Clutch Replacement

Prologue
On the ride back home from a nice Sunday ride, I found the clutch to be very sticky. It was difficult to change gears without the bike lurching forward. I'm not sure where the problem lies. Could it be the clutch cable? Could it be the clutch lever? Could it be the clutch itself (ouch $$$$).

Looks like I'm going to need a clutch replacement after all. Went over to Tim's today to help him install his new Rekluse clutch on his Dakar. On the way there, 5th gear was acting weird. I would give the bike gas, and the engine would start to rev, but I wouldn't be going any faster. After a few seconds, it felt like the clutch 'caught' and my speed increased. In the past, throttle to speed was almost instantaneous. That seems to be gone now.

The good part is that I know how to replace the clutch plates now. The bad news is that it's 200$ for the plates, plus oil filter kit, plus water pump kit, plus coolant and oil and time. It'll still be cheaper than the dealership price.

I thought I would wait until winter, but I can't keep riding knowing that 5th gear will be gone soon (and who knows about other gears).

Actions
Here's what I'm going to need/order/want to replace my clutch:
1. Replacement clutch (obviously) BMW 21217652984 - $194.05
2. Gasket 11147652946 (just in case the current one rips) - $20.33
3. Clutch cable - 32737661757 - $34.02
4. BMW Oil Filter Kit F650/CS - 11117658311 - $19.78
5. Oil
6. Coolant
7. Water pump (maybe)
8. Loctite 243
9. Good quality torque wrench (showing Nm and FP)

Drained the coolant. Drained the oil.
Removed all the bolts. Removed the gear shifter.
Try as I might, the cover will simply not come off.

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…. time passes ….

Well, the cover is off.

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Then you remove the pressure plate.

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Then you remove the clutch pack.

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Here's what you get:

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and
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So, here's the bad news:

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I think this was the culprit all along for my notchy clutch.

Removed and waiting for replacement

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…. more time passes ….

The clutch release shaft is out. There is 1 retaining clip on the inside cover holding the shaft in place.
The good news is that, while there is wear to the shaft, nothing is broken.

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I found the broken piece off the spline and removed it. The clutch shaft now rotates freely.

Here's the replacement

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and installed

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When I put on all the plates they gave me, it was way too tight of a fit. So much so that after I put the clutch case back on, the clutch release shaft would not rotate at all. I forced it a little too much and broke the clutch release fork in two and stripped the teeth on the release shaft. Both parts are now on order. No use taking chances on it _not_ being stripped after what I did to them.

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Also notice that I had to use the old top lined plate. Even though I ordered a new one, it wasn't shipped. I remedied that with A&S.

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…. more time passes ….

Recieved the clutch fork and clutch shaft. I got the shaft installed pretty quickly.
Because I've been having so many problems, I decided the consult the tome (Flash's maintenance DVDs). He kinda just glossed over the clutch pack itself, so I consulted the CS maintenance manual. That's where I discovered that I really should have 8 steel plates and 8 lined plates (one of which must fit into the offset groove). I emailed the dealer that I ordered those parts from and let them know my dilemma. Within an hour, I was assured that the missing plates would be shipped out to me. That's good service.

My next dilemma is the height of the clutch pack itself. With 6 lined plates and 7 steel plates, things fit OK. With 7 lined plates and 7 steel plates, things barely fit. I'm not sure what's going to happen when I have to add the last steel plate in there. I may end up just using the old steel plates instead.

… even more time passes ….

Put in the clutch pack. I had to use the old steel plates. The new ones were simply too thick. I couldn't fit everything in with those plates.

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With the new lined plates and the old steel plates installed (with the newly shipped top lined plate, I re-installed the pressure plate, followed by the engine case and I buttoned everything down.

Next came the oil filter. That was easy to change. There was still a fair amount of oil in that chamber. A bit of a mess I was not anticipating.

Once that was installed, I put the oil drain plug and bleed screw back in and reinstalled the clutch cable and shifter. I still did not know if this thing was going to shift or not.

My next move was to fill the coolant. That involved a lot of hose squeezing to get out air bubbles. It also involved loosening a bleeder screw high up on the right hand side. I missed it at first because I hadn't printed off that page from the manual. Once that was done, it was time to fill up the oil.

The service manual says to put in only a half liter before starting it up. I didn't have anything to measure out oil, so I used a Sunny D container (250ml). I put in 750ml of oil and started her up.

She fired up without hesitation, and I was about to let her warm up, but I saw the back wheel spinning. Looked like the bike was in gear. I tried to put it in neutral, but it wasn't shifting. DAMN!! I shut the bike off and addressed the shifting.

I ended up removing the shifting fork and moving it a few splines to the right. Re-attached the clutch cable and tried again. This time I was able to shift into neutral. YEAH!

Then I started to see white smoke coming from the front of the engine. On further examination, I was leaking coolant. DAMN! I didn't buy a coolant gasket either. Looks like that's my next purchase.

I also noticed a very slow oil leak, but I can't find the source. And it's very dirty oil, like it was left over. I've left it overnight to see what happens.

At the very least, I'm going to have to drain the coolant again and fit another gasket there.

It was going to take too long to order a gasket from A&S, not to mention the 25$ shipping fee on a 4$ part. I was thinking of going to BMW Toronto to buy the gasket, but I didn't know how much they would have charged, or if they had any in stock. So, I opted for the fix-a-gasket method. It was as quick as picking up a tube at Parts Source and trying it out.
So, drained the coolant from the water pump area again. Cleaned up the 2 surfaces and applied the sealant to both. After a minute, I mated the water pump cover to the clutch cover and torqued it down.
Even though the service manual stated to only add .5L of oil, I thought that was waaay too little, so I added another .75L and fired up the beast …. no leaks. The pipes started to smoke, but nothing like it had done in the past.
I donned my helmet and gloves and went around the block. MAN did it shift smooth!!!

When I returned and put it on the side stand, there was a leak from somewhere, but it looked and smelled like gas. Not sure where that would have come from, but I'm afraid I'm out of Mother Nature time. Snow is predicted this weekend. I may have to put this project on hold until spring.

I hope I'm wrong and it warms up before then. Just a few degrees, and the snow disappears.

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