Clutch slipping has gotten worse

[Patmac6075]

My bike has always slipped a little under hard acceleration in 4th and 5th gear, so over the winter I purchased a set of Barnett springs hoping that would do the trick, well to my surprise.....now I'm getting slippage even when I'm just a little aggressive, and it presents in 3rd now too???!!!

My bike has only about 23k mi on it, and I know it sat for about 5-8 years....maybe all those years of sitting allowed the portion of the clutch material that was not soaking in oil to dry out?

Oh well...looks like it's time to buy some clutch disks and steels (just to be on the safe side I'll replace both..I hate doing jobs twice, or in this case three times)

[cimmer]

Couple of things here, when you replaced the springs, did you pull the clutch pack apart at all? When I replaced the spring in my 89 VR, I removed all the disk and plates. I soaked the disk in an oil bath and cleaned up the plates and then lightly sanded them to knock all the glazing off of them. I used a cross hatch pattern on them and when I reinstalled them, all my slipping has gone away. I also replaced the half disk and plate with a full height one in the pack.

If you look in the tech section, you should find a write up on how to do this. It might be in the gen 2 section but for the most part other then the springs being different, most of the rest is the same.

Hope this helps

Rick F.

[Marcarl]

With only 23 k miles, I would be looking elsewhere first, maybe the slave isn't returning all the way.

[Flyinfool]

It is pretty common to get the stackup wrong when you put it back together. Make sure that the parts are not 180° out of phase. There is only one correct way to put it in but there are 2 ways it can be put in.

[Patmac6075]

I replace one spring at a time and did not ever open up the clutch pack.

I did a complete clutch hydraulic rebuild (master, slave, and new SS lines) before the start of last season, it performed flawlessly all of last year (other than the slippage, but did has always slipped...just worse now). I did change the oil(and filter) when I opened the case...I used Rotella (Dino oil) 15w 40.. but I've used this oil in every bike I've owned for the last 10 years.

i might try bleeding the system, but on a 30+ year old bike...maybe it's just time to replace old parts.

[Flyinfool]

I seem to remember something about Barnett having 2 different springs for your bike, you want the heavier ones not the standard ones.

[Marcarl]

If there was air in the line, you would have a problem shifting, not likely a slippage issue.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'dino'. I took a look at the shell website and noticed that there is a whole bunch of Rotella products. I'm wondering if one oil is different than another in this for our application.

[gaj1917]

Clutch slippage is not uncommon in these older Ventures. I purchased my 84 when it had 24,000 km (15,000 mi) showing, and it would slip on takeoff in 1st, especially when two up. 20w50 Castrol oil helped, but I put up with it for many years. Eventually, I replaced all clutch discs and springs with a Barnett set. No more slippage.

[Condor]

Plugged expansion hole or overfull reserve....

[Air Ready Auto]

If there was air in the line, you would have a problem shifting, not likely a slippage issue.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'dino'. I took a look at the shell website and noticed that there is a whole bunch of Rotella products. I'm wondering if one oil is different than another in this for our application.

 

 

Dino refers to oil that is all dead dinosaur and no part synthetic. At least that's what I've always thought.

[camos]

Dino refers to oil that is all dead dinosaur and no part synthetic. At least that's what I've always thought.

Close enough, it does work as a general descriptor. Dinosaurs don't make up much if any of the underground petroleum reserves colloquially known as fossil fuels but they are fossils and since crude oil is made from the fossils of sea creatures it kind of fits. Who'da thunk Shell Oil actually meant something. Coal is a fossil fuel as well but it is made from vegetation and is considered to be younger than crude oil.

 

Rotella is Shell's diesel oil line. Rotella-T was the "dino" version without modifiers while the others were designated Rotella-T? something. It appears the dino version has been renamed as Rotella-T4 to fit in with the rest of the products.

 

Ain't history informative?

[Air Ready Auto]

Close enough, it does work as a general descriptor. Dinosaurs don't make up much if any of the underground petroleum reserves colloquially known as fossil fuels but they are fossils and since crude oil is made from the fossils of sea creatures it kind of fits. Who'da thunk Shell Oil actually meant something. Coal is a fossil fuel as well but it is made from vegetation and is considered to be younger than crude oil.

 

Rotella is Shell's diesel oil line. Rotella-T was the "dino" version without modifiers while the others were designated Rotella-T? something. It appears the dino version has been renamed as Rotella-T4 to fit in with the rest of the products.

 

Ain't history informative?

 

 

Despite the correction, I'm still going to giggle silently in my head and imagine pouring a little bit of mighty t-rex in my engine every oil change.