Ahhh, the slick power transfer of a new clutch!

Some of you may have read a couple weeks ago where my clutch on the turbo had begun to slip. Oddly, it would only slip in the upper three gears, only at 15 pounds of boost or higher and it would slip then quickly re-engage. Typically, a clutch will fail and will slip every time a certain RPM is exceeded, then re-engage when the engine is slowed below that point so this was a bit strange. I had assumed at that point that maybe the springs were sacked or the pressure plate had become bent but with no chattering, I was not convinced.


I finally received my fibers yesterday. Having received my clutch cover gasket from Chacal and the springs and firers from two other places earlier, I was finally ready to put in my new clutch. I know a lot of guys get nervous at the thought of pulling an engine cover but Yamaha's are about the easiest to do a clutch replacement on. I won't go into the details as there are several very good "how to's" that you can find by using the search button directly under the word "forum" above but suffice to say, nothing unexpected was encountered. I tend to stay up very late on the weekends so after a little nap around 6pm, I got a couple of other things done and got into the garage around midnight.

Having been careful prior to removal of the cover to secure both the lever and cable adjusters in the correct positions, reinstallation only required a 3/4 turn at the lever to complete the adjustment to my liking.

Interestingly, the old plates (fibers) were all within spec and could have been reused if thickness was the only paradigm but with new plates on hand, the were replaced after the steelies received a good cleaning. The springs however were sacked as suspected. It has always been one of those amazing things to me that a spring, only .2mm below the service limit, will wreck havoc to a clutch.

I finished around 2:30AM and got my gear on for a ride. I kissed my GF goodbye and took it out for a nice 40 mile ride. I stuck to the secondary roads for the first 20 miles or so, hitting plenty of red lights to give the new plates a chance to seat as I went up and down through the gears. They really don't require breaking in but it makes me feel better to give them some use before loading them excessively.

On the way home I gave it a good workout by taking it up to 18PSI in second, then slowing back down and doing it again in third and finally fourth. I have no death wish so I didn't wind it up in fifth....somehow that just seemed a little fast for me at 3:30-4am.

There's a big difference in the power delivery (more, much more)which makes it apparent that it was slipping undetected even when it wasn't obvious to me that it was slipping. Now it clean and crisp....

jeff

 

Fresh clutch adjusted properly adds to the smile factor a lot more than most people give any thought to...If the engine has some spirit then the difference is quite pronounced. Yer right bout the springs & plates too.......They do take a set and fall off after a while....look great, spec. out OK, just never can get everything to sharpen up as it should....but will work just fine for general out and about running around.....Turbos slipping the clutch when the boost comes up is not uncommon...Had a ATP unit on a Z-1 to tune a few years back and bought dealer lots of clutch plates/springs...used em up too. Ended up getting one of the early lock up pressure plates and that solved the problem for the most part, but there were a lot of track time/ early am "tuning sessions" involved on a regular basis.

Well worth the late night effort wasn't it.....

 

Sure was worth the effort Inet....it's like being shot out of a cannon. I've got the boost beginning at just over 4000 and really pounding at 5500 on it's way to 18psi. The funny thing is that I have several fairly fast bikes but this one is just plain fun to ride. I've never raced another bike and I don't have any illusions about it beating te newer, faster machines but to me, taking a 30 y/o bike and making it nice again, even better then stock is cool to me.

I bet you wished you still had that Z1r TC don't you? Or did you build a copycat? They were kind of like this bike...fast, (much faster then my 650) but not much good at handling when the boost was in full swing....too much acceleration to turn<LOL>!! A blast to ride though.

jeff

 

It was not a legit Z1TC. Those came about a bit later and were MUCH more refined. This contraption was a standard 74 900 z lump with one of ATPs( Bill Haan Sr) early production set ups installed complete with Bendix carb for a pronounced On/Off switch throttle.... 8O Aprox 40 hp to 120+hp at the flick of the wrist.....with a BIG hole till the turbine spun up...then it was sideways, on the back wheel, smoke the trye and a eye opening "O- S#@T" moment(s) till ya got it shut down.....Death wiggle chassis...yep.....rock hard oem tyres....yep.....brakes...errr....what are those....hi center of gravity , too much weight & air catching cowboy handle bars....yep got that too...... but.....WE HAVE POWER!!!!!!!!....

At the time I was riding a Rickman CR with a tuned 1080 Z lump stuffed in it. Only bike with one of those engines for grunt I have ever rode that would handle & stop to this day. It seemed to make sense at the time that I would be elected to sort the widow maker.. :roll: Course I wanted to put the Turbo on my Rickman as it was already set up for hi speeds. The owner of that mess wanted all the chrome and cowboy crap ( the Pose Possy are nuthin new) so after a while we went our different ways.....he crashed hard and gave up bikes and I never did get a Turbo for the Rickman.....160+ in the late 70s was a real good # for a street bike, but one just never has enough and the "what if" clause always has been a driving force with me n bikes as far as tuning them.

