Clutch

Well I had my very first clutch failure in over 25 years of riding, and this with my very first hydraulic clutch. I'm sure there's a message there somewhere

Couple rides ago I noticed fluid round the slave of the clutch on my TE. I tightened the banjo bolt and the bleed nipple and I thought that was it. It wasn't. On a ride yesterday, I noticed the fluid leaking again. Eventually it all went so I was left with no clutch.

Common problem or no ? Things to look for ?

seal on the inside of the slave is gone. unbolt the three nuts remove the slave. take out the circlip and replace the seal (its an o ring). that should be it hopefully. some body here sells an uprated x ring for this problem i believe.

If you ever get stuck out in "the boondocks" and you lose all your hydraulic fluid, you can put almost anything in the clutch to get back to home/civilization.
Water, engine oil, brake fluid, kool-aid... in a real pinch, you can even pee in the master to get some kind of clutch action. Might have to replace all the rubber parts after, but it'll get you back.

Once you get moving, you do clutchless up and down shifts, using the clutch when really necessary.

C

Thanks Creeper, that's good to know.

Thankfully, I finally lost my clutch entirely towards the end of the ride - made for some interesting climbs though, that's for sure At one point the ride leader had to pull over to switch to reserve. I went on ahead a little to a junction (dirt roads) and rode in circles until he caught up. Once moving I was fine, it was the getting going that was a problem, I had a blocker at each junction on the road to make sure I could get through without stopping.

George at Uptite has the much better replacement "X" ring

Thanks Ruffus. I was going to ask who would have the upgraded X-Ring and I kinda thought it would be George. I will give him a call tomorrow.

Well... you know, it's a last resort kind of thing. It beats jamming your bike into gear from a dead stop... or pushing fast enough that jamming it into gear isn't quite as destructive.

Or maybe even riding in circles.

I had to use the 'crash' method a couple times to get going - even moving a little which made it easier than from a dead stop, it still brought a tear to my eye to be hurting my baby

I did tell the ride leader to in future, figure out how to switch to reserve while on the move. He said he'd work on his technique

Tell him to step into the modern age and get a FI bike... no reserve.

I suppose, now that I see you have an '06, you could do the same.

Me ? I'd love one (and will probably get a 310 as and when I am given permission)

Him ? He doesn't even have the full compliment of 4 strokes and he still lays down a smoke screen when he opens the throttle (300 orange thingy )

As a person who has replaced fist fulls of O-rings and more than 4 slaves, rebuilt then replaced two masters and been stuck slamming the bike into gear many many times all I can say is the Magura is a weak link in an otherwise great bike and the minute someone comes up with a cable retro kit I will buy 3 and stock/back said company.

This is not a hateful post. I have had REAL bad luck with the Magura hydraulic systems. I do not like them at all. WORD!

just my .02 and your mileage may vary and all that.

I fixed that problem forever on my 310...

with a Rekluse.



(Of course, that opens up a whole slew of OTHER problems, but...)