Possible clutch issue?

[FasYankee]

I got a really weird thing going on with the clutch on the SMS. When engaging the clutch from a standstill (1st gear obv) everything is normal until the last wee bit and the clutch just grabs. It has smooth engagement otherwise, and I have no issues when downshifting/feathering the clutch when scrubbing off speed. It doesn't chatter, it just snaps once to fully engaged, all at once.

Any ideas?

 

[Stujam]

If you have a bit of a read through the sticky 610/630 clutch issues you will see lots of info on clutch cush washers wearing out , and the other thing that wears is the clutch cush bushing - it can create a bit of slop and cause some snatchy action as the clutch would engage .

You probably need to have a bit of a read there and then go investigating . No way to know till you get your hands dirty .

 

[FasYankee]

Ok so I read through the suggested thread, then as I took the radiator off (see other thread) I decided to disasemble the clutch and have a look see. All of my spring washers look mint. There is absolutely nothing coming out of the screen on the right side under the clutch cover. All the plates look fine, the brass bushing is perfect with no play. I'm wondering if (I'm not looking to start an oil thread) the oil I'm using is the culprit....I use rotella T-6 synthetic.....I've trusted this stuff for years and have never had a problem, but I remember my old FZR1k was really finicky regarding oil when it came to the clutch. I don't recall the issue I had with the FZR, but I remember it was oil/clutch related (I put over 55k miles on that bike...got it new!)

What is it that you guys run for oil?

 

[bushwa]

What's your clutch basket look like? Mine had noticeable grooves in the aluminium arms where the tabs of the clutch plates ride, at under 8000 km.

 

[RDTCU]

What's your clutch basket look like? Mine had noticeable grooves in the aluminium arms where the tabs of the clutch plates ride, at under 8000 km.

I have filed my clutch basket with a fine file to remove the grooves, and I replaced the clutch basket bushing at the same time, made a huge difference.

Also, I found that my Husky didn't like Rotella T6 very much, it tended to foam and make the clutch a bit grabby. Now I run Castrol RS-4T 10W50 and get twice the life out of the oil.

 

[EricV]

Now I run Castrol RS-4T 10W50 and get twice the life out of the oil.

Apologies- not trying to hijack, just don't want to miss the opportunity to ask...

I've also used the Castrol RS-4T 10-50- in fact always have. Now when I get to around 1500 miles on a change the shifting is clearly notchier...the way it's always been and that matches others experience. Since you're also using the RS-4T is this your experience also? I'm not super hard on the bike (spirited but not abusive in any way) and would like to take my oil change interval out to 2K but, in the end, always err on the side of caution and change sooner rather than later (this last one, though, I took out to ~1850 miles and the shifting was getting, well, kinda sh*tty. : )

 

[RDTCU]

Apologies- not trying to hijack, just don't want to miss the opportunity to ask...

I've also used the Castrol RS-4T 10-50- in fact always have. Now when I get to around 1500 miles on a change the shifting is clearly notchier...the way it's always been and that matches others experience. Since you're also using the RS-4T is this your experience also? I'm not super hard on the bike (spirited but not abusive in any way) and would like to take my oil change interval out to 2K but, in the end, always err on the side of caution and change sooner rather than later (this last one, though, I took out to ~1850 miles and the shifting was getting, well, kinda sh*tty. : )

I run it out to 2k pretty much every time and the shifting isn't noticeably different for me than it is at 1k with Castrol.
Do you clutch every shift? I only clutch on upshifts when I'm putting around town, clutchless upshifts most of the time.

If your clutch is dragging a bit, you're more prone to get that "whack" when shifting using the clutch. Have you replaced the bronze clutch basket bushing? I did mine at about 8k miles, i'm over 15k miles now.

Now Rotella and Yamalube seemed to break down and shifts were very noticeably rougher at much over 1k.

 

[EricV]

I run it out to 2k pretty much every time and the shifting isn't noticeably different for me than it is at 1k with Castrol.
Do you clutch every shift? I only clutch on upshifts when I'm putting around town, clutchless upshifts most of the time.

If your clutch is dragging a bit, you're more prone to get that "whack" when shifting using the clutch. Have you replaced the bronze clutch basket bushing? I did mine at about 8k miles, i'm over 15k miles now.

Now Rotella and Yamalube seemed to break down and shifts were very noticeably rougher at much over 1k.

Thanks man- sorry for not responding (work sure gets in the way.) Interesting to hear your results- mine gets notchy around 1200 miles but gets worse as I progress. Starts out smooth enough, and my basket didn't have appreciable grooving when I pulled it around 7500 miles or so...in fact it was pretty darn smooth. I did replace the basket bushing at that time. I do clutch every shift.

 

[FasYankee]

Well now the damn this is giving me false neutrals all the time. I'm thinking the drum or the forks may be worn....thing is how so? Bike only has a tick over 4k miles on it, I've probably changed the oil under 1k each time. The last oil that was in there I just changed prior to checking out the clutch, so that oil was well under 500 miles.....looked new when I drained it.

I'm off to search for yet another thread that covers "known problem with faulty shifter fork/drum". Smdh......

 

[RDTCU]

I dropped the bike on the shifter pretty good once and bent a shift fork, which caused a couple gears to round off the dogs. 4 new gears and a two new forks...

which gear is it not engaging consistently?

