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New clutch for my 2001 DR650

By dirtydawg,
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dirtydawg

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Hefty previous owner and his hefty wife used to ride the DR650 two up around town quite frequently. Wasn't until I was off-roading an Arkansas forest trail that I sensed a slight amount of slippage, so I ordered an EBC Heavy Duty clutch. Finally got around to tearing into it and so far everything is going well.

After dumping the oil and removing the footpeg and brake pedal, I took off the oil pipe from the cooler and lifted off the slave clutch lever. Then I removed all the 8mm bolts holding on the clutch cover. A little prying with a large screwdriver and the cover came right off and without tearing the paper gasket. As one who cut his teeth tearing apart Triumph 650's, I know that paper gaskets are totally worthless anyway and will put the cover back on with silicone as science intended.

Interesting to note that the new EBC friction plates are pretty much identical to the stockers except that the size of each little friction pad is larger. More friction area = more traction on the pressure plates; good. BTW, the stockers don't appear to be burnt or smelly and are not bald so this whole exercise may have been unnecessary. Oh well.

Also interesting is the comparison between the EBC Heavy Duty clutch springs and the stockers. The stockers have almost 7 turns while the EBC's have only 6, and they both seem to be identical in height. I can see no obvious difference in the diameter of the spring materials. Certainly not what I was expecting. Perhaps more coils and a thicker material on the Heavy Duty springs would make more sense to me.

It is now 90F (probably 100F in my garage) and I am soaking the new plates in oil, so it is a good time to sit in the AC and pat myself on the back for not totally f'ing something up. Tomorrow morning will be cooler and then I can put it all back together. Then I'll review the finished product.

If anyone has some torque specs for all the involved fasteners handy, I'd appreciate you passing that info along, otherwise I'll just use a generic chart and wing it. I think some Locktite could be used in a couple of spots, too.

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Wybs

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Good idea on reassembling in cooler temps, I know I do a lot of poor quality work when I am too hot. Shoving the tire iron into the valve and popping it as I was one pry from having the tire on comes to mind. To quote the christmas story that string of foul words is probably still floating in the atmoshere somewhere

DOn't forget to fix the neutral sensor mount while you are in there.

I took a look at the manual and found there are no torque specs in the measly 2 pages they spend on the clutch?? maybe someone can correct me there

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Spannermad

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Rather than use silicon on the clutch cover try one of the Loctite products, Master gasket 315 or 318. You will get a much better seal that wont be affected over time by the oil and wont peel off on the inside and go through lube system and block a oil gallery.

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mxrob

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snipage.... I know that paper gaskets are totally worthless anyway and will put the cover back on with silicone as science intended.

Just make sure not to omit the gasket completely. ?

Also interesting is the comparison between the EBC Heavy Duty clutch springs and the stockers. The stockers have almost 7 turns while the EBC's have only 6, and they both seem to be identical in height. I can see no obvious difference in the diameter of the spring materials. Certainly not what I was expecting. Perhaps more coils and a thicker material on the Heavy Duty springs would make more sense to me.

6 coils would be a stiffer spring than 7 coils at the same height and diameter. It's all about leverage. ?

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dirtydawg

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I tried to reply to this thread a few days ago but the website keeps logging me out after about 2 minutes of inactivity and I don't type that fast.

The new clutch is in and it works just like the old one. Haven't noticed any slipping but I can't say that I notice any huge improvement over what I had either. Oh well, at least now I now I have a fresh clutch and won't have to worry about that anymore.

Wybs: Neutral sensor mount? Don't remember seeing anything like that when I was in there but now it seems I have to pull the clutch lever back a bit farther to be able to start the bike. I'll do a search here and see what I can find out.

Spannermad: I tried to find the Locktite Mastergasket but after 6 auto parts stores I gave up. It seems Permatex has the market completely wrapped up in this town so I got the Ultra Copper high temp RTV silicone gasket maker and I have no leaks.

Mx_rob: I fail to see what harm omitting the paper gasket would do but mine was stuck pretty good on the cover so I left it on and applied the gasket maker to it. I never used gaskets on my Triumphs and their fit and finish on the case castings was pretty rough. Since the RTV is a gasket maker, using the paper gasket seems pretty pointless to me. Feel free to debate this further but the bottom line is I don't have any leaks. Your argument about the springs seems logical, I was just expecting Heavy Duty to look more Heavy Duty-er than the stock springs by a larger margin.

Thanks for all your comments, I'm ready to ride again.

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lmcdonald

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This brings up something I often wonder about - why not just use silicone gasket maker all the time (or as much as possible) instead of buying new gaskets? Seems to me like the would form to any irregularities in the surface and as long as the temp spec is proper, would last a good long time.

??

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mxrob

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Mx_rob: I fail to see what harm omitting the paper gasket would do but mine was stuck pretty good on the cover so I left it on and applied the gasket maker to it. I never used gaskets on my Triumphs and their fit and finish on the case castings was pretty rough. Since the RTV is a gasket maker, using the paper gasket seems pretty pointless to me. Feel free to debate this further but the bottom line is I don't have any leaks. Your argument about the springs seems logical, I was just expecting Heavy Duty to look more Heavy Duty-er than the stock springs by a larger margin.

Thanks for all your comments, I'm ready to ride again.

Omitting this gasket can cause clearance issues in the clutch mechanism and change the angle of the clutch arm on the clutch cover. As long as there is still play in the actuator arm it should be OK. That's what I would worry about leaving out this gasket. The arm can be repositioned on the spline if need be. ?

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