broken clutch basket
 

Damn,I just broke a leg off the clutch basket housing as I had no clutch holding tool and was trying to loosen the nut ....suppose I can get it welded or can I just use it without the leg? will it affect the operation of the clutch or will it give it a bit of imbalance?...any ideas welcome.....:(

Hmmmmm - welding may be an option, but it'll need to be very accurately aligned !!!!

I wouldn't run it with a leg missing - as you say balance may come into play ?

Best get a second hand one.

clutch
 

As a "worst case fix" I'd snap the leg off opposite to balance it up and use it gingerly. This is a "no other option" fix. However, it may not vibrate too much without snapping off the opposite leg but you'd have to try this, as long as you keep the engine speed low just to get you somewhere you can get another basket. Welding cast aluminium alloys can be problematic and it needs to be aligned v accurately to match the plates.
A replacement basket is your best option if possible.
A good trick for cracking the nut is (if the engine is still in the bike) to put it in gear and wedge the rear brake pedal on with something. Using rags to lock the primary gears is another option if engine is out when not using locking tools. Good luck mate. Dave.

Did the same myself on a KDX a few years ago, I know you only learn by doing it yourself but in 20 minutes I'd done £120 quids worth of damage and had to trailer my bike to the Kawasaki dealer to let the experts fix it :(

I've got one in garage out of the engine and ready to go right now but you're on the other side of the World.

If you can't get another closer and if you're intrested let me know via PM and we can work something out.

You'd be surprised how many bikes are on the road with a broken basket..

It should operate just fine, but of course, it's not ideal !! You may get accelerated wear. It shouldnt jam or break further though.

How many legs are on the basket ? Any chance of a picture ?

Was it one of the legs that the clutch springs tighten on?
I broke two on mine while fitting my kickstart...

BtW, the best way to get the clutch basket out is using an air gun (like the ones used to take the wheels of a car and the right socket!)


For my 1990 XT600E I know the Raptor 660 clutch basket fits!
If I were you, I'd get a second hand or even a new one just for piece of mind....

good luck!


Vando :cool4:

Double guted,you would have thought I would have learned and not tried to put two bolts through the springs arms:nono: well I just broke one!!!! cursed the dog and got straight onto e bay and bought a second hand clutch basker for 220 kiwi dollars....lesson learned ! now I still have to make up a tool for holding the basket to get the nut off.....and I still have to go to work tonight.....:(

A Barnette high quality Billet clutch basket is 200 USD but it doesn't include that part that you broke which as I recon isn't 220 kiwis... i bought it from my closest yamaha dealer for 70€ I think.....

A repair method
 

I did the same thing to a KLR 650 clutch basket - it does make you feel stupid.

If you decide to use it as is I would not worry about balance - there are much more out of balance items thrashing around in the engine (think balance shafts, cranks) so it won't have much effect on vibration levels and the level of imbalance will be so low as not to affect bearing life. If I had to I would try it without the one post I think it is likely to work OK but you might get a bit of tilt in the clutch plates which would cause drag- I certainly would not break another off to try and balance it which will just weaken the whole clutch further.

Now the purists won't like the following, but I have a frugal nature and don't like replacing things unnecessarily so in my case I looked at my repair options. liked you I thought of welding but the access was awful and maintaing the alignment during repair was going to be awkward and any weld achieved was going to be very questionable quality. So in the end I did a mechanical repair as follows:

• The leg on my basket broke off half to two thirds way down its length at the bottom of the thread tapping in the drilling down the centre of the post.
• On the basket I contine the hole drilling through to the back of the basket (ie changed it from a blind hole to a through hole). Hole size was 6mm to provide a clearance hole for an M6 bolt.
• From the back of the basket I then countersunk this hole before fitting an M6 panhead bolt cut to length so it engaged the threads of the broken part. Fitting the bolt then secured everything back together.

Things to remember if you do this are (i) the bolt needs to be a countersunk type or it will catch behind the basket (there is usually little clearance) (ii) it only needs to engage into the broken part of the by about 1 bolt diameter -say 6mm for it to be structurally effective and (iii) most importantly it needs to be well secured so it will not come undone - I used both thread locker and centre popped the periphery of the bolt head. You may also need to shorten the clutch bolt that goes into the top of the post slightly so it will tighten up fully before its head reaches the new bolt coming from the other direction (in my case I didn't need to do this).

I had a pillar drill do do the drilling but with a bit of care you should be able to do all this with a handdrill (and you cant do much more harm than where your at).

My repair has done 18 months and 25,000k (including some quite brutal dirt work) without any problems.

Anyway best of luck if you decide to try a repair.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/DSCN1074.jpg

They cost about £20 !!!

MUCH cheaper than a new basket

Aww Kenny,you should have posted up on Kiwi Biker as I would have seen that a lot sooner.
I have my 1VJ engine ready to be stripped for parts and would have let you have that for $50!

special tools
 

To undo the clutch nut, as earlier posting says, an air gun is best and fastest. Another low-cost option,that I use often is to block the rear wheel with a sturdy strap, put the bike in 2nd gear, and there you go. Same for fitting the nut.
For the nuts on crankshaft, balancer shaft and flywheel (to be undone in this sequence, engine in the frame works best):
1 - Flywheel: hold the crankshaft nut with a large spanner
2 - Balancer: hold crankshaft with large spanner
3 - Crankshaft: put a rag or a thick copper washer between the crankshaft to balancer gears

Hui yobbo,well I was a little hasty in buying the new parts but I ll keep in contact in case I break anything else. If you have stripped one down before I would be grateful of any answers to any problems I encounter.....maybe we can meet for a beer soon as your in christchurch too! I will order the gears I need from the yam dealer in Rangiora as he seems very reasonable price wise unless you know of somewhere cheaper? I made another clutch retaining tool up at work but I don,t know if it is strong enough to hold it but I,m on the look out for one anyway.I ll keep you informed of my progress.....:scooter:

Just found a picture on my external hard drive of my broken clutch!

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9952/dsc02481s.jpg

Middle left and bottom left...

LOol :innocent:


Vando :cool4: