• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Clutch Rod & an Oil Change

Kenneth Webb

Livin' It Up!
My 630 had 1500 miles when I bought it and had a distinctly dragging clutch actuating rod. On the recommendation of George at Uptite I changed to Golden Spectro 4 Off Road, which has supposedly enhansed levels of zddp additives. Very shortly after the change, my dragging clutch rod was corrected and the clutch engagement is butter smooth. 'Can't prove that it was the oil, but if it was, I'm happy with what it is doing with the rest of the bits inside the engine! I don't know what oil was in there to start with, but probably what the dealer installed. I know there are some other oils with good levels of zddp, but you have to look. On second thought, I'm not at all sure if the additive actually made a difference, but it "seems" to have done it.

'Not trying to create another oil thread here, just commenting on the clutch actuation.
 
my clutch has a hard grab. does not slip. uses castrol full syn. per manual reccomendation. i with it would be smoother
 
Spectro Golden 4 Off Road 20w-50. It's a bit hard to find and I ordered enough for several oil changes from Bob's Cycle Supply.

Is this it? Synth blend

http://www.bobscycle.com/browse.cfm/4,69728.html

805328.JPG
 
No, there is another that sez "Golden 4" and is semi-synthetic. I couldn't get the full information on the synthetic and didn't know if it had as much zddp, so I opted for the Golden 4 Off Road. Both are probably fine and they are off-road only due to the additives which the Feds (Reds?) have caused to be removed from our oils. I change oil regularly so I thought the semi-would be ok. I run full synthetic in everything else though, and prefer it.
 
Spectro Gold is one of the few oils I can get in a 10w60 which is what the bike calls for and its a full ester syn. I've had great results with it, very smooth gearbox! I'm at 5500 miles and 5 clicks out on CCT and the bike is far from babied, however its maintained very well! Oils cheap and changing it often is only going to help its life.
 
No, there is another that sez "Golden 4" and is semi-synthetic. I couldn't get the full information on the synthetic and didn't know if it had as much zddp, so I opted for the Golden 4 Off Road. Both are probably fine and they are off-road only due to the additives which the Feds (Reds?) have caused to be removed from our oils. I change oil regularly so I thought the semi-would be ok. I run full synthetic in everything else though, and prefer it.

gldnoffroad.jpg
golden.jpg


http://www.spectro-oils.com/products/4stroke/golden.asp

http://www.spectro-oils.com/products/4stroke/goldenoffroad.asp

Spoke with Spectro reps at NY moto show last nite. "Offroad" label Golden 4 semi-synth is same oil as "Motorcycle" label Golden 4 semi-synth oil; just easy-button for marketing.

Have always had great results with Golden Spectro semi-synth. Right now using full petroleum for break-in on the 630.
I use Motorex full synth in KTMs for tight eastern woods riding.



 
Bumping this thread. I think my clutch is dragging. has been getting worse for some time and now it is terrible. is there something that I can just on the outside to fix this? I really don't know wondering so it was like to avoid opening the cover. could it be this rod you guys were mentioning?
 
Bumping this thread. I think my clutch is dragging. has been getting worse for some time and now it is terrible. is there something that I can just on the outside to fix this? I really don't know wondering so it was like to avoid opening the cover. could it be this rod you guys were mentioning?

When the last time you changed the oil? When you change the oil, does it get better? How is the lever adjustment? How many miles are on the bike, and have you opened the clutch cover to check if the basket has any notching on the fingers? When you say that the clutch drag is "terrible," what do you mean?
 
When mine was new it was very hard to find neutral. I'm a big-time amsoil guy so that's what's in everything I own. Once I switched to their motorcycle 20-50 oil it became butter smooth and easy to find neutral. No slip or grab.

I'm at about 5500 miles now. Unfortunately the Tiger is getting all the miles though. Someone is gonna get one helluva 630 when I finally sell it. LOL. It still looks like new.
 
Once I switched to their motorcycle 20-50 oil

Highly recommend running 10W-X or 5W-X oil. Lots of threads about it around here so I won't belabor the point, but 5W- or 10W- could possibly significantly reduce engine wear, especially on cold starts and idling.

My 610 runs/sounds very good on Rotella 5W-40 synthetic. Neutral is impossible to find while stopped, but it doesn't creep at all with the clutch in and shifts nice. Motor sounds much happier than it did with expensive moto-specific 20W-50 too.
 
Highly recommend running 10W-X or 5W-X oil. Lots of threads about it around here so I won't belabor the point, but 5W- or 10W- could possibly significantly reduce engine wear, especially on cold starts and idling.

My 610 runs/sounds very good on Rotella 5W-40 synthetic. Neutral is impossible to find while stopped, but it doesn't creep at all with the clutch in and shifts nice. Motor sounds much happier than it did with expensive moto-specific 20W-50 too.

"Significant wear"? Um, no, doubt it. There's some merit for really cold temps, winter time starting, but the higher number provides more cushion for the hot motor internals. Just a non-issue here in so-Cal. I've never had a starting issue with this one except when the battery was shot. :)
 
Not starting issues, I'm talking about wear on the moving surfaces on cold starts. 20W-X oil does nothing to enhance protection for hot motor internals, compared to 5W- or 10W- oil. When the motor is hot, the first number is meaningless, as that number is only representative of the oil's viscosity at low (cold start, not cold day) temperature. For warm motor protection, you are only concerned with the second number, and it's not a matter of bigger is better, it's just a matter of having the "right" (design) viscosity.

See this thread (among many others): http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/what-kind-of-oil-should-i-use-and-how-much.31911/
 
When the last time you changed the oil? When you change the oil, does it get better? How is the lever adjustment? How many miles are on the bike, and have you opened the clutch cover to check if the basket has any notching on the fingers? When you say that the clutch drag is "terrible," what do you mean?


- I dont remember exactly. Sometime in May? April?
- I was not having the problem then.
- Lever adjustment seems to do nothing...
- I dont recall.
- no I have not opened the cluth cover and I do not know what 'notching' woudl be or what the 'fingers' are.
- I mean I can not roll the bike without really putting my legs into it while in gear and with the clutch lever pulled in. It wants to try to walk some on a start with the clutch pulled in.

I didnt have time and do not have the knowledge you guys have, obviously since I dont know what these "fingers" are or what they look like... so I took it to a shop. Solid Performance. Since Mont Cycle Center is no longer with husky... (what a fucking pain in the ass that is for me now)
 
Let us know what they find.

FYI, most bikes will not roll with the engine off and the clutch pulled in, multi-plate clutches are just too sticky. None of my 3 bikes will roll in that state, at least not easily. However, it should not "creep" in gear with the motor running and the clutch pulled in, that's indicative of a problem.

I wonder if it's something simple like a frayed cable not fully disengaging the clutch. Probably is.
 
Curious on the outcome of the story. Just replaced yesterday old mobil 10W-40 oil to new 15-50 yamalube synt. It had a bit dragging before but now has trouble starting in gear and its idling 50-100 rpm lower than before. Maybe the oil is more sticky when new?
My bike has 5000 km (3000 mil) and its was the 2nd oil change now.
 
I would not use 15W-50 oil. I'd use 10W- or even 5W-. Lots of threads here about the pros and cons of different oil weights.

A clutch should be the least draggy with brand new oil; that's one way I can tell the oil in my 2-stroke is getting old, the clutch starts to drag more.
 
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