Clutch Basket

Update 2/3/15

Well I did more investigation and it seems the bearing that I thought was defective wasnt. Apparently Suzuki changed the design to this in 04-05. So once I found this out I went ahead and reassembled everything. I didn't take any snaps as I was in hurry to get the thing back together. Here is a pic of me picking up the girls from school today. More to come soon!! 

Well I finally got around to doing the clutch basket yesterday. My goal was the get the job done in one day. What is the saying... The best intentions.... Or something like that. Well it didn't happen as you will see below. 

Here she is all ready to be taken apart. 

Water pump cover removed. 

Clutch cover removed exposing the clutch basket and clutch plates. 

Here I carefully removed all the clutch plates in order and placed them aside. This is critical. If the plates somehow get out of order you have to measure each plate for thickness to see what order they should go in. 

Here is the basket (drive and driven) with all the clutch plates removed. Next is to take the 30mm nut off then the basket will slide off. 

Another pic of the basket. 

Here is the clutch basket all removed and ready for the new one. Notice the clutch bearing the basket rides on? It's on the shaft that drives the clutch basket. 

Here is a picture of the new clutch basket. All ready to be mounted! 

Then....

I noticed something critical. Can you see it?

Just before mounting the new basket I took a quick look at the clutch basket bearing. Good thing I did. Notice the 2 needle bearings that are missing?

Well that dashed all hopes of completing the job... I called Rocky Mountain Cycle and ordered a new bearing, but this also means another week before I get the new part. 

So there you have it folks... All hopes dashed. Here are all the parts on the workbench.

The good news is (knock on wood) once the bearing is in things should go together pretty quickly. 

More to come....

Finishing up the chain and sprocket

I received my new chain from Sidewinder Sprokets this evening. With the kids happily watching a movie and Kari asleep on the couch I decided to make my escape to the garage. 

Here is the new chain next to the old one I cut too short. I visually counted out 112 links about 5 times before I decided where to break the chain this time!

After counting the links I knew where to break the chain and proceeded. 

Here is a picture of the new chain cut, placed on the sprokets and the master link put on but not pressed. As you can see one link doesn't quite look like the others. 

Tools for the job. The $12 chain press listed above made my job much easier vs trying to use vice grips as a chain press.  The needle nose vice grips are used to put the clip on the master link. 

Here is a pic of the master link pressed and the master link clip ready for installation. 

Master link clip installed!! I can't tell you how happy this makes me!

Once the chain was installed correctly O was able to adjust the lenght and button everything back up. 

Once completed I was able to get the chain cover and clutch master cylinder reinstalled. Here it is all buttoned back up. 

Next up I will be replacing the clutch basket and taking care of the wiring. After that folks hopefully the bulk of my posts will be about my adventures on 2, 3, and 4 wheels!!

Easy Peasy

Well I was ready for something easy for a change. So I decided to do the rear brakes on Yoshie as the original ones were shot. 

EBC brake pads seem to be rated highly on the Stromtrooper forums so I decided to order a set off Amazon. 

Be careful not to strip out that set screw that holds the brake pads in place!! Actually it just covers an Allen head bolt that keeps the brake pads in place.

Half way through!!

Job well done!!

The new chain from Sidewinder is due in the mail tomorrow and some misc parts from Rocky Mountain Cycle Plaza. Next week is going to be a busy week!