replaced fiber plates in clutch - now no lever pressure?

[tranqwhl]

I have a 2003 YZ250F. The clutch was kinda dragging, so I took out the Yamaha fiber plates and put in some Honda fiber plates.

I KNOW I've done something wrong now. I put it all back together (without checking the lever first, DOH!). Now I pull the lever, and it only "engaged the clutch" the last, like, inch of lever travel. So I took it all back apart; but I can't make the lever push the pressure plate out.

The cable is tight. If I tighten it up more, it starts to move the clutch actuator arm. Still no pressure on lever until the lever is almost to the bar (and the actuator arm can not be pulled any more at that point).

So I know the actuator arm pushes a pushrod, which pushes a ball bearing, which pushes a "washer thingee with a short pushrod connected to it", which pushes out the pressure plate. I get the whole concept; but for some reason, it's like the pushrod isn't long enough! Now granted, I know I could throw some metal in there and make it longer; but why would it have just worked, and now that I just replaced fiber plates, things are way screwy? Clearly I have not assembled something correctly.

I should also mention the Yamaha fiber plates I just replaced had ONE day of trail riding on them; so I doubt they wore super far down. They just dragged when I'd put the bike in gear.

Any thoughts?

thanks

[SUnruh]

did you accidentally drop the silver bb on the floor and not put it back in?

any real reason you didn't replace the drive plates too along with the fibers?

[tranqwhl]

nope, got the BB

I already replaced all the metal plates. Then it dragged, and I only rode once; I figured they were still good.

thanks

[HIrdr]

Did you remove the clutch boss spring & washer? Don't think it's gonna work w/the Honda fiber plates....

[tranqwhl]

Did you remove the clutch boss spring & washer? Don't think it's gonna work w/the Honda fiber plates....

no, but you bring up a great point;

the paint on the cushion spring should be pointed OUT away from the motor, right?

That means the smaller inner diameter side of the spring cushion points in towards the motor.

Here is a pic to show what I mean:

and

and here's me getting started; you can see I'm using the proper "first fiber plate" from the Yamaha set, and the paint is facing out (if that's correct!) on the cushion spring:

This is not rocket science! That's why this is seriously irritating.

Maybe I have to use the last plate as a Yamaha end one too? I'll keep trying.

[tranqwhl]

Did you remove the clutch boss spring & washer? Don't think it's gonna work w/the Honda fiber plates....

Maybe I have to use the last plate as a Yamaha end one too? I'll keep trying.

AHA! BING BING BING! Thank you HIrdr. You are today's big winner.

The first and last plate are not different just in "closeness of the fiber squares", but also in their inner diameter. You can use Honda friction plates, but you have to use the stock Yamaha first AND last ones (unless Honda has the same deal going, and I just didn't look far enough into it).

Since I had the "smaller inner diameter" friction plate as the last plate, it didn't allow the pressure plate to sit down far enough.

thanks everyone for your help

ps. I was able to sit there with the bike idling, and I clicked it down into gear, and I just sat there. No lurch, nothing; until I let the clutch out. Everything works great.

I should note this bike has a Wiseco clutch basket too.

[HIrdr]

Glad to hear you got it fixed...I've read some people took out the clutch boss spring & had no problems, if you do it this way you might be able replace the first 2 Yamaha plates with Honda plates. Just a thought....