The Old Skool heavy hitters can still make a good showing in heads up ride it in and out the back door events. 1400cc +, Turbos and/or a bit of bottled gas can be applied to Z-1s, GS 1100s, FJs & Oil cooled GSXRs.......The results are astounding ( and sometimes very short lived), expensive and most of all soul stirring....plus.....ANYTHING to give the power rangers an Old Skool jolt of why they have what they have under them now turn key from the dealer..........

Some things just get meaner with age if ya let em.............

 

Wow, I haven’t seen a Rickman in a lot of years. For those not acquainted, Rickman built a few different models of big bore, high speed racers back in the day. The only bikes built better were those built by Pops Y. and there was always plenty of argument over that. I didn’t know that the 1280 kit was available back then….I think I heard it came out in the early 80’s sometime. I remember assembling a big-bore (1015 I think) kit in a friends engine and having a bi**ch of a time with the guides. It sure could pull stumps out when we were done though. I still have the stock carbs for that bike somewhere in my basement!!

If you had a Rickman, it meant one of two things….A- that you were well connected and used to race….or B, you were comparatively wealthy and were well connected<LOL>.

Wasn't Hahn known as THEE big turbo guy back then? I wasn't into turbos(dark art to us two stroke guys) but I remember that his company produced a lot of performance products in the late 70's and 80's...might still be in business, I don't know. I rode a turbo'ed Booming Black flash (XLCR) onto the track at Daytona one year. It wasn't my bike but I was allowed to run 2 laps....the owner told me to gas it ENTERING the wall.....of course I was so worried about losing control I wacked it open halfway through, on the wall...then counted one, two, then all hell broke loose<LOL>!! Almost wadded it but kept it up...tried a little earlier on the next time around but still couldn't gather the courage to give it full throttle at my last brake point....just too foreign an idea. At his pit, they thought I was showing off doing power slides....was only trying to NOT crack up his bike!!

Yup, I learned how to race on old school ported light switch engines( short time on H2's, then Suk GT750's) but envied the big Kaw, then the GS guys for their linear power but they paid a big a price in added weight and location of said weight. It's amazing to me that not only do todays bikes make so much more power then even top builders could pack into their engines back then, but that they are so tractable.

I still enjoy the rush of a well built two stroke getting "on the pipe"...the turbo is a different animal altogether...but it's still an animal now that it has some legs.

take care,
jeff

 

The Rickman was one of only two bikes that I have regrets letting go of thru the years...The other was a DBD34 Goldstar ( had visions of that in a Trackmaster frame w/road equipment)...I paid....ready for this.....2800.00 for the Rickman turn key in late summer of 1977. Complete with 12:1 compression 1080cc engine, 4 - 34mm round slide mikunis, RC Engineering cams and pipe..........I also got 1800.00 on trade for my 1975 Trident so the Rickman was a steal anyway one wanted to look at it. The dealer that had the CR also had a H2 tuned to the gills that one of the guys was roadracing and after wadding up the H2 in a big way decided that roadracing was not the way to keep healthy employees........One turn key Hooligan bike, I had to have it!

Pops built a hell of an engine.....Absolutely nothing handled like a Rickman. If I still had that chassis today my Oil Boiler would be stuffed in it instead of using the "lawn furniture tubing" frame that its presently in. Forks, swinger and running gear would be updated but the basic frame could not be faulted.

Bill Haan Sr passed away recently but Bill Haan Jr is still keeping things moving forward. He posts up on a regular basis over at;

http://outlawdragbike.com

Check in there, a real serious no rules forum for the confirmed gear head. Want to stuff a inline four Injected Nitro Chevy engine in a drag bike for thrills?...That be the place to check it out and Bill is in the thick of it.

Guess what the other bike I was looking at when I decided the Rickman had to be mine was...........One new XLCR with a 80" stroker, Branch heads, one off alloy cylinders and all the rest of the tricks/procedures needed to make a Sportster fly....Way too expensive tho....4000.00 at the time....turn key out the door, plus a test ride on the Rickman sealed the deal. That one ride would change the way I looked at the art of Hi Performance motorcycles for life......No one can make a motorcycle handle better than the English chassis builders (IMO). Rickman, Seeley, Harris & others learned the procedure hands on at the TT....37 3/4 miles of applied real world engineering......I would love to have another one..... 8)

Never was much into 2 smokes, tho a buddy of mine had a tweaked Honda CR 500 when I ran my BSA MX.....what a monster!...220 lb/ 80 horsepower and the wonderful light switch throttle/powerband that tuned 2 strokes are known for....I was/ am still/will always be impressed with those bikes.

Yep...new bikes are all nice, warm and fuzzy, refined, fast and very polite......

Give me Rude, Rough edges and a Ride to remember when ya twist the throttle...

Video games suck!