Look how my trip to scotland ended up.

[Sergeant Pluck]

My very-much-looked-forward-to camping trip round the highlands ended up like this - see pic.

To cut a long and possibly quite funny story short - I made great time to Carlisle from London, then my clutch slave cylinder broke followed in close succession by the clutch itself disintegrating completely in a very noisy fashion. (At least I hope (?) it was the clutch and not the gearbox - whatever it was it sounded like someone had taken a lathe to it! Either way, I was left without any drive whatsoever). Bike left me dumped with all my gear on the M6 (with no breakdown cover ). Managed to push the bike into the bushes to hide it from the police which worked til the next morning, when they came and recovered it (fittingly) to a scrapyard in Carlisle.

I had to get my mum to drive all the way up in a van to collect it

This is the first time that bike has properly and badly let me down. Needless to say, I'm a bit depressed about it all. I feel like selling it as it is on eBay and forgetting I ever owned the friggin thing - get one of them new Yam XT660R's instead

The other option would be to strip it down myself. How difficult a job is it to replace a clutch and slave cylinder for a competent (!) home mechanic? I know roughly what's involved and that it's a long job. Do I need any special tools, and is there enough info in the big BM manual to do the job? Also - does it make sense to you that the clutch should self-destruct in such a way following the slave cylinder going tits-up? Bit confused about that bit.

Cheers,

one pissed-off Pluck

 

[Deleted account 220427002]

take to steptoe and you'll be sorted

better paying someone to leave it right... than feck it up yourself... more costly in the long run

 

[Loiq]

Does your mum house removals? mighty fine looking van...

Sorry to hear about yer mishap would say best get it fixed by someone who does it for a living cos DIY heart surgery, brain surgery etc. not recommend unless you got all the tools, space and more than a rough idea.

 

[TheWarlock]

A similar thing happened with my 1150 RT (minus the slave cylinder problem). Travelling along in fourth, went for an overtake, into fifth, went for sixth, nothing but noise, no drive, three vehicles to the nearside and on the wrong side of the road. Not good.

When I eventually got stopped, with the motor off, I could put the bike in gear and push it with the clutch lever released. With the motor running I could put it in gear and release the clutch with no drive. Loads of horrible noise in both cases.

It transpired that, as happened with a lot of airheads, the centre of the clutch had stripped. No fault of mine thankfully (I'm fairly easy on clutches and the mechanic who did the work reckoned there was very little wear on the friction plate). The bigger problem however was, when the clutch centre went, it took the gearbox input shaft splines with it also, resulting in a gearbox rebuild as well. So from a DIY viewpoint, replacing a clutch just takes know how, time and care, but having rebuilt a boxer gearbox in the past, its not something I would care to take on again in a hurry.

You could of course start the job to do the clutch and if you find that you have a similar problem then leave the gearbox to someone with the skills to do that part (like Steptoe) if you are unhappy to undertake it yourself.

 

[Sergeant Pluck]

When I eventually got stopped, with the motor off, I could put the bike in gear and push it with the clutch lever released. With the motor running I could put it in gear and release the clutch with no drive. Loads of horrible noise in both cases.

It transpired that, as happened with a lot of airheads, the centre of the clutch had stripped. No fault of mine thankfully (I'm fairly easy on clutches and the mechanic who did the work reckoned there was very little wear on the friction plate). The bigger problem however was, when the clutch centre went, it took the gearbox input shaft splines with it also, resulting in a gearbox rebuild as well. So from a DIY viewpoint, replacing a clutch just takes know how, time and care, but having rebuilt a boxer gearbox in the past, its not something I would care to take on again in a hurry.

You could of course start the job to do the clutch and if you find that you have a similar problem then leave the gearbox to someone with the skills to do that part (like Steptoe) if you are unhappy to undertake it yourself.

Those are the same symptoms as mine - I could put it in gear and release the clutch and get no drive. Thats very worrying

I know it's not quite the same thing - but I replaced the clutch on my /7 OK and I'm getting fairly confident DIY-wise, so I wouldn't mind saving myself the labour and doing the clutch myself if the consensus was that it was possible. However if the gearbox is also in trouble - that's a whole different ball-game .

Question - will I be able to tell if the input shaft has stripped by seeing what kind of debris I have floating about in my gearbox oil? (Usually it's very clean).

Pluck

 

[Shep]

I would hazard a guess and say no, no evidence will be seen in the gearbox oil.

The clutch is a dry clutch and i will guess that the input shaft fails where the cluch plate slides along it so any debris will be in the bell/clutch housing

Shep

 

[TheWarlock]

I would hazard a guess and say no, no evidence will be seen in the gearbox oil.

The clutch is a dry clutch and i will guess that the input shaft fails where the cluch plate slides along it so any debris will be in the bell/clutch housing

Shep

Exactly as Shep says. The clutch plate moves along the splined input shaft. This is all external to the gearbox (the shaft protrudes from the front of the box). If the clutch centre is shot, simply look at the splines on the input shaft. You will see if they are damaged or not.

 

[Sergeant Pluck]

Thanks both - I had a think about it after posting and figured that would be the case.

Pluck.