I wonder if I screwed up the friction plates using the wrong oil.

Bought the bike new, did the clutch mod, put ATF type F in it, and the clutch was real good. Then I switched to RedLine gear oil (worried about the protection provided by ATF). Clutch ran fine for a while, but then started to drag bad. Went back to ATF and the clutch still drags some.

I'm thinking to lightly sand off the friction plates. Is this a good idea ? What can I do to get the clutch to stop dragging ?

Fill the transmission with 425cc. Lowering the oil level in the trans will help the clutch to disengage more completly. ATF is fine. I'm sure the Redline is fine too. Maxima works well so does GM Auto trac 2.

Edited September 7, 201114 yr by Liviob

I opened up the clutch to measure the friction plates. They ranged from 2.67 to 2.71 mm. The manual only lists the minimum width at 2.5 mm, so I can't tell if the friction pads swelled up or not. Do these values seem reasonable ?

Also, with the clutch cover removed I tried to measure how much the pressure plate moves as the clutch is engaged and it seemed to be around 4 mm. Is this expected ?

I finally got rid of the clutch drag. I can't be 100% sure of what fixed it as I made 3 changes at the same time.

1. Installed the red slave cylinder cover.

2. Switched to ELF oil.

3. Bled the system.

I think bleeding the system is what really fixed it as the master cylinder was clogged and would not back bleed until cleaned.

Now the clutch is good again.