I was hesitant to Bogart the thread on the Mk III jumping out of first, but there was a lot of good discussion going on there that led me to ask some questions. Last Sunday I wrapped up the "wake-up" from a 13 year slumber for my Mk III and was able to take it out for a 6-8 mile test ride. Generally, all systems performed well with the exception of neutral selection due to clutch drag.
A little background is in order. One area I looked at while getting the bike roadworthy was the clutch. I ordered & installed a pushrod seal, and while it was apart I removed the clutch pack for inspection/cleaning. The odometer shows only 12k miles, but the OEM sintered bronze plates had been replaced with an unidentified aftermarket set of (5) friction plates. The pack came out as one piece; all the friction plates & plain steel plates were stuck together, requiring me to seperate them from each other with a screwdriver. This seemed strange to me because I recalled during my initial inspection of the machine last November that I had pulled in the clutch lever and broke the plates free with the kick starter. I cleaned each plate with a simple green type of cleaner & hot water, and cleaned up the clutch basket/hub spic & span with carb cleaner. The hub looked nice & smooth so all went back together as it was, and the chaincase was serviced with 20-50 motor oil as per the riders manual. This work was done about 3 weeks ago; my test ride Sunday was the first time it had been put into service. When I tried putting the bike into first gear to pull out of the driveway, the plates were stuck & the engine stalled, but they easily broke free by pulling in the clutch lever and kicking it through. During the ride I adjusted the clutch cable a few times trying to improve the neutral selection. At first it seemed like the adjustment would help, but at the next stop light the drag was back. Eventually all the slack was taken up & the clutch drag had come back.
In a discussion with a pal of mine (who works almost exclusively on Nortons) he asked me what type of clutch plates were fitted, to which I replied I was not sure. I have Sureflex plates in my Fastback, but the ones in the Mk III didn't look the same. They are made with an aluminum plate & have 4 segments of a soft cork-like material per side, each covering one quarter of the surface area around the circumfrence. The glue used to hold the segments onto the plate looked like it was applied by dribbling a thin stream on the plate by hand from a cup, not in a circular motion but rater just back and forth across the surface. Envision how chefs dress up desert plates with chocolate sauce & you'll get the idea. This last detail caused my pal to positively identify them as NOT being Barnet plates, but rather from a third supplier who's name he couldn't remember; he regarded these plates as being "real good". I'm beginning to think I don't agree with him on this point.
Since the the initial run on Sunday I have not been able to squeeze in another ride. But I have checked and found the plates stuck together using the "clutch in with kickstart" method.
Now the questions:
1) Could anyone here identify these plates by the description above?
2) Should I try ATF (F-type) prior to replacing the mystery friction plates?
3) Where can I source a set of Sureflex plates?
Thanks for your patience,
A little background is in order. One area I looked at while getting the bike roadworthy was the clutch. I ordered & installed a pushrod seal, and while it was apart I removed the clutch pack for inspection/cleaning. The odometer shows only 12k miles, but the OEM sintered bronze plates had been replaced with an unidentified aftermarket set of (5) friction plates. The pack came out as one piece; all the friction plates & plain steel plates were stuck together, requiring me to seperate them from each other with a screwdriver. This seemed strange to me because I recalled during my initial inspection of the machine last November that I had pulled in the clutch lever and broke the plates free with the kick starter. I cleaned each plate with a simple green type of cleaner & hot water, and cleaned up the clutch basket/hub spic & span with carb cleaner. The hub looked nice & smooth so all went back together as it was, and the chaincase was serviced with 20-50 motor oil as per the riders manual. This work was done about 3 weeks ago; my test ride Sunday was the first time it had been put into service. When I tried putting the bike into first gear to pull out of the driveway, the plates were stuck & the engine stalled, but they easily broke free by pulling in the clutch lever and kicking it through. During the ride I adjusted the clutch cable a few times trying to improve the neutral selection. At first it seemed like the adjustment would help, but at the next stop light the drag was back. Eventually all the slack was taken up & the clutch drag had come back.
In a discussion with a pal of mine (who works almost exclusively on Nortons) he asked me what type of clutch plates were fitted, to which I replied I was not sure. I have Sureflex plates in my Fastback, but the ones in the Mk III didn't look the same. They are made with an aluminum plate & have 4 segments of a soft cork-like material per side, each covering one quarter of the surface area around the circumfrence. The glue used to hold the segments onto the plate looked like it was applied by dribbling a thin stream on the plate by hand from a cup, not in a circular motion but rater just back and forth across the surface. Envision how chefs dress up desert plates with chocolate sauce & you'll get the idea. This last detail caused my pal to positively identify them as NOT being Barnet plates, but rather from a third supplier who's name he couldn't remember; he regarded these plates as being "real good". I'm beginning to think I don't agree with him on this point.
Since the the initial run on Sunday I have not been able to squeeze in another ride. But I have checked and found the plates stuck together using the "clutch in with kickstart" method.
Now the questions:
1) Could anyone here identify these plates by the description above?
2) Should I try ATF (F-type) prior to replacing the mystery friction plates?
3) Where can I source a set of Sureflex plates?
Thanks for your patience,