Slipper Clutch Spider Spring
 

Fitted a S/H slipper a couple of weeks ago and the spider spring that came with it was almost flat, stuck a new one in and now 2 weeks later the clutch is slipping and the spring looks like its not pushing plates and has flattened again :( anyone got any idea what can cause the spider spring to flatten so quickly??

Im on my third..........i think they are fairly weak. I see the 4 post clutch gets a bigger spring!

i've had 3 fail on me, they just seem to crack and break up!
Absolute shite if you ask me, especially as they are £40 each time:mad: :mad:

Is there a heavy duty/race spec replacement available which might be a bit more durable?:confused:

Mikey

When you said it was going I didn't realise it was that bad or I would have left you another one.

I get through them all the time and I am sure there must be a cheaper and better alternative.

As has been said there are really strong ones, but from what I gather they make it pretty heavy gong on the clutch action.

oops, sounds like this could be coming out quite quickly, 2 weeks of road riding and its fooked?? not much use given the mileage and use I give my bike :(

it was bad Lil, struggled to get up hartside tonight had some interesting moments when the rear wheel caught up with the slip over the crests :D :D It'll be that Martin H playing on his way back down the lake on Saturday afternoon, knew I shouldn't have swapped bikes :D :D, sorry don't mean it Martin :D

the other option is to do what I do and live with comedy clutch when it starts to go.. :D

Makes roundabouts and junctions mildly interesting, but you get used to the whine and the slip after a while.. :lol:

Are you guys sure you are fitting it correctley? I've had mine now nearly three years and only changed the spring because I ferked it up trying to get it off the 748.

I had my earplugs in Michael when you gave me your bike and thought you said "See if you can WHEELIE it back to the house" Sorry I now realise you had said "Take it REALLY easy back to the house"

I agree with Jon, here. They should last quite a long time. One clue is how much you need to compress them when you install the centre nut. It should only compress a couple of millimeters, and nowhere near "flat". Also, the spider spring doesn't affect the heaviness of the clutch or clutch slip when accelerating. That's controlled by the standard clutch springs. If the spider spring is worn out, you'd simply get excessive clutch slip when decelerating.

Felix/Jon...

We fitted the slipper a few weeks ago and after discovering the flat spider spring (luckily we had a spare to replace it with and compare) everything has been fine and it was as it should be, I didn't hang around much last night when Gizmo decided to swap the plates but everything was tight but the spring was moving and not pressed firm against the hub???

I am not sure I follow what you are saying. Once the spring is "flat" then obviously it won't assemble correctly. If done correctly, there is no reason the spider spring shouldn't last for ages. I only used one in my 3 years of racing the RS.

The attachment is an excerpt from my race manual pertaining to the factory slipper clutch, including a spider spring min. height check. Most slipper clutches that use a spider spring are very similar.

Well, I can't attach it as the file size limits seem a bit restrictive.:confused:

Felix,

When the clutch first went in and all torqued up the hub was loose??? took us a while to figure out (was it the wrong spacer, washers missing etc) but then we removed the spider spring and compared it to a brand new one, it isn't flat but has definitely been squashed down a few mm's thus the spring when in situe wasn't applying enough force to the drum to keep everything locked in place. We replaced the spring with a new one and straight away this cured the issue.

Yesterday when Gizmo was swapping the plates he noticed the spring was moving but everything was tight as expected, seems to me (although like I mentioned ^^ there I didn't hang around) that the spring has done the same and been flattened slightly after some use??

On the 6 post clutches the free height of the spring should be 7.5 mm or greater. On the 999RS 4 post clutches, they increased this a 8 mm minimum.

PM me an email address, JPM, and I'll send you the pdf for the clutch assembly if you want (~800k).

I'll strip it later this week and measure, new spring ordered anyway and a new dished plate. Like Jon says I'm fairly sure it was assembled correctly, we took it apart enough times to work out where everything went :) stack height was correct and it worked perfectly for 2 weeks then started slipping :(

mine is on its 3rd season now.
no problems at all