Based on many people's experience here, I took a look at my outer clutch basket to see how the spring retaining washers were looking. Since I was doing the clutch bushing, cam chain, blah, blah, blah... this was a no brainer. Sadly, mine was hammered after 18K miles. Since, I had IndyUnlimited's(Dan's) flywheel puller and he makes the awesome retaining washers, I asked him if he had the parts to fix my clutch. He did and was willing to sell with them. Next step, how to perform the fix? Hmmmm...Dan recommended the moto shop as he is not a fan of doing the work on these himself, but after 0.1 microseconds he offered to do mine if I helped. What a trooper. He only lives 1.5 hours away. Dan's got the moto addiction real good. The only cure is more motorcycles and ideas to be implemented. So the following pictures are of the process needed to fix your outer clutch hub. Start by carefully grinding off the rivet's on the outside. Then mark with a sharpie the rivet locations and use a press to press them out. Then seperate the pieces. Here are my hammered washers. Errr....in some cases plugs. with Dan's parts next to some hammered ones. Take the new washers and put into a spring. Place in compressor(vise in this case) and put into the middle plate. Use a rubber mallet to align in the middle. Like so. Some of the damage caused by the springs moving around freely. Reassemble the pieces. Some of the tools used. Heat up the rivet, red hot. Place rivet into location and use the air hammer on the skinny side and place the inner side up against something hard and stable. We used the vice with a sacrificial quarter taped in place to create a small offset. Use a hammer and punch to mushroom the outer side so everything is real tight. All done after finishing the 3rd rivet. Dan then had me file off my divets from the clutch pack on the drive side. This helps make the clutch smoother to engage. It was lots of fun for me to see and do this. But I'm sure Dan is a bit tired of it. Anyways, THANKS DAN!
How do you tell if your clutch basket is 'hammered'? EDIT: Okay, read the other thread, understand it now. Still not clear if you can see the washers without pulling the whole assembly. Johngil, have you done anything with yours yet? I'm pretty sure I could do the change-out, just not sure about the riveting.
I'm planning on inspecting the clutch very soon. I need to be sure everything is alright before I take any more long trips. I'm usually pretty easy on clutches, but the 630 has never felt 100% right to me. We'll see.
I wasn't clear if you needed a puller or not either. Seems you probably do. Too bad Indy Unlimited is in CO.
I too have the spring cups/washers on hand, along with three new rivets. I'll be ordering the bronze sleeve too, just in case. I'm not planning to pull it apart yet as I have just a little less than 4K on the bike now. I'll do it this fall after my 3000k ride up in the high country. It looks like you should be able to see the springs and washers from the clutch basket side, based on the photos above. Pull the clutch plates out and all should be visible. If this isn't so, someone please post up!
You can see the springs and cups with a inspection mirror and flash light from the top left side behind the clutch assembly. I just checked mine at 6,500 miles and so far everything look good. I suspect I will change them by 10,000 miles just to be safe.
I should be pulling mine apart in a few weeks and shipping the basket to Indy Unlimited for new spring cups. I'm going out of town for about 10 days, so taking the bike down won't really cost me any riding time.
Dumb question...but what are the springs for anyway? Is this part of the slipper clutch thing? What do these springs actually hold? It doesn't look like they do anything.
You've seen the pictures HERE It's a cush drive built into the main gear/clutch basket. When there is a torque spike in either direction, the springs compress, allowing the gear and the basket to spin independently of each other for a few degrees, dampening the shock loading, which makes for a smoother ride and longer-lasting internals.
Are there certain riding conditions or terrain that make the cush drive work harder? Maybe cause accellerated wear on the spring seats? Cup washers, I guess they call them.
The cush effect is caused by allowing the gear and hub to flex. Since they are riveted together but flex at different rates, the springs take up the slack so to speak.
From the results it looks like those springs work pretty hard. They are on auto clutches too. I shure would like to get a cush hub if I spring for an extra rear wheel so I can run two different tires, depending on the ride.
Things like clutch drop launches, clutch-up wheelies, dumping the clutch after downshifting, downshifting without the clutch, power shifting and accelerating or engine braking on rough, uneven terrain, like rocks, will all impart a shock load to the system, compressing the cush springs more than during "normal" operation. Of course, most of those things are withing my realm of "normal" operation...
I believe I'm pretty easy on mine. I'm interested to see what kind of shape mine is in when I tear it apart. I should find out mid/late July.
Basically this, but the rivets clamp the basket and the rear backing plate together, and the drive gear kinda floats in between. See the ovalized holes in the gear for the rivet bosses to pass through?
Okay, makes sense. Done here instead of in the rear hub. Can anyone say why they do a flex clutch system instead of a rubber mounted drive hub on the rear wheel? My guess is that this clutch mechanism is more effective at limiting shock to the gear case than a rubber drive hub.
Well most bikes that have a cush drive wheel also have a cush setup in the clutch to absorb gear lash and such. The wheel cush is just a second layer that helps reduce the effects of drivetrain shock, like wheel hop and loss of traction.
