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The Beta Clutch Fix


dan williams
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Fixed!

I fitted the new master cylinder this afternoon.

I am now getting just over 1mm of pressure plate movement and it stays there, left the lever cable tied back again and nothing moved, when I returned 20 minutes later, the pressure plate was in the exact same position.

Had a little ride on it just on the street out side the house and feels good.

As I did the 'fix' and changed the oil to nano trans during the fault finding it should hopefully be a huge improvement.

Thanks again for everyones help.

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On 18/11/2017 at 5:26 PM, trapezeartist said:

Similar to my experience, whitevancam. I did the glue-removing bit and found the tabs were already good so there was nothing to do there. It made no real difference: still suffering cold stick and dragginess for the first five minutes of riding. I thought maybe engaging neutral with the engine running was marginally better but I may have just been kidding myself.

I spoke to Lampkins and they advised roughing up the steel plate and changing to 10W40 oil (mine's a four stroke so my choices are more limited). So I took the clutch out again, wiped off all the oil I could, attacked the plates with P80 wet'n'dry to get a 120 deg cross-hatch, washed with paraffin and reassembled with plenty of oil. Then filled up with 10W40. I tried the bike again today and was disappointed to find there is still no change. New clutch plates?

Attempt No 3. This time I washed the friction plates with petrol and then rubbed them over with P180, just enough to change the colour from black to speckly brown. Then washed again in petrol, reassembled with oil and filled up with 10W40 synthetic. As it happens, it's a bit overfilled because that's the way it came out.

Result: The cold stick was still there but not nearly  as bad. Very slight drag initially but also much better. Best of all, the feel and progression of the clutch was massively improved. I only had time for a few figures-of-8 but it really did seem much better. I've also switched back to the quick throttle and that was no problem with the newly tweaked clutch. Proof of the pudding: a trial tomorrow. I'm feeling optimistic. :)

In passing, I also measured the clutch throw and checked that there was no leakage past the seals (there wasn't). With the clutch lever hard against the handlebar grip, I was getting 1.1mm at the clutch. That ties in pretty well with the 1.2mm mentioned in other posts on this thread. (Perhaps I have a bit more free play or a different shape of lever.) With the lever pulled in with one finger until it contacted the back of the next finger, the travel at the clutch was 0.6mm.

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5 hours ago, whitevancam said:

Update following the trial yesterday, clutch and bike performed perfectly. Rider has lots of room for improvement!

You and me both then. I'm going to turn up the idle a little bit next time as I find a little bit of a snatch going from no-throttle to cracked open.

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks for all the people who have written on this thread. I was suffering with my clutch hand on my 2015 Evo 30 factory, took out 2 springs as described on this thread and now it is so much lighter. Yesterday I was out for nearly 3 hours, only when I was packing up did I realise that my left hand still felt like new. Before I was having to stop every 20 minutes or so to give my hand a rest. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 29/12/2009 at 3:33 AM, dan williams said:

OK folks, being off work for a week (mandatory holiday shutdown) I had time to complete the fiber plate modification document. This makes the clutch progressive, eliminates drag, cold stick, slip and reduces lever pull (if you leave two springs out).

And the best part... It's free (if you already have the files and Dremel polishing wheel)

Yes it will cost you some time but hey you're working on your bike. That's still quality time compared to working on the car.

The PDF came out over 10Meg so if you don't have a high speed connection it may take a bit. Sorry but the pictures are necessary.

Enjoy

Andy Edit: File optimised and size reduced to 1.8MB :rolleyes:

Clutch_Fix.pdf

(Also going to pin this topic so it stays up top)

Thanks Dan, Wow! What a great description from a Whizard  of mechanics. I will try my 2018 Beta Evo when delivered in the coming weeks(1st trial bike) and if I cannot ride it because of the dragging or if it is too annoying, I will need to ask my mechanic friend to help me out achieving that! I will definitely remove two springs as you suggest too make the clutch lighter (ccullins also mentioned that on TT) as my left hand carpel tunnel problems are a damn. Thanks again dan williams! :)

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Old suggestion of leaving out 2 of 6 clutch springs is no longer necessary, if you use the taller clutch spring retainers that Dan designed and sells through JacksCycles.com website. My experience on 16 Evo 300 is to use (3) of Dan's taller clutch spring retainers and (3) stock spring red retainers in the taller position.

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