Hitchcocks Forum

Hi everyone an merry christmas, i have a 1960 Crusader 250 which i have had no problem with at all in the last 2years until the other day, it started up normally then stopped because it was abit cold which it dose, then i went to start it again and it had clutch slip, kick starter unable to turn the motor over very odd. I have fitted new steels,fibers,and a 6 Spring conversion kit from our hosts, the correct oil and it still has clutch slip and unable to turn over the motor. Any advice on this prob and on how to fix it is much appreciated.

Cheers
Patrick

Patrick, could be several things! There is a group specifically for Crusader owners, come along and join at http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Cru ... cal_group/ and we'll try and help you through it. One thing, have you recently changed the oil for a modern formulation? Many modern oils contain friction modifiers which can cause this problem as the 250 range runs the same oil in the clutch as the engine.
REgards, Mark

Hi Patrick. Next to the Kickstart shaft there is a clutch pushrod adjusting screw with a locknut protruding through the off-side cover. The correct adjustment of this is critical especially after you have overhauled the clutch. Loosen the locknut and turn the slotted screw until you can just feel it starting to tighten up, then slacken it back one complete turn and tighten the locknut. In your case you may find that you may have to slacken it first to get to the correct adjustment. Then you must adjust the clutch cable as well so that it has about 1/16th in. free movement when the clutch lever on the handlebar is operated.

Hi guys thanks for your advice, the oil in which i am running is right for the bike, made for the old motors so that's fine, one thing that dose not seam right is when i loosen off the locknut, and screw in the Adjusting screw, it keeps screwing in untill the locknut fell off the end, and just keeped going, Hmmmmm could be something wrong there maybe?

Cheers Patrick.

Hi Patrick. There is definitely something wrong in that area. Are you sure that the clutch assembly is fitting properly on the keyway of the shaft. Perhaps the little ball bearing in front of the clutch pushrod has fallen out and you did not notice it when you dismantled the clutch. That happened to me when I replaced my clutch plates last year. I used the bonded ones supplied by Hitchcocks. Good luck with your further investigations. By the way I have a workshop manual for this machine which I have found very useful.

Hi again Roy.
Well i don't think the little Ball fell out but will check on the weekend when i pull it apart again.
Yer i have the clutch plates sorted, and i have the original workshop manual which i use frequently. thank for all you help, Cheers Patrick.

Hello Patrick,

The push rod for the clutch on my 1959 250cc clipper is in two sections the long push rod starts at the gearbox side then the other short rod fits in from clutch end when you assemble the clutch, I know this is a long shot but have you mislaid laid the short rod by mistake. It's happend to me!!

Cheers.

Hi Howzie.
Thanks for your reply, yer everything seems to be right thats the thing, i have had no probs with the bike,i ride that thing every weekend and it has never missed a beat, it just happened the other day, kicked it over a few times it was running then stopped abit cold then started the clutch slip, all abit strange so am going to replace a few things put it back together and hope for the best.

Patrick,

When I rebuild my clipper I had lots of problems trying to get the clutch working ok,
set the right distance with the locknut made sure I had 1/16 play at the clutch lever still no go. So I set to and made sure I could kick the bike over first of all then started to adjust the locknut & clutch lever a little bit at a time, did not take any notice of the handbook, my machine is 1959 model so settings in the book do not work sometimes on a 54year old machine, play around and see what happens.

Cheers.

Patrick,
Give this a try, with the clutch cover off,remove the adjusting screw & nut for the clutch completely. Not interested at this point about the clutch working! with the adjusting screw removed you should see that all the clutch plates are making full contact with each other! if so then you should be able to turn the engine over from the kickstart. If not, are all the plates inserted the right way, are the 6 springs in thr right posistion. if all is ok then start looking at the gearbox side of things.
Cheers.