Assistance sought with a Rapide Clutch problem please

[Comet Rider]

Needle roller clutch pushers

Hi Norman and all,

We've been using these for years on everything from our drag racer to dad on his Conways Honda clutch.

To make things easier we take a bit of the 1/4 sliver steel and run a thread for about 1/4 inch, then depending upon preference either make an ally or steel top hat to take the needle roller assembly. Very simple and very reliable, with only a light re-grease on the annual check over.

Neil

 

[roy the mechanic]

Hi, timetraveller, you described the mushroom quite well. Harley shovelheads use a radial lift bearing can't remember what it looks like-must be reliable! might be worth a call to f h warr in london. 0208 736 2934. , Roy.

 

[timetraveller]

Thanks guys for all the help. It is certainly less painful, and cheaper, to learn from those who have gone before. I will be at the Herts and Beds Rally on the Saturday with some clutch bits and pieces so I will look out those of you I know for a discussion. I think I now have a design.

 

[BlackLightning998]

I'll miss you as I'm going on Sunday with the testbed...

Thanks guys for all the help. It is certainly less painful, and cheaper, to learn from those who have gone before. I will be at the Herts and Beds Rally on the Saturday with some clutch bits and pieces so I will look out those of you I know for a discussion. I think I now have a design.

Hi Norman,

All being well I plan to be there on Sunday when the Sidecar and A rally joins the Herts and Beds. I was so full of confidence that I'd managed a decent job (but not yet as smooth as I'd like) that I stripped the clutch again this evening to try and fettle it to work better still. You know the rest, I've made it worse again (dragging). When I took the C27 off I found one of the C14's came out with it. On stripping further I found C35 had fractured - and actually a small section of the broken piece had found it's way into the C1 and embedded on the shoes. I originally had one tongue broken off the C24 and now found a second - so have two broken - time for a new one I think.

So although it was running OK'ish - it has had a tough time inside by the looks of things.

Anyway, no spares in stock but I rigged up the complete sections of the C35 to lock the C14's into place - though it is in two pieces not one.

All back together again and it is dragging significantly - but I'm confident it is all to do with the primary clutch. I've spent a few hours moving springs around, trying with one missing, trying three missing - but haven't yet got it to the point when I can get a smooth snick into first with the engine running.

It's the same problem again, spin the engine with the kickstarter and the clutch lever may result in a beautiful clean depression of the kickstarter with no effort - then when you spin the engine again and try the clutch and kickstart lever it may lock (drag) and not clear. Two or three lever lift/drop cycles and it often clears itself.

Mmmmm - I've still got some learning to do.

Fingers crossed the modification is going to help the situation.

Have a good Saturday - I'm looking forward to my Sunday.

Cheers

 

[greg brillus]

Greg Brillus

Hi there, just a small consideration worth noting. After having my Rapide clutch apart about 240 times..... I found one issue that contributed significantly to the outer clutch plate lifting like a wobble plate, with the same symptoms you describe, and after fitting new springs(6 of C 29)and carefully matching them up, and shimming this and so on and so on. What i found was that the new springs were a tight fit inside the C 30 cups, which caused extra drag on the springs which made it almost impossible for the outer clutch to free itself every time. I ended up carefully linnishing down the outside diameter of the springs and uppon reassembly the clutch now free's about 95% better than ever before. And finally with regard to the C24/1 adjuster vss the pushrod issue you had. I removed mine and replaced it with a tappet adjuster with a ball bearing in the center with a flat machined on it that was a standard part out of an old Mazda over head cam engine from an old 626...cheers for now... Greg.