Starter Clutch Replacement

When you tighten the bolts on the basket the clutch should be engaged, no shifting until the arm moves cw.
Is this what you have?
The big fitz writeup would be for a 550.
Hate to ask but do you have the right number of plates?

 

They should align in the CW position or as you push up on the lever, so hopefully adjusting it will get you there.

Disconnect the cable, assemble the lever onto the shaft so that the alignment marks line up when the slack is removed by pushing up on the lever or rotating clockwise. This point should be a hard stop, the resistance of the smaller spring can be ignored. You will not be able to push it any further by hand because of the force required to operate the clutch and the lack of mechanical advantage provided by the clutch lever.

Install the cable, adjust the handle lever adjuster to near mid-range.

Adjust the cable length adjuster at the bottom so that you have approximately 2 to 3 mm of free play at the handle lever.

Any fine adjustment or future adjustments can be done with the handle lever adjustment.

 

I put all the plates that I had back into the basket, so I hope so! It was also full, so I believe I'm good there. I made sure I started and ended with a friction plate as well. I stored it together so I knew how it went back together, plus I took lots of pictures. The only time they were separated was when I soaked the pressure plates in oil before installing them.

 

I will try to make the adjustments with the lever and rod as you outline, hopefully that is all that I need.

 

this is the important part
when you tighten the bolts on the basket, you compress the springs, that squeezes the plates together.

this tells me the plates are not squeezed and all the adjustment in the world won't help.
i think if you go back to the beginning you're going to find the problem. the larger outside part should connect to the engine and the shaft to the transmission

 

That sounds like it is it. I didn't compress the plates at all, just but the bolts in and tightened to spec. So should I be pushing down on them while torquing?

 

That did it! I don't know what I did differently than last time but it's working now. Thanks! Tomorrow we ride(hopefully)!

 

make dam sure it's right, this lasted 15 miles, then poof, could have been ugly

 

Yikes! With my wife as my witness, I followed the manuals exactly. I read both out loud and pointed to what I was doing, ha ha. Do you know what happened?

 

Ran the pressure plate bolts in till they touched, went and had dinner, came back and put the cover on and never tightened the bolts.
Oops

 

That sucks! I was concerned about stuff like that happening with this job since it has taken me almost 8 months to do. I tried not to start anything that I thought I couldn't finish in that sitting, which of course contributed to how long it took me to do. I still find plenty of other ways to do stupid crap though. There were only two things here that I could think of that may have caused the issue. When I took off the pressure plate, and all the ones beneath, there was a friction plate that was about half an inch or so from the steel plate behind it and kind of stuck half cockeyed. I couldn't tell if that was like that when I installed everything, or if it happened while I was taking the pressure plate off. The other thing I did was to change the angle of the push rod down a little bit more. I thought I had it around 45 degrees last time, but this time I held up the book to the clutch and tried to match it as exactly as I could. I was able to ride across the street last night, but I don't think the clutch is quite fully disengaging so I have a little more adjusting to do.

 

That time I got up early, put the cases together and rode it that evening, well 15 miles anyway
Disengagement you can adjust, engaging you can't
You've got it now

 

Finally got my first ride in, about 2.5 miles just around a few blocks. Man, this thing runs way better than I remember; the bike just wants to go! I still need to do some more syncing work. The cylinder 1's pipe was slow to warm up and there was a little stumble right off idle. After that stumble though, it's a freakin' rocket! I'm stoked that nothing's fallen apart yet.

 

The stumble probably isn't a synch issue, but it might smooth out after.

 

What are you thinking, I messed something up with the carbs?

 

Ride it for a while. I find that after I've had one apart or it has sat for an extended time a 50 mile ride then a re-sync and readjust of the idle mixtures works best. Let's things settle in an you don't go chasing little gremlins.

 

I will hopefully be taking the bike on an 85 mile or so trip on Sunday, so maybe things will smooth out a little. This is provided the weather holds out and I can get the bike to where I am comfortable. The bike holds an idle now, which it didn't before, so I am ahead at least in that aspect! Even if I things aren't running 100%, that's OK, as long as whatever is the issue isn't causing damage, I can live with it until the snow arrives.

 

Well, I did another sync this evening and took the bike out for about 10 miles. The stumble is mostly gone now, so I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get a color tune to really dial it in. The first cylinder is still slow to warm up, and doesn't get as hot as the others. I got some new vacuum line because the old one split a little, and there wasn't enough vacuum to pull gas through. I'm sure that helped a little as well. Besides that stuff I'll need to work on a few electrical items because my left blinker isn't working unless I touch it and I think my clutch safety switch bit it because I can only start in neutral. I didn't touch any of that stuff so I don't know if is just a coincidence or what. Anyway, I think we did it! Thanks everybody for all your help, and if you find yourself in my neck of the woods, hit me up and beers are on me. I really appreciate all the help; I couldn't have done it without you guys. I'm sure I'll be around to clean up the rest of the other stuff, but it looks like the starter clutch replacement was a success! How refreshing it is to be able to start the bike under its own power!

 

No, but there may still be a bit of crud stuck in the idle passage of #1. The passages are a royal PITA to get fully clean sometimes.

 

I'll have to see if I can poke around there without taking the carbs off, at least its on 1, so it isn't too hard to access! I also still need to throw on new spark plugs, I was waiting to do that until I start doing plug chops/colortune or at least idle drop method. I might cut off a little bit of plug 1's wire to see if that helps, the wire fell out of the boot when I bumped into it the other day. Maybe it isn't connecting well. I might have to get some new coils with non-integral wires, my plug 1 wire is starting to get a little short because I have had to replace that spark plug boot 3 times from someone running into my bike and I cut off a little bit each time. I need to invest in parallel parking lessons for my neighbors...