clutch problem.

good morning all! i have a quick question regarding my clutch. i had a cracking ride over to buxton yesterday and all was well, returning to stafford after about 4 hours riding i pulled into a petrol station for more fuel and noticed that my gear change had become very clunky and it was difficult to knock it into neutral. i am hoping it is just a bit of adjustment needed, but is there anything else i should be looking for? chain is adjusted well and i run a scottoiler, i normally have a silky smooth gearchange so it is surprising it could go that far out after a sedate ride! its a curvy s x reg with 16000 on the clock by the way

[Jayneflakes]

My pointy started doing this over the weekend, so I adjusted the clutch cable tension thinking that it was not disengaging enough. This worked for a little while, so I checked the push rod on the worm gear and made sure that it was correctly tensioned.

It seems to be a heat thing though, because as soon as I took her for a blast down the motorway, it vanished until I pulled on to a slow moving A road and it came back. I topped up my oil level on Friday and was wondering if I had over filled it slightly, but a second opinion was that it was fine.

I still do not know why it was doing this?

[Sid Squid]

You may have noticed that the clutch lever free play changes slightly dependant on engine temperature, this is nothing unusual and simply represents the difference in the thickness of the clutch plates as they expand when hot. Has it returned to how it normally is since the afternoon in question? If yes, and unless there is a problem you have noticed other than the lever slack there is nothing to be concerned about.
If anything about the clutch is not as it normally is it's worthwhile checking that the clutch is correctly adjusted:

Originally Posted by Me!

Slacken off cable adjusters at top and bottom, loosen lifter locknut, back out screw a bit, ensure that lifter arm is as far down as it will go, gently turn screw in until it contacts pushrod back out a bit, (~1/8th of a turn), then nip up the locknut, roughly adjust cable with lower adjuster - not too tight - then with top adjuster ensure that there remains a little slack all the way from lock to lock.

Also if the clutch slack suddenly rises it's often caused by the upper cable adjuster rattling loose, which SVs like to do.

thanks for the replies, clutch has indeed returned to its normal silky self! i am just surprised that it has never manifested itself before on much more spirited rides. oil is about 4k old though, maybe change time methinks. i know this may seem like a stupid question but is there any way of fitting an oil cooler to the curvy without doing too much work or is it not a practical mod?

[Jayneflakes]

It has been suggested to me that a sticky residue builds up on the clutch plates and makes them stick together, which makes it hard to change gear. The fix for this would be stripping the clutch plates down and cleaning them if new or replacing if old. However, I am not sure that this the actual cause.

I still think that it is a combination of heat expansion and cable adjustment, as mentioned by Sid.

As for the oil cooler, my Pointy has one as standard and it still does it. Mind you, it does sit right behind the exhaust, so gets the heat from there! Silly Suzuki... Nice to have it though.

[Bibio]

wd40 + gear lever pivot = easy gear change

[yorkie_chris]

Grease it, don't be lazy!

Oil is knocking on a bit at 4000, a change might help. No point fitting an oil cooler IMO.

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by Bibio

wd40 + gear lever pivot = easy gear change

If the problem is a sticky lever, yes. Otherwise it will do nothing to assist.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Grease it, don't be lazy!

A better solution - but again only if the lever is the problem.

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

It has been suggested to me that a sticky residue builds up on the clutch plates and makes them stick together, which makes it hard to change gear. The fix for this would be stripping the clutch plates down and cleaning them if new or replacing if old. However, I am not sure that this the actual cause.

The plates are washed in oil in use, and pulling the lever makes them wipe across each other, taking them out and cleaning them won't help. Unless you have a dry clutch and it's been contaminated. But you haven't.

[Jayneflakes]

To be honest, I just gave the cable and push rod a correct adjustment once I got home and it has worked fine since. However, I have not yet had it stuck in slow moving traffic to confirm that this is the case. I was dubious of the washing the clutch plates, but it was my local garage who mentioned it when I had a chat with them in passing.