Clutch issue

[Airman]

I'm having some problems with the clutch on my 2003 RR
It is slow to engage and disengage, and shifting feels heavy. I just bled it with no change. Think it has air in it or have I got a servo problem ?

[towerworker]

CycleRob is the expert here and he'll probably show up. But my guess is that the problem is in the clutch slave cylinder. Possibly some water has settled in the cylinder and you've gotten the resultant corrosion. I think some disassembly is in your future!

[CycleRob]

Airman, I'm just 1 of a few other authorities on Boxer clutches. On an 11 year old OilHead, your impending failure has 1 of 3 possibilities.

1--The Good one: The clutch slave piston's throwout bearing could fail. That usually forces the normally stationary slave piston to rotate a little slower than the engine, soon scoring the slave piston and it's cylinder bore. Then it operates sluggishly.

2--The Bad one: The transmission input shaft splines can be so worn away and deformed that the clutch disc tilts away from radial alignment so that it is always partially engaged. It also means that transmission input shaft spline failure is just a few (or less) full throttle take-offs away.

3--The Preferred one: The master cylinder bleed-back hole and piston bore is gummed up. Just bleeding it won't completely fix the problem. It needs a disassembly cleaning.

Good Luck!

.

[Airman]

Thanks Towerworker and cyclerob,

Not exactly good news, but I expected something of the sort. I may just buy the new clutch slave from Beemer Boneyard. I don't want to go into it without a new one in my hand. And:

Just as a side note to bleeding issues, I mentioned in another thread about my ABS lights. I had the flashing red lights of death for quite a while, but wasn't sure what to do as it didn't really affect brake operation. The rear rotor was worn down, but the pads and the front rotors/pads were good. I gave it a good 32 oz flush and bleed last weekend after changing all three rotors and pads. I'm happy to say that the lights went out and the brakes now have better bite without the grab they always had before.

[kirby]

Having just seen this post I would add that a clutch that engages abrutly and the hard shift can be caused by the spline shaft on the transmission being very dry and contaminated (clutch dust).

I have seen this on occasion in my couple of 100K miles on oilheads. The fix... lube the shaft.

good luck that its that simple.

mike

[Airman]

Having just seen this post I would add that a clutch that engages abrutly and the hard shift can be caused by the spline shaft on the transmission being very dry and contaminated (clutch dust).

I have seen this on occasion in my couple of 100K miles on oilheads. The fix... lube the shaft.

good luck that its that simple.

mike

Thanks Mike,

Is it possible to see the shaft with the starter out, or is this something that requires taking the transmission out ?

[kirby]

I have been told by others that you can see some of the shaft and others have said you can hold the clutch lever in to relieve the pressure on the plate and see if it moves radialy as in clockwise and counter clockwise to see how much play on the splines. That would be an indication of damage as there should be only a small amount of movement.

Some say you can lube the shaft a little with the access thru the starter hole, maybe somone will chime in that has done this. I have not! (I do everything the hard way i guess) Seems allot of paranoia about the "splines". Mine looked new (but dry) at 80K and I never had clutch problems.

I did know a guy that had similar symptoms to yours in that as you let the clutch out it would just engage abrutly (I experienced this on his machine). And it had a shifting issue as in allot more effort than normal

We just got to it and pulled the tranny and the shaft was dirty and very dry. Clean and lube...back together and back to normal (including shifting).

Its a chore the first time...learning curve..but I consider it not so bad now as I have helped with 3 or 4 +mine once.

keep us up on what you find!!

edit:
I might add that you can leave the final drive connected, go thru all the steps to raise the rear sub frame and pull the bolts on the tranny mounting and just slide the whole thing back far enough to inspect every thing and clean/lube that way. That would cut the time about in half but we wanted to inspect the pins and u joints at the same time so pulled it completely out and removed the rear drive. BTW no other maint needed. But the owner (a friend of mine) felt better having a look at everything...probably overkill as in not necessary. ha! Of course if the inspection shows a damaged shaft then you will have to do the whole thing.
mike