Clutch drag and oil choice

I change the oil and filter every 6000km, and I’ve consistently used Motul 5100 full synthetic. The sump needs a top-up late in the oil-change cycle, and a month or so ago I was out of Motul when I noticed the level was down before a longish ride, so I added 300-400ml of Pennzoil 10-40W which I had on hand. I knew this was automotive grade (SM), not motorcycle (MA), but it’s not “Energy Conserving”, so my understanding was that it was free of friction modifiers that can cause problems with wet clutches.

However, in the weeks after the top-up, I started to notice increasing clutch drag. The bike started wanting to creep a bit, clutch in, at red lights. It got hard to find neutral. And up on the rear stand, there was a HARD clunk outa neutral into first and the rear wheel spun up pretty vigourously, in gear with clutch disengaged.

I frigged around with the clutch adjustment (per the manual, and also per Sid Squid), without a solution. I got frustrated, and a bit worried that I’d created a REAL problem. I surfed the web (mostly this site), and got good advice on clutch adjustment, but little help on the clutch drag issue. Last Saturday I changed the oil and filter (on schedule, at 36,000km), refilling with Motul.

Worryingly, the drag issue persisted. I buggered around with a variety of worm-gear and cable setting, to no avail. Eventually I just kinda gave up and came in to watch TV for the evening. The worry continued.

Sunday got consumed by home-office projects and Monday by work, but when I got home I reckoned I’d flip the bike back onto the stand and have another go. And – presto! – as soon as I fired it up and dropped it out of neutral into first, it was obvious ‘the problem’ was gone. There’s a tiny bit of drag, and the rear wheel turns very slowly for a few seconds after the clutch is disengaged, then stops. Once the engine if fully warm, most of the residual drag disappears. The worm-gear is adjusted as it should be, the cables too, and the bite-point is right where I want it – life is good again. It just took a couple days of soaking for the Motul ‘goodness’ to leach out the remnants of the Pennzoil ‘badness’.

And I’ve learned the lesson. If you’re having clutch drag problems and the adjustments are OK, think about the oil in your sump. Cheap (or inappropriate) lubricants could be the cause of your trouble.

+1 change of oil and correct amount solved my bad clutch drag too. I actually cleaned the old oil off my plates too, so was pretty much instantly better.

The wheel turning if its off the ground is normal, however mine would start moving up the drive when i revved lol.

[yorkie_chris]

The back wheel spinning on the paddock stand is nothing to worry about, that will happen with a perfectly healthy clutch. You should be able to easily stop it moving though.

Motul 5100 isn't fully synth

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

The back wheel spinning on the paddock stand is nothing to worry about, that will happen with a perfectly healthy clutch. You should be able to easily stop it moving though.

yup, agreed YC. problem was, the rear wheel was spinning up 'hard' - no way to stop it 'underway' by hand, and very difficult to stop even with friction from my boot toe/sole. (i'm aware that most of that 'difficulty' is simply interia) also, if i held the wheel and dropped the bike into gear, i could prevent the 'spin-up', but it took (at a guess) several pounds of force to prevent the wheel from turning. and i don't think that's 'normal'.

whereas after the change, there's hardly any energy being delivered to the wheel, so essentially zero force required to prevent and/or stop the spin. I'm fully comfortable with that.

Motul 5100 isn't fully synth

i've seen it called semi-synthetic in a variety of places too, but the 'big' oil reference article on the calsci site says:
"To the best of my knowledge, Delvac-1, AMSOil, Redline, and Motul 5100 are the only oils made from pure traditional synthetics. "

http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Oils1.html

ahhh, who to believe, eh? the Motul site itself has no product-specific info (that I could find...)



bottom line, Motul 5100 completely resolved my clutch drag problem...


cheers,

Always use motorcycle-specific oils if you can. But if you are in the middle of no-where and all you can top-up with is car oil...well do it, clutches are easier to change than a dead engine (and cheaper too!)

I guess the wheel spins because of fluid drag when in neutral?

I get some small clutch drag problems when the bike is hot in traffic (i mean fan-coming-on hot)...seems my clutch is on its way out, but its only at the early stages. An oil change cured the dragging last time...

[yorkie_chris]

Place I read was 5100 is a bled of mineral and ester synthetic, 7100 is fully ester synthetic.

I've used the 5100 for ages and it does the job.

Just reading through this old thread which is very relevant to an ongoing problem I’ve had since I got the bike, I’m now at a point where I feel I’ve tried everything and the only solution now is to spend some hard earned cash and replace the clutch on my SV650K3 or get shut all together, which is a shame cos I love the bike but for this

I’ve adjusted clutch on more than one occasion as per previous post, but still when the engine gets hot (above 87c) it suffers with clutch drag, not nasty but enough to spoil the ride, especially when round town where there’s lots of gear changing,
In the past, I’ve tried Motul 5100 with the level only half way up on the glass (always check oil with bike level on the paddock stand) currently, I’m using Silkolene Comp 4 fully synth which seems to give slightly better results for me than Motul but still get some annoying drag.
Oddly when I first start the machine up and its cold it goes into and changes gear perfect with no catching what so ever, if only it could be the same when hot.

I’ve been looking at replacing the clutch for a complete EBC SRK kit including springs, any thoughts or recommendations

[timwilky]

Worrying you are checking the oil level when on a paddock stand!


Put the bike on level ground both wheels on the deck. Hold it upright and bend down to look at the level.

[yorkie_chris]

Makes next to no difference in practice. Maybe 1mm on the window...

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by Longway

stuff

define clutch drag...

is the bike pulling while in neutral or while you are in gear and have the clutch pulled in?