CLUTCH question

[Drew67420]

I fix'ed my water pump early this month and aftre removing the clutch cover and reinstalling it my clutch does not work right, i'm not real for sure where i could have gone wrong while putting the clutch cover back on. i turned the clutch arm around 180 degrees, thats how much it was off once i finally got the clutch cover to fit in right. i looked at what the shaft looked like at the other end of the clutch arm, and it lookd like it would work the same if i had to turn the arm around... I replaced my clutch lever, cable and bought an after market cable mount.. . i adjusted the cable tension all the way in, as tight as it could be, and in the midle of the tension.

thats just about what i did step by step... now some place along the line i messed up... and i'm not for sure where to even start lookin, this iwas the first time i really got down and dirty and ripped off the side of my case...

now this is what the lt does.... when i fire it up... and hold in the clutch and put it in gear,, it just goes in to gear as if there was no clutch left at all......
but the clutch felt great and in good shape before i took it apart..... could i have some how damanged my clutch... the bike sat for prolly 2 months with no oil, but only for about two-three days with clutch cover off of the case...

any help would be greatly apreseate any help

i knew i shoulda bought a battery powered golf cart

[racezilla500]

Did you remember to fill the crankcase with oil? I promise I'm not trying to be a smartass...I promise. I just have to always tell myself to never overlook the obvious.

[Drew67420]

hheh oh yeah, and i put oil in it, it leaked a little bit of oil from when i had the bike on two wheels, i don't think it leaked very much, tomorrow i'm prolly goign to drain it and figger out how much oil is in there.... before i worked on any thing, when the bike wouldn't be running, i'd pull the clutch in and it would still turn the motor over while in gear..... is that normal for them.... or is that BAD... but once the bike would be runnin the clutch would work great.... now it's just being retarded, i think i just need a bigger hammer....

[racezilla500]

Hey, do a search on this site for "clutch" and I think you'll find some good reading. This topic came up a few weeks ago and there were several of us that tried to help. Read through those posts and see if it fits the bill. If not, come back and give us an update.

[jwalkerblack]

Hello,

I had a problem like that on my 87 after putting an entire new clutch in it, the problem for me was that on the Suzuki LT if you did not mark exactly where your arm was and put it back you should start by placing the lever as far to the rear as possible (the clutch arm should be pointing to your carb or even farther back). Then check out your clutch, I put mine in second and would roll it with the clutch in, does it grab still, then start adjusting it forward spline by spline and testing it. If your clutch has some where it probably doesn't have to be all the way back, did you remove the cable from the arm and case cover when you did this? If so you will definitely have to play with the cable adjustments as well.
Good luck, if you didn't mess with your clutch internally this may be all it is.
It takes a few tries though to tune it in

[Drew67420]

okay, i'll be sure to read up on the other posts, when i had my clutch cover off my cable mount broke off... so i had to get a new mount, while ordering the mount i went a head and bought a new lever, new cable and a diff clutch arm... so every thing on the out side of the case has changed..

[ReeperLT500]

Here's what I do. On the shaft that sticks out the clutch make sure the teeth side is on the side that will line up on the side of the teeth on the clutch coverclutch shaft. I know it's obvious but sometimes the little things could be overlooked. Then once the clutch cover is on I turn the clutch shaft(top of clutch cover) toward the front of the bike. Then I loosen the clutch cable all the way(adjust the clutch cover adj first). Next I would try and put the clutch arm as far back toward the back of the bike as possible. Once connected start to make adjustments. Hope this helps. -Mark

EDIT: Sometimes if when putting a new clutch in, if you don't put any oil on the plates and just fill it up with oil the plates are not fully lubed to that could result in the clutch not grabbing. My bike sometimes does this if it sits for along time too.

[Drew67420]

Originally Posted by ReeperLT500

EDIT: Sometimes if when putting a new clutch in, if you don't put any oil on the plates and just fill it up with oil the plates are not fully lubed to that could result in the clutch not grabbing. My bike sometimes does this if it sits for along time too.

thats what i was kind of worried about, because it has set without any oil in it for about month in a half, i was up at a friend's house watchin one of their other friends replace the clutch in his banshee and he had his clutch sittin in oil for a bit... every thing on the inside of my clutch is the same. so i didn't know if' i'd have to worry about lubing the plates or what... sunday me and my friend played with the adjustments for prolly 2 hours and didn't really get much, i could move the arm all the way to the back.. have it adjusted all the way out, and i'd fire it up.. hold in the clutch, and drop it in to first and the bike wouldn't move when i'd let out on the clutch... but if i adjusted it back in... it would just want to take off with the clutch held in... i've got a cousin that i don't really talk to much at all that i'm going to try to hunt down and see if i can have him help me with it..

[ReeperLT500]

Sounds like the plates were put in wrong. I can't remember(brain fart) but either the friction plates was put on first or the steel plates. I do know if you count the number of plates(friction vs steel) if the friction has 1 more plate than thats what goes on first. I'd just tear it down and re-assemble from the beginning. -Mark

[suzuki LT250R]

i am pretty sure the steel goes on first.