Clutch problems

Since I have been tinkering with the bike during the winter, I thought it would be a nice thing to change the clutch friction plates as well to finish it all off, The friction plates were very old and I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to swap them and change the springs since I have anyway been taking care of most of the engine.

I took out the whole stack, changed the friction plates and put it back together the same way they came out.
After I torqued them down, and tried the clutch, there is no resistance in the clutch lever what so ever.
The lever goes straight in to the handlebar without any resistance at all.
I thought perhaps I needed to adjust the cable, and screwed it out for the maximum resistance and thought to adjust it down afterwards.
Still no resistance.

Then I though, perhaps I dropped the steel ball without noticing, but the ball is in place where it should be.
I never took the left hand side out, so the inner clutch lever is in place as it should be (but since this all happened, I pulled it out just to check - All intact and good).

Now is the question, why the heck does it behave like this?
New friction plates and new springs, I thought this would make the clutch harder...
Could I have missed something? There is no oil yet in the engine, could that have anything to do with it?
Do you guys have any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Did you adjust the actuator arm per the FSM?
Steve

What bike?

And if you pull the lever, do you see the pressure plate move? If the cover is on, you can see some of it through the oil filler, on some models.

loudhvx wrote: What bike?

And if you pull the lever, do you see the pressure plate move? If the cover is on, you can see some of it through the oil filler, on some models.

Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention, It's a Z500 B3

No, the pressure plates does not move at all. It behaves just as if the steel ball was missing...

swest wrote: Did you adjust the actuator arm per the FSM?
Steve

When you say "Actuator arm", do you mean the Release Lever?
(Number 29 in this image: images.cmsnl.com/img/partslists/kawasaki...kar09819665_858b.gif )

Ahh, being in the 500/550 family means there can be confusion on the clutch adjustment. There are two types of actuators for the 500/550, and they are adjusted in opposite manners. I'm not sure which type you have. But if you follow my links, you will see a page (single GIF, actually) which explains the later style adjuster and how to adjust it. The manuals are vague and may be wrong.

The image you linked to shows both types. The upper one is the newer type. There was a thread on this just a few days/weeks ago.

There are also several manuals linked in my signature. Make sure to download all of them for reference.

If you do any valve train work, you should read the valve train warning in my signature.

As described it's got to be something simple. Check that the same number of plates came off as u had in the kit. If all u did is remove the cover and plates and put new ones in it has to be that simple. Also unless rusty or damaged 500 clutches are pretty bulletproof. Put back the old,plates and see if,it,works. It something's obvious by your description. R

loudhvx wrote: Ahh, being in the 500/550 family means there can be confusion on the clutch adjustment. There are two types of actuators for the 500/550, and they are adjusted in opposite manners. I'm not sure which type you have. But if you follow my links, you will see a page (single GIF, actually) which explains the later style adjuster and how to adjust it. The manuals are vague and may be wrong.

The image you linked to shows both types. The upper one is the newer type. There was a thread on this just a few days/weeks ago.

There are also several manuals linked in my signature. Make sure to download all of them for reference.

If you do any valve train work, you should read the valve train warning in my signature.

Hmm, interesting.
I could have sworn that the lower were the newer version.
For some reason, I imagine it to be better than the upper version.

The upper version is the one that I got!
Anyway, will check your links!

Were stock plates installed?

If not already done, would try again to adjust the pushrod, but this time using opposite screw turning than was earlier applied to lightly seat (no gap), followed by 1/4 turn in the opposite direction to provide gap.

It might seem counter-intuitive to first turn ccw in order to close the gap (lightly seat), and again counter-intuitive to turn cw in order to provide the gap. But some pushrod mechanisms are designed to work that way.

Good Fortune!

noratx wrote: ...
Hmm, interesting.
I could have sworn that the lower were the newer version.
For some reason, I imagine it to be better than the upper version.

The upper version is the one that I got!
Anyway, will check your links!

Do you have the owner's manual for the motorcycle & have you successfully adjusted the clutch previously before replacing the friction plates? The 81 650-CSR OM says to turn the clutch release adjusting screw counterclockwise first until hard to turn, then clockwise 1/4 turn. it's kind of counterintuitive. some manuals are ambiguous as to which way to turn it, as noted by loudhvx.

martin_csr wrote:

noratx wrote: ...
Hmm, interesting.
I could have sworn that the lower were the newer version.
For some reason, I imagine it to be better than the upper version.

The upper version is the one that I got!
Anyway, will check your links!

Do you have the owner's manual for the motorcycle & have you successfully adjusted the clutch previously before replacing the friction plates? The 81 650-CSR OM says to turn the clutch release adjusting screw counterclockwise first until hard to turn, then clockwise 1/4 turn. it's kind of counterintuitive. some manuals are ambiguous as to which way to turn it, as noted by loudhvx.

I have actually been following the same manual as in loudhvx's links, upon earlier hints that my haynes manual was crap.
(However, I still use the haynes to cross check and see where the differences are between the service manual and the haynes manual).
But I don't got an "owners manual".

I will try, as you and Patton says, to turn ccw first, then cw.
One thing that I just now read that I had forgot, was that I should have applied a thin film of oil between the friction plates to avoid sezure, something I have not yet done.
So at next visit to the garage, I will pick out the friction plates, lube them a bit and then put them back to place, as well as adjusting ccw and then cw and see how it goes.
If this won't work, I will put back the old friction plates and see if that works.
If it does, I would have ti find out what the heck is wrong with the new plates

I have adjusted the clutch before.
2 months before winter came, the clutch cable snapped so I had to install a new one.
Adjusting that one worked like a charm. But I have never changed the friction plates before on this bike.

I have the factory manuals, and the Cl*mer in my links. It's good to compare them.

The upper is the newer. When you have the lever fully squeezed, the ball bearings do a large part of the holding, instead of your hand. The initial pull may be harder than the old style, but the holding force might be lower.

Since you have the ball-pocket, or ball-ramp type, you should follow the instructions on this gif:
(Open it in a new tab and see it full size).