' tight" w/ loctite method for now? It also calls for 10 inch pounds on the torx screws that hold the top plate on.

I'm not going to install it if this is a really bad idea. I'll hustle $50 for a torque wrench, or wait.

 

[jp2396]

To be on the "safe" side, spring for the torque wrench. You will be surprised at how handy they are to have. Also, when you do buy one, it will most likely be in nM (Newton Meter) and foot/lbs. You will need to convert the 96 in/lb to a foot pound, which in this case is 8 ft/lbs. Hope this helps.

 

[Okiewan]

Don't do it without the TW Zio.

 

[xsnrg]

Can you borrow one for the job?

 

[zio]

okay, I broke down & bought a torque wrench. I've read the directions twice now, and it looks easy enough. I'll take my time, and do it right, EVEN THOUGH I DON'T WANT TO.

 

[zio]

Installation went well. It took me a little over an hour, not including gathering up all the tools & reading the directions one more time. I gotta thank Kevin at erider for the install tips. He recommended making a cutout for the clutch basket out of an old sheet or cloth. I used an old tshirt, with the hole cut a little smaller so it would stretch tight around the basket. No nuts or balls fell in the case. Also, I read the directions several times before starting.

The only little fudge I did was measuring the gap between the top steel & friction plates:

Directions call for .030 - .042 or something, and one set of feeler guages went up to .026, the other went up to .032. So I took both the biggest ones, stuck them in 180 degrees apart, and they both were just barely tight. I swapped them around, and got the same (duh). Now I know that the thicker guage was tipping the clutch plates to be tighter on the thinner guage side, and maybe the difference is the actual clearance, which would be .029. It had to be close enough. I'd guess it was a little more clearance than what the directions called for, so I had to be in the ballpark. I've never used feeler guages before, but I think I understood what they meant by "still able to move in and out, but with some friction".

And with the torque wrench only went as low as 10 ft/lb. And torquing the first m6 bolt to 96 in/lbs, converted to 8 ft/lbs (I got the line just below the 10 mark), just felt like a lot, so I never went that far with the rest of the bolts. I would not have done them that tight without the torque wrench.

I did the warm up procedure, and I'll be damed- it worked! Did the 20 cycles of start/stopping, then went for a short ride, and damn. It works great.

I can't wait to try it tomorrow. Gonna do a local D36 harescramble. It should be extra sloppy, so this will be a good test.

From my 5 minute test ride, I can tell I'm going to like it. Since I was never much of a clutch featherer when engine speed got too low for a gear (I'd usually just downshift), I really noticed a difference lugging around in 3rd. I know there's more I'll appreciate, but I'll save it for a ride report Monday morning.

 

[zio]

Worked great. I'll post a race report w/ specifics about the clutch.,