Forum

[Wheaters]

The clutch on my 2004 350 (Iron engine) Electra is as sweet as a nut. I wonder if yours might have a warped plate, or one that warps as it heats up - it's possible that replacing the plates might fix the problem. Or, removing them and flatting down both sides of the steel ones on a sheet of wet and dry might help.

I also followed the Hitchcock's advice and use ATF in the primary chaincase, btw.

I've found using the neutral finder to be very tricky - difficult to get my boot on it even when I can look directly at it, let alone when trying to find it by feel when concentrating on the road. So did one of my uncles many years ago - he ended up falling off his RE and losing half of his right foot when he got it wrong, he always blamed the neutral finder. To the best of my knowledge, he never rode a bike again.

[Norm]

If somebody comes up with a proper fix to this problem I would be interested, so far I haven't read anything

[Norm]

Just as a bit of info on what I worked out many years ago. From memory the travel on the cable at the handelbar is 15/17mm with a standard lever setup. For every 5mm of cable travel on an Albion box, this equates to .4mm of rod travel. 15/17 divided by 5 = 3. 3 x .4mm equals to 1.2mm of rod travel to release the plates. This is more than adequate when everything is cold. Then you have to factor in the expansion rate of the aluminium gearbox housing and the expansion rate of the steel rod and the box expansion is greater so therefore your 1.2mm of lift on the plates has been reduced to probably half that and this then means the plates start to drag, this then heats the plates up further and this causes the drag to increase til you reach the point where there is no way of disengaging the clutch to a point where the only way to stop is switch it off or stall the motor which is what you usually have to do because by this stage you have your left hand dragging on the clutch lever to no avail and your right hand flat out holding the front brake. The only genuine solution I found was to buy a Honda

[Adrian]

No aftermarket for cast-iron gearbox casings then, Norm? ;o)



A.

[John L]

stinkwheel - When you say your hot clutch "grabs, or becomes "grabbier", I think you mean it starts to drag ? (Evidenced by ever-increasing slack on the cable?) Well, any long-time Enfield owner will tell you that they all do that......... The problem is lack of pushrod travel (hot OR cold) for various possible reasons combined with plates that are badly affected by heat.

Why do you think Enfield fitted a neutral finder - as standard equipment ?

My experience mirrors Norm!s...... and the only contributor here that I can recall ever claimed to have found a complete and lasting cure for this affliction was "Simon", who advocated cork-lined plates, I believe.

You can ignore all the twaddle about rod expansion and ceramic balls, anyway..........

[Leon Novello]

My nightmare experience, like Norm`s, on a hot Summer day, having to slowly approach traffic lights till they turned green, because I couldn`t change gears if I stopped. When I got home, nearly riding through the garage wall, having to stall the engine. The clutch plates were fused together, I had to lever them apart with a screw driver, this was the result of using cheap lawnmower engine oil. Only ATF-Type F for Fords after that. The clutch lever movement stayed fairly constant with a ceramic ball too. I had thoughts of fitting a larger ball to get a bit more rod movement, but never got around to it.

[Norm]

Leon the ceramic ball would make things worse,you need the rod to heat up more to grow in length. I had considered moving the cable entry point in the end cover further forward and shorten the clutch lever (71) This then would increase the travel on the rod but would also make the clutch heavier to operate. Sure it might have fixed mine but it was too difficult to make up something for other people to be able to modify for their bike so I just gave up

[Mark M]

Stinkwheel. can you explain about the Kawasaki GPZ550 clutch please? I Googled pictures of it and I can't see how any of it would fit, for instance the outer plate is for a 5 spring arrangement which wouldn't line up with the 3 spring posts on an Enfield one?

REgards, Mark

[vince]

Hi, check that there is no end float on the mainshaft caused by loose lefthanded nut and the clutch is tight on shaft. Also fill the pushrod tunnel with light grease, pushrods are usually red with rust. Tighten up the cable adjuster until there is no slack. Take the bike for a ride at low speed in top gear and see if you get any slip when putting the power on up a gradient. If it slip then back off adjuster just enough to grip. Vince

[Norm]

The other thing that helps is the outer cover stiffening bolt mod on the Indian covers, this can gain you another .5mm on the rod and a heavy duty clutch cable, one you get made up using the cable they used on the big Jap 4 cylinder bikes, not the off the shelf stuff. I even extended the pivot point on my handelbar lever to get me a little extra cable travel, cable travel is now at 20mm. That increase gave me about .3mm at the rod. It all helps slightly, a fraction of a mm here and there but no matter what you do it will always be a borderline clutch