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[mauri]

the 4 speed clutch when all is correct will work correctley like any other clutch.



but several points needs to be verified.



starting with the clutch cable.

do not use the indian made cables the conduit starts do go mushie rather quick and the cable keeps stretching.

get a good quality pre stretcht cable and a good quality conduit.

this will already make a big differance.



use part 90221 to stop the movement of the cover.



clutch itself.

as mentioned above start with checking the warping of the plates.

if these ar ok, check if its not the basket is self that is warped.

check that the plates have not cut a groove in to the clutch basket.

when you action the kick with the clutch disingaged the plates there should be hardly any closing up of the plates.

if the plates at not warped and neither is the basket, its the center hole that's not not machined straight or the axel that is bend.

as mentioned many times on this board, the quality of the indian parts is variable to say the least.



leave enough slack on the primaire chain.



last of all as for the oil use castrol transmax z, works a charm.



if all is correct there's no need to fiddle with the pivot point of the handlebar lever or cut down the lever.



but most importantly one has to understand the workings of a clutch to be able or resolve eventual problems.

[stinkwheel]

Cheers for all the replies so far. I wasn't clear about the GPZ500 thing. I should have said clutch LEVER assembly (in this case, with C90 switchgear, the choke even works the decompressor)...







And yes, as it gets hot, the clutch gets progressively grabbier and grabbier (cable looser, lever closer to the bars) until the point it stalls when you stop and you can't get a gear. Not so much stopping with the clutch in, more slow riding on the road/in town or during some light green laning. It's on its second set of slipping plates and third set of friction plates (it'll have done over 70k miles) and it's has ATF in there since I got it with 300 miles on. I fabricated new pushrods from EN8 and hardened the ends because the standard ones were far from straight.

Cable is a good call, I could make a new one out of car handbrake cable (I think I could recycle the adjuster from an old one).



From the above, all other things being equal and/or straight/flat, the consensus seems to be that the lift of the clutch plates is the main issue, so anything that will increase the separation when the lever is pulled will improve the action. Many things seem to contribute to this. I suppose I could also have a closer look at the clutch lever at the gearbox end, possibly fabricating something with a shorter cable arm in combination with a slightly longer pushrod tin increase the degree of lift at the expense of ease of action.



Interestingly, I've never really had problems with slipping until the plates were pretty much worn out.



As ever, I will report back any revelations.

[Mark M]

Thanks for the clarification Stinkwheel! For what it's worth, I have found the Hitchcocks 5 plate clutch conversion kit helps, I've used it in my Trials Works Replica. And I agree, wear in the friction plates, (even what on another design of clutch would make no difference) can render a clutch completely un-adjustable. It seems the 'stack height' (in modern parlance,) is absolutely critical.

REgards, Mark

[papasmurf]

My Honda CX 500 custom had both drag and slip for the last 20 years. Until I unscrewed my wallet and got a set of guts for for the clutch and filed all the grooves and burrs off of the tangs on the clutch cage.
It now works a treat.

[Norm]

I guess I must have wasted an awful lot of time and money trying to fix these clutches over the years, countless numbers of sets of plates, including the Barnett ones,countless clutch baskets, copious quantities of tranny fluid,countless hours making spacers to get the clutch/engine sprocket to line up properly, countless hours trying to come up with a fix but in the end I guess it must have been me doing something wrong, and over the last 60 odd years of doing this sort of thing you do get things wrong

[Jamesy]

I"m with Vince on this one as it worked for me.With the primary cover off pull the clutch in and see if there is any movement in the basket.If so you need to tighten up the left hand but on the centre bolt.The plates will need to be removed to do this.Adjust the pushrod until more than resistance is felt and no play at the clutch lever.

[Mark M]

If the mainshaft is moving when you pull in the clutch tightening the nuts at both ends may not fix the problem if you run out of thread. There may or may not be shims under the oil thrower at the lever end of the gearbox, many rebuilders either lose these during a rebuild or don't re-shim when replacing bearings. They are not listed in the Redditch Parts Books (I don't know if Indian boxes use them but I should imagine they do,) although they are available from H's if you call them. I keep a stack handy when setting up a box.

REgards, Mark

[Valsp]

Same old problem same answer given many times. Only use Ford ATF fluid without friction modifiers and have the plates relined by an expert using heavy duty linings specifically used in industry for wet clutches. If you use the correct company the linings are ground flat to the correct width after bonding. Fitted to my interceptor several years ago and its worked fine since with the bonus that the plates will run true without spending a long time with a dial gauge to set them up. Not cheap and a lot more than Indian plates but well worth the money spent

[John R]

Formerly, the clutch on my 350 Bullet dragged. now it does not. When it was dragging, it would overheat in town traffic. On one occasion, I stopped at the lights and pulled in the clutch, but it would not release enough to get out of gear. I struggled until the clutch ;locked up completely and the bike made its own decision to start- luckily just as the lights went green.
So what did I do? Firstly, I noticed that the outer cover flexed a lot. I changed the original 1986 part for a new one; same part number but the new part was notably better made with beefier webbing. This much reduced the flexing. I also fitted the improved plates from our hosts.
Since then, I have also fitted the outer cover strengthening mod, so there is no visible flex.
But it was OK from the fitting of the new outer cover; fine to ride in London traffic.

[Super45]

Ive just replaced the clutch in my 350 after numerous issues including drag/grabbyness and unable to select gears , initial symptoms were a loud griding noise from inside the casing, found all 3 pressure plate bolts loose which were grinding a grove into the outer chain case! , tightend these up and found the clutch basket wobbled and clutch dragged, stripped it and tightened the main nut on the clutch basket, still wobbled and dragged even with ATF oil , checked the other side shaft nut under the gearbox cover and found it only finger tight so tightend this too, rebuilt with the gearbox cover strengtherner bolt which elimiated flex to find it still dragged, tried numerous adjustments of the cable to no avail so bit the bullet (lol) and order a new clutch, fitted it over xmas and to found old clutch bearing was shot ( fell out on removal) and wear to back of clutch basket on the splines despite looking relativly new, fitted new clutch and found once built up it wouldnt seperate at all, a little light reading showed diffent amounts of plates between 350/500 so on counting plates I put the correct amount back in to find that now the clutch is lovely and light on the bars and sperates cleaning, ( still to test due to carb/battery issues ) HOWEVER, on revieew of the old clutch and counting the plates i discovered the correct num,ber of plates for a 500 but not a 350 had been fitted so obviously the previous onwner (this is a classically abused bullet) had thought by slackening the outer pressure plate bolts he could get the clutch to work as the springs were not coil bound, but in doing so it chewed the inside of the casing and with everything not being loose this slowly this destroyed the bearing though continued pressure and caused wear on the back of the basket, proving that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing! Good luck with your clutch Stinkwheel, if not already fitted i would recomend the gearbox casing strengthener and the clutch pad with the bearing attached as this gives another 1.5mm ish over a standard one without bearing and if the blunb is correct reduced friction further. will report back on the mods I have once back on the road as may be off some use to you.