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My 82 XJ550 is now doing this....help please.

Discussion in 'XJ Technical Chat' started by Tony222, Jul 8, 2021.

  1. Mechanic1978

    Mechanic1978 Active Member

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    tony222, if you feel you want my help, PM me...
     
  2. Simmy

    Simmy Well-Known Member

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    Correct, and cables stretch.
    The adjustment at the other end is for initial set up.
     
  3. Huntchuks

    Huntchuks Well-Known Member

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    Adjustment at lever is not any more fine than the other, just more convenient down the road. They both will accomplish the same thing. Lever free play is the main issue. The mechanics are the same.
    If it were me, I would readjust the cable sheath space at the lower end and then readjust at the hand lever to get the 2-3 MM free play. If plates don't fully close with no cable tension there is something else wrong.
     
  4. Dan Gardner

    Dan Gardner Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    I just checked two bikes, and clutch cables are installed as shown by @Tony222 and the manual photo.
     
  5. Franz

    Franz Well-Known Member

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    I remember @chacal mentioning the the 900f and 750 steel plates are different thicknesses and if fitted in the wrong clutch basket cause problems. It is possible he has the incorrect thickness of plates in his 550 I wonder? I don't mean plates from the larger machines mentioned, but what about the 650?
     
  6. Mechanic1978

    Mechanic1978 Active Member

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    I'm no expert either, I'm a professional. When a new clutch pack is installed it is necessary to have both Nuts on the left side of the mount plate, this makes it so the thicker plate pack has enough disengagement to compensate for the same length of cable, and fine tuned with the upper lever adjuster.

    Later down the road it will be necessary to adjust one nut to the right side, and then re adjust, and fine tune with upper.

    Both methods are correct, but only for the respective wear on the plates. your bikes that were compared to obviously have a significant amount of use/wear requiring a shorter amount of adjustment. Tony222 has (hopefully correctly installed) fresh plates that still need to be "seated" in and fully absorb some oil, this results in an extremely tight pack and will require more cable length to fully disengage.
     
  7. Huntchuks

    Huntchuks Well-Known Member

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    I would think that when the bike is new with new plates and new cables, with nuts on both sides of the mount, there would be enough room to make the necessary adjustments. No mention of moving nuts after plate break in period in the manual. This is quibbling and the only real issue is: is there free play at the clutch hand lever? If so, the plates are as fully closed as they are going to get. If there is still slippage, time to look at another cause. I would hope the mechanic used the right kind of oil.
     
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  8. Mechanic1978

    Mechanic1978 Active Member

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    In my experience free play only leads to vibrations in the clutch cover release components. (rattles in case when clutch released) the cable should be adjusted to allow full plate release and no more, the external spring on the arm helps to keep the slight tension for antivibration of integral release mechanism. manuals don't always list every detail, and are most often not printed by the manufacturer, so a lot is open to interpitation by the authors. dealers don't release this info except to licensed dealers, so the "Haynes" and other manuals are not exact.
     
  9. Simmy

    Simmy Well-Known Member

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    I think we can all agree on that.

    My bikes all have car oil, (OMG I said it!! LOL) some even synthetic car oil, that's not likely to be the problem.
    Well all except my Turbo just because it stresses the clutch so much I thought I'd go with the Maxima dyno as it's also turbo rated.

    I know you're defensive about this mechanic Tony but this shouldn't be. Sounds like he didn't finish the final clutch adjustments.
    Take it back and have him ride it.
     
  10. Tony222

    Tony222 Member

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    Hello everyone I am back from a one week trip to the lake and I am catching up on all of your fine and outstanding suggestions!!!! The nuts on both side of the clutch cable is the way that I received the bike and its the same on my other XJ550 but....I am going to move the one nut over to make the two nuts on one side as I know my clutch is still engaging in the higher gears so maybe this will give the clutch enough room. I will make the changes tomorrow and take it for a test drive first thing in the morning. Mechanic I will pm you once I get the results of that test drive tomorrow morning and thanks everyone for your help. You guys are awesome and I really appreciate it:)
     
