Oil & Filter change. Now acting funny

I recently added Sea-foam to the gas and the crankcase as per the intstructions.

I changed the oil and filter.

I cleaned my air filters too.

The bike is much stronger H/P-wise now. But....

Now it feels like the clutch is slipping in second gear.

And it is really hard to shift out of gear into neutral.

Any ideas what might be happenning?

To much oil would be my guess.

I' prolly gonna take some heat for this but I would change the oil and filter again and get the Seafoam out of the oil. I just don't like adding anything that uses a wet clutch of oil. Knew a guy once that added STP to his bike oil and it wasn't pretty. I like Seafoam as a gas treatment and carb cleaner. Even as a valve cleaner but I won't add it to oil on wet clutch bikes. Cars and trucks..yes! Ducking and runnin'...................:ohmy:

no need to duck and run, makes sense to me as well. If anything, it has done it's job and now its time to replace it with fresh oil....

These clutches do have a tendency to go funky when you use an oil addative. Another thought, did you remember to put the spring back in, when you changed the filter. I almost forgot to put mine back in, recently. Had the filter cover back on when I noticed the spring, lying on the floor.

Did you use synthetic oil or an oil with a friction modifier? Wet clutch systems seem to work better with regular dino oil. Personally I use Castrol GTX 20W-50 and there are guys on here that swear by Shell Rotella.

PS: Using Seafoam in your oil is a good idea but don't leave it in for the duration betwen oil changes. It's best used right before you change your oil. Run for 50 - 100 miles maybe, then do your oil change. And longs I'm at it...dont use "orange" filters.

Vter Bob wrote:

Did you use synthetic oil or an oil with a friction modifier?

+1

Never use any oil that has "fuel efficient" or any crap like that on the label. They have "friction reducing" additives that gum up the clutch plates. Most good oils don't use this, most synthetics don't. Just watch out for it.

Did someone say Dino Oil?

Hey, It was explained to me like this. A motorcycle w/ a constant mesh tranny that uses the same oil to lube it as the crankshaft does, needs a non detergent oil. Since detergents are to clean the inside of an engine to prevent sludge and build-ups and these same detergents will create bubbles, they will allow a clutch to slip. I was skeptical at first but they likened it to detergent in the dish water,,, bubbles,,, duh,, and my light came on. Now, this cat could have been wrong but,, was your clutch slipping before adding sea-foam? And btw, how did you get that crap to last all the way from the beach to home without all the bubbles popping? Joe

Last year as an experiment, I dumped an entire can of Seafoam into my 650's engine during an oil/filter change (subtracted amount of Seafoam from oil added so not to overfill) and ran it for 2K miles w/no clutch slippage or any other probs (I'm not gentle with the throttle either), and now I can actually see the oil level in the window!:woohoo:

My ZN700 had sat with extremely filthy oil left in it for 8+ years by it's PO, so I used the same "treatment" and got identical results.

IMHO, I doubt the Seafoam itself is causing your problems.
Perhaps the Seafoam did it's job to well?:huh:

Maybe it dislodged some built up oil sludge/gunk from the engine which then adhered itself to the clutch plates?
Anything is possible I guess.

Follow the suggestions already given to be certain that the oil you're using doesn't have any friction modifiers/detergents in it, and also make sure the oil filter spring and washer (the washer is very thin and always sticks to the bottom of the filter, and will usually get thrown away with the old filter if you don't know it's there/don't see it) are in place and in the proper order (from filter plate up = spring-washer-filter).
The bolt that goes through the filter has a check valve of sorts in it (spring and steel ball), so be sure that those are still there and aren't blocked by debris, as well as making sure that all of the holes in the bolt itself are free of debris.

I'd say that if your clutch probs don't go away after another oil/filter change, then it's probably time for new clutch friction plates and springs.:S

jaguar wrote:

Hey, It was explained to me like this. A motorcycle w/ a constant mesh tranny that uses the same oil to lube it as the crankshaft does, needs a non detergent oil. Since detergents are to clean the inside of an engine to prevent sludge and build-ups and these same detergents will create bubbles, they will allow a clutch to slip. I was skeptical at first but they likened it to detergent in the dish water,,, bubbles,,, duh,, and my light came on. Now, this cat could have been wrong but,, was your clutch slipping before adding sea-foam? And btw, how did you get that crap to last all the way from the beach to home without all the bubbles popping? Joe

I hate to burst your 'bubbles'. But your detergent theory is probably flawed. In the motorcycle manuals they recommend detergent oils.
I have used Rotella T (diesel oil with detergents) and have had zero problems.

That all sounds well if you have always used detergent oil. If not I wouldn't suggest changing mid stream. Same as I wouldn't suggest going synth unless it was from the get go. I think maybe RRRR has it as for the Seafoam dislodging something happily clinging to an interior part and contaminating the clutch. Either way it is undesirable in the result. If I felt I had to use Seafoam in the oil it would be in and quickly out. I do believe in frequent oil changes, no additives and stick with a blend of Dino Oil. If I was going from scratch in a brandy new engine or a full resto engine top to bottom I would just go synth. But only then.