To Shift or not to Shift

Apologies to the Ole Bard, but since I started the bike and went on my first ride the clutch was dragging. I received my manual, so that I was not guessing at torques or trying to work harder then I need to and enjoy the work. I sat down this morning and bought new spark plugs for the bike and sat down to take the primary off and see why my Clutch is not working well.

Here you can see the clutch adjuster. The nut is beat up and rusty. I told you this think sat for a year with no fluids.

I removed all of the screws and pulled the cover off to expose the Primary. I am impressed that the interior was pretty clean and had little rust. I did have to drain all of the fluid I had just put in to give it a ride, but that is part of working on getting a sitting bike running.

The Primary case was pretty clean, I did have some dirt or debris come out of the Primary case. I am thinking some of it was dust and some was old clutch material (which is normal wear and why you need to change your fluids). The tensioner, which is located between the two gears under the chain (yellowish) is in great shape and I do not have to replace it. The gears are good and everything else seems good. I do not have a clutch tool to undo the clutch, so I did a visual check up of it.

I am happy that everything was intact and looked decent in the case. I was fearing a giant rust bucket and looking like a hand grenade went off.

I then looked at the Clutch Release aka the Clutch Ramp. Looked okay but was kind of loose. I then heard a lousy sound. The sound of a bearing "tinging" off of metal (the case) and then a "plop" as it hit the fluid I had drained. I pulled it out of the fluid and it was a ball bearing. I think I found the problem. I looked the part over and realized it only had two Ball bearings it needs three, not two. Oh oh!! Only two where is number three? I never found it. I have a feeling that the previous owner (who rebuilt the transmission) did not put the third bearing in or did not realize they dropped it.

I was able to take it apart and order a new one from Amazon, yes they had the part, was not easy to find on Amazon, but using the OEM part number helped me find it. I am going to get it in about a week, while I was at it I also order a fuel tank mount I was missing. I do not know if this is the only issue with the clutch, but it is definitely missing a part and needs replacement.

You can see the Ballbearings, plus the adjuster screw and nut.

The bike is going to sit for the week until I get parts. The cool thing is that this coming weekend the Webster Motorcycle Swap Meet is coming up and I am taking a small grocery list for new parts for the bike. I usually get lucky finding parts at a decent price. This will be the first time I will be looking for classic parts.