I was in the process of replacing my Ultra's clutch diaphragm spring (with a -98A) and got to the part of readjusting my clutch. It seems as though with everything all loosened up, my ball ramp has “flipped”, or otherwise become un-useful. It’s happened to me before during a clutch adjustment procedure (I’ve done it by the book and the “easy” way, and this really pizzes me off). The last time I was in the middle of a bar replacement project, so the right side was opened up anyway…Will I need to drop the exhaust on the right, drain tranny fluid, pull the tranny cover, clean it up, put a bit of grease to hold the ***** in place during assembly, etc. ?


So the question is: is there a trick (or some kind of easy way) to resetting the ball ramp without doing all that stuff?


On a related note, what sequence should I do these things (I loosened up the tension on the diaphram spring as a trial; the clutch tension is also loose, slack is all out of the cable, etc.)

Thanks,

 

I had it happen to me once, I jacked the trans side of the bike over to the shifter side as far as I could without tipping the bike over. I used some 2x4's under both tires to give me more tilt. I let it sit over night and by some miracle, they feel back into place on their own. It's worth a try.....

 

I have always applied greese on the ***** & ramp to hold everything in place ... also on the clutch cable end & retainer that hooks onto the ramp assy.

 

I've got the bike up on the jack right now, just to make it easier to work on...So I'll think about that; but I do appreciate your response.

Yup, I was just hoping I didn't need to go through all that again But, thank you too sir,

 

Have you somehow lost the retainer ring or does the outer ramp look worn? Once you install the outer ramp with the key tab the inner ramp cups the ***** and the retainer ring keeps it all together. Hear people letting cable get loose but only because of worn or ill designed parts. I know part of the clutch procedure says to clutch a few time to get the ***** seated but I think it more to align disc and get a full seat on adjustment screw so all the play is out to back off to get your free play correct to allow for heat and wear till next adjustment. Did you look at your throw-out bearing while you were in there?

 

RipSaw,

I have not yet opened up the right side, I'm trying to avoid that if possible. Everything was functionally ok before changing the diaphram spring on the left side, so if I need to open up the right side again (to my chagrin), I'll look at those things. Thank you.

 

The bright side is you have duals so not hard to drop the pipe. You don't have to drain the tranny fluid. Just do as stated above and put the wheels up onto 2x4's and lean the bike way over to the left on the jiffy stand. You can pull the tranny side cover without losing but a little bit this way. When you normally do a clutch adjustment procedure, do you remember to work the clutch lever about 3 times after you are done in the clutch basket, but before you tighten the cable?

 

Dawg,

I was hoping that you'd respond, so thank you sir. I'll give the above procedure a go. In your response that I've bolded above, I think I've probably done that, but I'm not sure if I've been able to maintain some kinda tension on the parts to keep the ball ramp from doing this.

So, let's assume that I get my ***** back into place through the above procedure...In what sequence should I do things next? Tighten the new diaphram sping, then basket adjustment, then cable?? or something entirelly different?

I respect your thoughts,

 

Yes, put the diaphragm in and tighten the ring to spec then adjust at the basket, squeeze the lever a few times then adjust the cable

 

Sorry if I'm still sounding stupid, but cable still fully collapsed during this procedure?

I really appreciate your help on this...