clutch hub play/scratches?

There is about 1/8 play or wobble in the clutch hub of my 82 xj550r. This is when the clutch plates are out. The clutch grabs kind of late and i am considering replacing the plates and/or springs.

Is this normal? Could it be causing a knocking noise at an idle? New springs?

 

In and out "play" or actual "wobble?"

Be careful upon reassembly the plain plates have that odd shape for a reason and the "offsets" do NOT all line up with each other, they get spaced at 72 degrees.

If you post the mileage on your bike I can give you some further advice based on that. The "knocking noise" that seems to have some correlation to the clutch is undoubtedly the Hi-Vo primary chain. The noise goes away immediately when you rev it because said chain is oil-pressure tensioned.

 

there are scratches on the teeth of the carbons. The metals are not warped or scratched. The clutch did not slip, but it grabbed late.

I was thinking of dropping the oil pan to check for debris.

What do you think?

 

there is wobble. 12,500 miles.
i don't think it was assembled right. Also, the hollowed out gear (about 3in diameter) gear in the bottom right corner of the case is loose. The shaft that it is on moves in and out?

 

Those scratches appear to be the after effect of some sort of filing or scraping operation. Maybe the PO trying to stretch the life of the clutch? Perhaps they were scorched/glazed and he was trying to break the glaze?
I don't see how it's possible for those to have been caused by something bouncing around in there, there isn't enough access.

If the hub is "wobbling" something's not right. HUB, not basket wobbling, right?

That gear is on the oil pump, and I think it just slides onto the shaft; I'm not sure about "in-out" play in the pump shaft itself. I'll have to check the book to be sure.

Clean the friction plates, and measure the thickness at the friction pads. If below the specified wear limit, replace the friction plates and springs. At 12,500 it shouldn't be worn out, but gawd only knows what befell it before you got it.

Remember what I said about reassembly; the friction plates' "offset tabs" get spaced at 72 degrees (one fifth of a circle) from each other. There is also a wave-washer which sits inside a special cut-out friction plate. This plate/washer goes in the 3rd from the outside position. Some manuals incorrectly show two of these special plate/washer sets, there is only one.

I don't know that I'd drop the sump; I would pull the clutch down completely to clean and inspect everything.

DON'T BOTHER to disassemble the hub itself, if it's wobbly internally the whole assembly will need to be replaced anyway. Treat it as an assembly.

Let us know what you find.

 

sorry for some reason i wrote hub instead of basket. My mistake. It is the basket the wobbles. The hub is tight. what do you think of the scratches?

 

ahh. OK, you get to join the club. We got jackets.

When I got my '83, there was a large poorly-welded patch in the clutch cover, down low, about where the brake pedal would hit if the bike went down. Additionally, I know my bike suffered some sort of "high altitude" tipover--I think it fell off a truck--(as evidenced by other damage) but the point is:

If the brake lever punches through the clutch cover it can BEND the basket. (Mine was.) When I spun the motor over with the cover off I had about 1/2" WOOBLE. Bad. I'll bet your bike had a right-side kablammo in a previous life. The scratches probably came from case shrapnel before the clutch quit spinning, or the efforts of the perpetrator to fix it.

GOOD NEWS!!! That clutch basket was used on the 550s, the 600s and all SORTS of other stuff all the way up through the 90's! You can still get them from Yamaha! For $165.00!!! 8O

So I got a whole FJ600 clutch from a front-crash wrecked bike off eBay for $20. The bike had like 3900 miles on it and the clutch bits looked like new.
CAUTION: NOT ALL the clutch guts interchange even though the basket is the same. Also be careful the donor bike didn't end up a donor bike because it went down hard on the right side.

I also replaced the friction plates, even though my bike only had 7100 miles on it, there were all those years sitting and the friction material was crumbly at the edges. The "clutch boss spring" (wave washer) also got replaced, I cleaned the plain plates up with scotchbrite, and it's like new again.

 

that is interesting. sounds like a bad senerio. The scratches are on all the carbons, but randomly displaced. The the basket itself seems fine, but i wobbles and slides on the shaft. whatever is between the basket and the shaft is missing or worn out. if i had that gigantic socket the clutch would of been off by now, but i am snow bound.

 

If I remember correctly, the basket has a big plain bearing/bushing built into it. I'll take a close look at one when I get home.