 

[FasYankee]

Mostly 3rd. I read your thread regarding that. It's never been down. Not even a tipover. It's been better today, out for a ride with buds I haven't seen in forever. It's mostly when accelerating hard from 2-3. The shift action is real notchy. But then sometimes it feels loose. Couple times its skipped 3 completely and gone straight to 4. I almost didn't take it today, was going to take my wr400(Yamaha) supermoto, but I just love riding this bike so much.

 

[Theo]

Have you read this? The guy had a problem with 3rd gear, too. He showed the fork at the bottom of the post #63.
I've never had shifting problems, but could the problem be something which doesn't require a case splitting? Like the "cam thing" shown in the post #62 of that thread, for instance?.

 

[FasYankee]

Yeah I was looking at the parts diagram and was thinking the same thing. I had a bike with bent shift forks and is wasn't like this. It wouldn't stay in gear & pop out. The issue I'm having is getting the gear selected, once it's in gear it's good. The dealer I bought the bike from was in the motor for a previous issue.....there was an errant bolt that was either left in at time of assembly or somehow got in there (can't imagine how). The bolt got picked up by the cam chain & threw the timing off. I got a new chain/cylinder head assembly/wiring harness/other misc parts out of that as the bike was under warranty. Here's the thing, the mechanics at that dealership are hamfists. When I got the bike back (it was prestine when I dropped it off), it was all scratched up, the exhaust cans were scratched, had greasy fingerprints all over it, and the nuts in the airbox/tank were spun from being over torqued....I got new body work/tank/airbox out of that. But seeing as how sloppily they worked I wouldn't be surprised if they messed something up when they had the cases split, and it's just rearing its head now. I haven't been able to ride for some time because I got injured at work, had surgery, and was laid up for 10 months.....it's been 2 years since I rode it a lot...

 

[Theo]

When I bought the 610, I brought it to the dealer (not an official Husky dealer) to get it serviced and they scretched the bike and behaved unpleasantly in general; I realized that they were not reliable and so the last time I saw them was 6 years ago‼ Now, I service it on my own and when I need a mechanic, I never go there.
Sorry for your injury. Are you fine now?
Anyhow, do you know how big was the errant bolt? I'm afraid that a bolt in the oil could be able to go anywhere in the engine, including the gearbox.

 

[RDTCU]

Where are you located?
I use a guy down here in SC that will do a bottom end on any bike for ~$250 + parts.
It was worth it to me, since I didn't have time or the right tools to split mine when I bent forks. I just yanked the motor and dropped it off.

ETA: Drove it there in the passenger seat of my Z

 

[FasYankee]

Thanks, yeah I'm good now. Tore up my labrum in my shoulder pretty good fighting with an arrestee.....waited too long to go to the Dr. which caused all kinds of other complications (stubborn I know).

I live in CT now, I can do all my own work, I only brought it to them because the bike was under warrantee. I knew the valve timing was off, and I told them straight away but they had to follow Husky's "flow chart" for diagnosing problems. They started with the harness, the. The ECU, then the coils, it too them forever to get to the root of the problem. The way it ran it was obvious what it was.......The bike was there for almost a whole season, that and being sidelined for another season is why its got so little miles on it. I tried changing the oil last night, I checked both steel filters, removed the clutch/basket and that's all 100%. I switched the oil to 20w50 and ran it around the block. Same thing. It will up shift to 3 and 4 while under load and with the slightest pressure on the shifter. I'm going to open it again and inspect the selector mechanism.

One thing I did notice was the shift shaft itself has some side to side movement. With the cover off I can almost make the selector fork clear the part it mates with. Inside the cover is a boss that is directly opposite the end of the shifter shaft. There's a hole in the boss. I was wondering is there's supposed to be a spring in there but didn't see any such thing in the service manual.

 

[FasYankee]

So I think I found the culprit. The selector mechanism seems to be missing the cog that it mates with:

The first pic has it sitting where it's supposed to be, the second is it pushed out. Judging by the scratches made by the shift lever on the left side case cover, it's obvious that the cog was being shoved away from the selector cog that's attached to the drum.......I'll need to inspect more to figure out why it's happening.

 

[RDTCU]

The right side case should keep the shifter shaft from sliding to the right, grab a pair of calipers and measure the boss in the case to the flange face, vs the shaft end to the flange face.

 

[FasYankee]

Yeah, I'm going to put a flat edge across the case cover, measure the distance from the boss inside the cover and the gasket surface. Then I'll do the same for the shifter shaft. See what the gap is. It definitely has some movement. Like I said the bike has never been down & now there's scratches on the left case cover from the throw of the shifter.....(see pic), those scratches were never there before, I would have noticed.

Thanks for your help guys. This is really bumming me out. I could ride my WR in the meantime but I work 3p-11p.....coming home on an uncorked MX bike at midnight doesn't make for the best neighbors! Braaaap!

RDTCU, you ever ride with guys from GAsportbike or blokes? Your screen name seems familiar to me? I used to live in Canton, GA and frequented the gap regularly with some of those guys.

 

[RDTCU]

RDTCU, you ever ride with guys from GAsportbike or blokes? Your screen name seems familiar to me? I used to live in Canton, GA and frequented the gap regularly with some of those guys.

Nah, I'm not over there, but some of the guys i've ridden with might be.
I'm in upstate SC, I only make it up there maybe once a year if that.