Maybe next year, see if I get away with this first. Its only 6 weeks old and currently her pride and shinning joy.
Have just got some of the Suzuki plates from Nelson and they are all greased up and cooking at 200c right now. Have also got a gold Ducati Performance pressure plate from someone else on here and a set of stainless springs, bolts and red anodised caps from Anthonye at Avanti. Have also got a black anodised alloy open cover from China with Y spokes, like the Oberon ones but about £100.00 less.
No but it is a good idea to lay your clutch cover bolts out or even push then through some card in the pattern in which they come out, as they are of similar but not the same lengths and it's not easy to work out which goes where... If you have original bolts, it's a good opportunity to replace with stainless.
Bugger! Have just been for a test ride with lithium grease modded Suzuki plates and it was a disaster. The slip I could put up with as it is supposed to go away after a while but the drag is something else - I was lucky to make it home... :/ Maybe the Suzuki tangs are too close a fit and need filing down a tad...
True... I think I'll try mixing some of the old ones with some of the new ones and see how that works out.
Spent a couple of hours on the clutch this evening and I think, I hope I've got it sorted. The problem turned out to be not the stack height but the close fit of the Suzuki friction plate tangs in the basket, which does have grooves in it. The plates were expanding with heat and then jamming into the grooves. When I tried to take them out still warm, they wouldn't come until cooled a bit. I have now only the bottom two plates as Suzuki, the rest are the old ones. As the Suzuki ones wear in, I will gradually replace the Ducati with Suzuki, two at a time, putting the new ones at the bottom each time. Should work.
I have tried this mod with my mpl slipper clutch and it works but could never get the smoothness to last much longer than 50 miles. I will try the oven trick next time.
I am pleased to report that my clutch is now working really well Putting old plates back in to replace those at the top of the stack has worked brilliantly. So well that I can now tap down into neutral from second as easily as tapping up from first. An added benefit is that the clutch is now super-light, so light that I found myself using two fingers on the clutch lever - never, ever done that before... The lightness has to be down to the reduced stack-height putting less pre-load on the springs. I think am down to 36mm or maybe even less. The difference at the lever is really marked, so if anyone wants a lighter lever, reducing the stack height has to be worth a try. I could file the tangs of course, but I think I want to try letting the basket hammer them smaller. That way I lose no material and the edges should spread a little, giving a larger bearing surface.