  11. Tony222

    Tony222 Member

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    Hello all, I took the bike out for a test drive after setting it up like this with the two nuts on the left side. It was set up like this:
    start test 1.jpg start test 2.jpg

    So I set up the bottom the way it should be with the two nuts on the left side and i set up the top adjuster on the handlebars so it had little play. As you can see I had to use almost all of the adjustment to tighten it up. I drove around and it was good. I ended moving the bottom ( by the engine ) adjuster further out and out to see if that would improve the slipping between 4000 and 5500 rpm and it did a bit. I ended up at this point and i know its way out of wack but this is how it is the best for slipping:
    start test 3.jpg start test 4.jpg

    You can see that the bottom adjuster is way out of wack but it works a bit better and is shifting okay until I hit 4500 to 5500 and then it slips a bit. Not as bad but it is still slipping. So now it is better for around the city driving but not highway driving. Whats next? I am thinking of or a new clutch cable. I ordered a new one for my silver bike and for some reason it was like 3 inches longer than the one that was on the bike. I am thinking and hoping that a new cable that is a little longer then that will give the clutch even more room? I won't order anything or adjust anything else until I hear back from you guys as I am not sure where to go from here. The bottom adjust is way out of wack and yet it still works and maybe even a little bit better so now what? thanks for you help as always:)
     
  12. Franz

    Franz Well-Known Member

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    Have you checked the thickness of the clutch friction plates to see they are near their wear limit?
     
  13. Huntchuks

    Huntchuks Well-Known Member

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    A longer cable assembly doesn't mean it can work better or worse. It's the actual cable length versus the cable sheath length that can make the difference. Operationally, a 30 in. cable in a 28 in. sheath will work and have the same amount of usable adjustment as a 60 in. cable with a 58 in. sheath.
     
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  14. Tony222

    Tony222 Member

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    Hey Franz, I just got the clutch friction plates and clutch plates put in new hoping that would fix something up. Huntchuks, that is a good explanation. So the new cable idea wont really do anything?
     
  15. Huntchuks

    Huntchuks Well-Known Member

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    Probably not, unless your cable is horribly stretched and not usable. I believe a stretched cable would result in hard shifting as opposed to slippage. Those are opposite conditions.
     
  16. Mechanic1978

    Mechanic1978 Active Member

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    leave the two nuts as they are, run the upper adjuster in almost all the way, then remove the clutch "arm" and rotate it counter clockwise 2 to 3 teeth to pull any slack in cable to a "taut" (semi tight) position. then fine tune adjustment with upper adjuster. promise this will put you to a correct smoother operation, then as the clutch upper adjuster "over time" gets adjusted further out (more than half way), relocate one lower nut to the left as originall had, this will give you a maintained pull over the life of the plates.
     
  17. Tony222

    Tony222 Member

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    Okay did it. It was in that position pretty much before I even started to readjust it again but I did it again. now the cable is taut and the top adjuster is in all the way and I can adjust it out if I need to. I will test drive it again and see how it goes this time. I am betting that it is pretty much the same as I already had the arm adjuster all the way counter clockwise that it would go with a tight cable but we shall see. Thanks
     
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  18. Huntchuks

    Huntchuks Well-Known Member

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    The more the lever is angled to the left of slightly more than perpendicular to the cable, the less rotation of the shaft for the same cable pull. Simple trig.
     
  19. Tony222

    Tony222 Member

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    Ok Hunt now you are just showing off with your trig....lol. (joke) Okay so back from my test drive with everything set up the way mechanic wanted it to be with the two nuts on the left side. It is still doing it. It happens between 4500 - 6000 rpm's. I could go in the city all day and not hit that rpm if I didn't want to but on the highway doing 60 mph or 100 kmh I am sitting at 5300 to 5500 rpm so I am right in the middle of the problem area. If I try to accelerate at that speed then its an instant slip but it slowly lets me increase speed. Any other suggestions or things to try? Do ou think that new clutch springs and bolts would help? Let me know and thanks
     
  20. Mechanic1978

    Mechanic1978 Active Member

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    at this point I'm inclined to say weak springs, or the clutch pack is missing a disc or two...

    there should be 8 clutch disc's, and 8 steel disc's.
     

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