Vintage Privateer Smoker (RD350 Race Bike)

[TurdFurguson]

Been awhile since I've done much with the RD, rode it out to our rockers reunion show and things got bad. Suddenly there was tons of slop in the clutch cable to the point we had to stack 4 washers outside the perch to actually be able to disengage it. Got home and pulled it, found the basket nut spun loose and a herd of other issues in there.

It still sucks to shift so I'm replacing the shift shaft while I'm in here, it was very slightly not straight. It's not likely the issue but it's worth a shot.


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[Sonreir]

Ugh.

 

[Hurco550]

dang man that really sucks! Once you narrow down exactly what happened to it let me know so I don't do it to mine lol

 

[jpmobius]

When you put it back together make sure you have the proper belleville washer under the nut that holds the drive hub on. Belleville washers are not flat, they are slightly dome shaped and act like a spring keeping pressure on the assembly when flattened out. There is another belleville washer under the nut that holds the drive gear onto the crankshaft - you might want to check that while you have the cover off. No doubt you are aware of the special tool for holding the hub for properly torquing the nut. I'm always too lazy to get out the tool - I put a drop of blue locktite on the threads and hit it briefly with an impact. You can see the belleville washer flatten out when you do this and have confidence that there is enough pressure on the nut to keep it from coming loose.

 

[TurdFurguson]

When you put it back together make sure you have the proper belleville washer under the nut that holds the drive hub on. Belleville washers are not flat, they are slightly dome shaped and act like a spring keeping pressure on the assembly when flattened out. There is another belleville washer under the nut that holds the drive gear onto the crankshaft - you might want to check that while you have the cover off. No doubt you are aware of the special tool for holding the hub for properly torquing the nut. I'm always too lazy to get out the tool - I put a drop of blue locktite on the threads and hit it briefly with an impact. You can see the belleville washer flatten out when you do this and have confidence that there is enough pressure on the nut to keep it from coming loose.

It has the belleville washer behind it. I just ziped it on with the impact, so it might not have been tight enough. I ordered a clutch basket holder along with my new plates from economy cycle so i'll do it right this time :-/ Just a reminder to use the right tools.

 

[teazer]

That's not unheard of. I have seen a TD3 clutch come off at the track and barrel down the road.

The extra plate that's outside the drum is interesting though. When It's back together, check how much the plates lift. Is it an RD400 or Banshee clutch or RD350? If it's a mix and match that may explain the high lift clutch. It looks like 7 old style all fiber plates which may be too thick for that drum.

 

[TurdFurguson]

That's not unheard of. I have seen a TD3 clutch come off at the track and barrel down the road.

The extra plate that's outside the drum is interesting though. When It's back together, check how much the plates lift. Is it an RD400 or Banshee clutch or RD350? If it's a mix and match that may explain the high lift clutch. It looks like 7 old style all fiber plates which may be too thick for that drum.

Its an RD400 clutch and suppose to have RD400 plates/disks in it. My 350 clutch is still together wrapped up so it couldn't have gotten mixed up. Only issue would be if the clutch was mixed around from the PO. It all came from Brad so I dont know much about its history, but there was an extra plate in there before causing me issues so who really knows. I ordered a new set of disks to replace the ones in there. That outside disk was pretty messed up. I think what had happened (I could hear it going wap wap wap wap wap) is that the outer basket would slide around on the shaft, so it had slid back to the motor. To limp home I spaced out the clutch cable a ton to make up for the extra space with the nut spun out, so when I pulled the clutch it had tons more travel than it should have had. I'll still take some measurements before I close it all back up, but I think it was just a symptom of the situation I was in.

 

[jpmobius]

Right - If the clutch was ok before, no reason to suspect anything went awry aside from the nut coming off. The clutch pack stays all sandwiched between the drive hub and the pressure plate, and when the nut came loose, the whole works simply backed out of the basket until stopped by the side cover. Evidently that was enough space for the top friction plate to escape the basket and turn to wherever it wanted. Aside from that top plate getting chewed, I'd bet the rest is fine. I think I'll be putting a bit more focus on that main shaft nut in the future though - just in case!

 

[clem]

When I took my Daytona apart the PO had a fold over lock washer on the nut similar to the countershaft nut. It is very thin so I didn't think it was really a bad idea.

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[teazer]

Agreed, but check the lift before you put the cover on. I suspect that the fiber plates were too thick and that the new ones will fix that.

I don't remember but are 400 plates alloy or solid fiber? 350 are all fiber IIRC and Banshee are alloy with thin friction material stuck on. Older GT750s and older CB72s are also solid fiber and later ones had alloy cores. And solid fiber plates tend to be thicker.

 

[mothgils]

Ugh.

Major ugh...we stopped traffic a few times on the way there and it was hot out...Thanks alot Jordo!!

 

[irk miller]

Anyways, anyone ever seen a plug like this? It's spring loaded for some reason.
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That looks like a quick drain plug. What's the other end look like? The side opposite the threads. If it's a quick drain plug, you're not supposed to remove them to drain the sump.

 

[teazer]

I think that's the shift drum detent plunger and spring which drops into a "hole" in the shift cam for neutral. It is called "Stopper, Cam" in parts lists. It is not supposed to be removed to drain oil. The oil drain is a regular hex head bolt. 14mm I think.

 

[clem]

Teazer is correct, shift drum detent. Not a bad idea to just change the gasket on that and the oil plug while you have it out. I had a tough time getting the one on my Daytona out. You must be a beast with a screwdriver.

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[Maritime]

Crisis averted thanks to DTT once again! that is why we post shit here.

 

[TurdFurguson]

Alright, so I got the bike back together LATE friday night. The new clutch plates hadn't made it in yet so I bent some tabs and put the messed up clutch plates back in there for now. Needs another oil flush anyways to get any metal shavings still in there out, so i'll flush and swap out the plates. Took it easy on the way to the track and everything seems to be great now. When I replaced the shifter shaft (it had a slight bend to it) I found that the washer was on the clutch side and not the sprocket side. This was causing the shaft to bind when shifting and because it has some play it was able to slight up against the clutch basket causing even more binding. So clutch is sorted, and shifting is much better. Next steps I need to figure out why my speedo keeps jacking up (Ive sent multiple e-mails to speedhut but never gotten a response).

 

[TurdFurguson]

Finally got around to putting the new clutch disks in. Can verify the new disks are metal and the old were solid fiber. The difference was .02mm each. So there is some difference for sure.

Hopefully this is the last time I’ll have the motor open. At this point she’s a rider so hope to get more seat time in this year.


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[Maritime]

That looks like quite a difference between old and new, hope there is more bite now.

 

[TurdFurguson]

Putting this bad boy up for sale. It only gets ridden a handful of times a year, think its time to let someone else enjoy it. Working to put it up on bringatrailer first to see what happens on that site. If someone here is seriously interested in it, let me know in the next week as that's likely how long it'll take to get through the process on that site.