Slipper clutch stacking - and other woes

[spinoli1]

I have just stripped and re-stacked my slipper clutch and have some observations.

First though, a question -

In order to get the stack height correct, I have used a friction plate as the final outer plate. Is this a bad thing?

If you know, please advise me before I go and do some mischief to the clutch - or worse.

The clutch is a 12 tooth, ball and ramp, 6 spring unit, using Ducati standard plates. Not sue of the make, purchased from Casoli, about £400.

The reason I set about re-stacking the clutch was I became aware that the slipper mechanism seemed to have stopped working - rear wheel chatter into corners, and no kick through the clutch lever.

On stripping the clutch I found that the ball bearings from the slipper mechanism had left their correct locations, and there were signs that some or all of the bearings had wandered within the clutch drum, fortunately only doing cosmetic damage.

I am certain that the clutch was installed in accordance with the diagrams, with the possible exception of 1 too many clutch plates, giving a stack height 2mm too great.

I was also surprised to see how quickly the tangs on the clutch basket have started to show wear from the friction plates. The unit has covered less than 4,000 miles and it looks like I will have to address this soon.

Any comments or advice gratefully accepted - especially on the friction plate as outer plate question.

If Dave Warnick reads this - I may want to buy back that 48 tooth diaphragm clutch if you haven't grown too attached to it!!

Spinoli

[keefer]

you should not have a friction plate as the last plate it should be a spacer item. and the where will be excessive if you are using the standard plates, Light weight alloy items should be used

[Edited on 12-9-2004 by keefer]

[rockhopper]

Yep, should certainly be a driven plate up against the pressure plate.

[ziggi]

The casoli item - unbranded - is not a very good item to be completely blunt with you and they have been selling it cheap for some time.

Clutch plate stack is almost a zen art and needs some detailed, specialist setup with some slipper clutches. You only need to do a search on this board to find at least 10 others like yourself suffering from various issues around pack height, plain plate, friction plate, grauching noises etc etc etc.

I'm not surprised your clutch has only lasted 4000 miles. Depending on how you ride, and the clutch quality, this is a low to reasonable amount of mileage from the plates and basket on a clutch like this.

There are many on this board who could help more than I though :)

[Spinoli]

Many thanks for your replies,

I am using standard Ducati steel friction plates on my apparently chocolate clutch drum.

Does anyone know where I can get aluminium friction plates - and the cost??

Also, is it possible to buy individual 1.5mm steel driven plates, to help with setting up the stack height?

I shall go home tonight and rearrange the plates to get a driven plate in the last position.

Spinoli

[Jon]

You will be better off with carbon plates from JHP. When and if you change the basket, make sure you get one with the highest ergal rating. This means it will be light as well as strong. I think there is a problem with some of the components fitted. It seams that you have excessive travel on the hub for the ball bearings to come addrift. You might want to take the whole lot to a reputable dealer / service center and get opinions. Spider spring could be knackered, was it real tight when you took the hub off.
If it wasn't then maybe it was not tightend correctley. When first installing a slipper. Once the std basket is removed, you will find a longish tube type spacer which has a O ring inside. You are asked to replace this with one supplied with the slipper. Not replacing this has an effect on the travel of the spider spring ( excessive).

BTW by putting a friction plate last, you are shortening the life of the pressure plate. The pressure plate being soft ally will be worn away by the friction plate.

[Edited on 13-9-2004 by Jon]

[andyb]

You need 8 friction plates in there, ending up with steel. You can end up with as many steel as you like as long as there is 4-5mm depth from the outer edge of the inner drum, down to the plates.

Have you fitted any dished plates? These need to be facing in towards each other, one being the second steel in and the other last steel prior to the last friction, if you fit two.

[andyb]

Who fitted it originally?

[mike916]

I've got an STM Evo lightweight, diaphragm sprung, non slipper, clutch in my 916 which is fitted with the standard plates as supplied by STM with the clutch.

Recently when I stripped the clutch to readjust the height of my pack, after about 8k miles, I too have found the outer basket to be well worn. It will not be long before the file will have to come out the toolbox!

I thought STM were meant to be good quality items but I know have my doubts:puzzled: Anyone any ideas on this one?

Cheers
Mike

[yeti]

Comments Nelly?

[Spinoli]

Thanks for all the interest.

Remedial action taken -

a) 3 x 1.5mm driven plates ordered from JHP to enable fine tuning of the stacking (about £4 each).

b) last friction plate temporarily replaced with 2mm steel driven plate. I figured out how a friction plate as the last plate would munch into the pressure plate - Doh!

c) Will order aluminium sintered plates to replace the standard Ducati ones (about £125 from JHP).

For info - I originally installed the kit into my old 996S, where it performed perfectly for about 2K miles.

When I got the 998, I took the kit out of the 996S and swapped it over.

Both times I was operating from exploded diagramms off the net - no instructions were supplied with the kit.

I remember having trouble getting the engagement point right on the 998, which is probably how I ended up with 2mm over on the stack height.

I have learnt better now.

Does anyone know if alternative clutch baskets (stronger than cheese) can be used with this slipper clutch kit?

Spinoli

PS: Don't get me started on black clutch fluid!

[Jon]

Even DP do I think 3 types of ergal baskets. Higher the cost the better the ergal.

[antonye]

Is this any help?
http://www.tss.cz/hl_strana1.htm

[ziggi]

:D @ Antonye

8K out of a clutch basket is good I'd say particularly for what it essentially a race item.

[antonye]

Ooops! Sorry, wrong link!

Goto http://www.tss.cz/

Then click: Racing Parts > Ducati/MV > Clutches > Antihopping

Then click the installation instructions at the bottom of the page!

[Spinoli]

Hi Antonye,

Having a spot of bother getting to the instructions on the TSS website, it goes to a clear red page with errors on.

Spinoli

[antonye]

Try this - should open in IE and allow you to click through the images to larger versions...

[antonye]

Here's a pdf version if the other doesn't work...

[Spinoli]

Success!!

Thanks Antonye.

Most helpful.

Spinoli