So further to my earlier post, I acquired a climber 280 cheap as it had been standing for a while and possibly messed about with, or stuck in a shed due to a fault.

 

The clutch appeared seized, not a great surprise if its been sat around, so I stripped it and checked it over and all seemed good and free and clean.

 

However, when I reassemble it, its locked solid. the clutch actuating arm moves and you can feel the springs against it, but you can't disengage it. after hours of fiddling about I tried assembling it with only 2 weak springs (cross flow rocker shaft spacing springs), and then it works ok but obviously not with the engine running.

 

So I measured my springs they are 36mm free length, the genuine aprilia spares site seems to suggest genuine springs are 34.1mm length.

 

is there ary trick here to getting this ok ? I made sure the tab washer was sat properly on the spines.

 

Is the spring length difference likely to be the issue ?.

 

It`s been a long time. Check to see if there is a mark on the threads and actuator arm. Seems there was another piece inside that needed to be timed. Good luck.