1999 January 22 (Friday)
Today the clutch and camshaft will come out of the engine in preparation for removing the crankshaft.
Clutch
Clutch assembly on flywheel
Clutch removal tool
I used an impact driver to remove three of the screws holding the clutch assembly to the flywheel. The removed screws are replaced by the clutch removal screws to hold the assembly in place as the final three screws are removed. Finally the nuts on the removal screws are backed off until the clutch assembly is free.
Flywheel
Clutch components
Done. I needed to find the allowed tolerances for the clutch plate. Mine was at 8.5 mm with about 1.1 - 1.3 mm from the face to the rivets. That didn’t seem like much, but I don’t know the normal rate of wear. The 2nd picture shows the components I removed. There were no shims/spacer rings. Should there have been?
Shims/spacers were optional and also varied between models. The clutch plate is about 1/2 worn. A new clutch is 9mm thick with about 1.9 mm to the rivets. I’m guessing that the bike has 40,000 miles on it, so the clutch plate should be good for at least another 25,000. I’m going to re-install this plate. Thanks goes to Ed Korn and Roger Albert for that info.
Camshaft
Ready to remove cam
Camshaft puller
I used the impact driver again, this time to remove the 4 screws holding the camshaft bearing block in place. I rotated the timing gear by hand to ensure that the cam followers were pushed away from the cam. Finally I used the camshaft puller to remove the cam from the block.
Camshaft plus rear bearing
The front bearing seems fine, but the rear bearing sticks! Also, the rear bearing usually stays in the case when the camshaft is pulled. The bearing will have to be replaced. I removed the cam followers and inspected, too. Not good.
Cam followers
Camshaft followers
The face of the right rear (intake) follower was badly marred. It will have to be replaced. Also, the inside of the followers seem to be coated. Whatever the coating is it is beginning to flake off as can be seen in this picture (the follower in the upper right).