Report on Another Successful Clutch Spring Upgrade

[V7Goose]

At the risk of boring redundancy with other threads, I thought I'd post my experience with the PCW clutch spring upgrade in my 05 QuickSilver.

 

The bike has about 40,000 miles on it, and I thought I had been noticing just a bit of clutch slippage on hard acceleration and quick gear shifts. The problem was absolutely confirmed while we were riding back up from Corpus Christi last week and I did a 5th gear roll-on around 80 to pass - wasn't really getting anywhere like I expected, but a quick glance down at the tach showed the engine did pick up speed pretty quick! Ooops, had to take the passing pretty easy for the rest of the ride home.

 

I called PCW to order the spring "kit", and they tried gently to talk me into ordering all new clutch plates too. I demurred and said "just the spring." I did ask them for info about why they wanted to replace the inside special half disk and wave washer with a full disk - why did they think that was better than the original design? The explanation kind of made sense that Yamaha had been extra careful for the wussy American market to design a clutch that was easy to pull and would always engage without any snatch or jerk. Since I don't consider myself a wuss, I decided to go ahead and replace it with the full size plate like they suggest.

 

The kit consists of just the new thicker PCW spring, one stock Yamaha friction plate, and one stock Yamaha gasket. Just like others have reported, the instructions were easy to follow and the job was done quickly and without incident. I did take the opportunity to measure the thickness of my existing clutch plates to check for wear, and found that they were well withing stock tolerance (actually just a bit thicker than the new plate that came with the kit). This matched my expectations, since there is no way a wet clutch should be worn out in 40,000 miles! It is tempting to blame the slipping on the oil I was using, but since it was old-stock Mobile1 red-top, changed only 1,000 miles ago, that doesn't really make sense either. I guess it was just the wussy stock clutch spring.

 

Anyway, I am very happy with the new spring - just a bit more tension noticeable in the hand, but not enough to bother anyone, I think. It does engage a tad bit further out, but that was a very minor change. I have not noticed any jerkiness or change in the smoothness of the engagement from going to the new full sized plate in the inside of the stack. For anyone who does a lot of riding, I would strongly recommend this spring kit now, even before you notice any clutch slipping. It is quite reasonably priced, easy to do, and will probably prevent your ever having any clutch problems for the life of your bike.

Goose

[Monsta]

..but I can just do the spring, right?

 

With the same mileage on my bike, I get slipping in high load passing situations as well. I hate to drop any more money than is necessary. Will I save enough NOT buying the friction plate to make just buying the spring worthwhile? Or is it one of those situations where "since I'm in there anyway and it's only a few bucks more..."

[Squeeze]

one full Size Friction Plate goes around ten Dollars ...

 

now do the Math

[flb_78]

one full Size Friction Plate goes around ten Dollars ...

 

now do the Math

 

+1:detective:

[BOO]

I just did my clutch and I bought the kit.

Ended up taking the full disc out and just using the spring.

I think the half disc just makes you take off a little softer, not so grabby.

I doubt you would save much money just buying the spring as you should buy the gasket also. Most places sell the disc for 7 or 8 bucks.

Won't hurt to rough up the other disc's while your in there.

Like Goose my disc were well within tolerance and I have 61,000 on my bike.

Jerry

[V7Goose]

I personally don't see any reason why you could not just buy the spring and gasket, remove the spring bolts and replace the Yamahaha spring with the stronger PCW spring without ever disturbing the clutch stack. It might save you $10 bucks and work just as well, but I can't say for sure since I chose to replace the inside disk too. Your results MAY be just as good by only doing the spring, but you WILL need a new gasket too. I am happy with my results.

Goose

[Monsta]

Only $10! Heck, I wasted $10 today just driving my truck around.

 

Where do I go to get this?

[V7Goose]

Give PCW a call (they don't have on-line ordering). 518-346-7203 http://www.pcwracing.net/

 

Just tell 'em you want a clutch spring upgrade for a Royal Star Venture. Should cost around $82 for the kit (but if you can convince them to slip it into a flat rate priority mail envelope instead of a box, you could save another $5).

Goose

[Monsta]

Thanks Goose

[Rick Butler]

Kent,

 

Just curious if you noticed any blueing of any of the metal plates? The last Venture I did a clutch job on (with a PWC kit) had at least 3 of the 6 metal plates that were scorched. I will admit that the rider weighed in excess of 300 lbs, where he claimed that he was always riding double? However the plates were not warped.

 

So, I have started bead blasting the metal plates just to get a good textured surface on them. This also seems to help keep the fiber plates from slipping prematurely.

 

Rick

[V7Goose]

Nope - no hint of bluing or overheating on any of the steel plates; they all looked prefect, with just a hint of polishing on the odd spot here and there.

Goose

[kkent66]

Upgraded with parts from PCW - honestly this was very easy to do with the pictures/instructions on this forum. Can't believe how much better the bike is running!!

[FuzzyRSTD]

Nope - no hint of bluing or overheating on any of the steel plates; they all looked prefect, with just a hint of polishing on the odd spot here and there.

Goose

 

Nice to hear from you today Goose. I have been back on the site some just kinda messing around. Had surgery on my left shoulder. Anyways I saw where you had started this thread yesterday, and wanted to speak a howdy to you my friend. Hope you getting along fine sir, take care of yourself and be safe out there.I will miss seeing you at Freebirds this yr.

 

This is a fine thread that I need to save for future referance when I upgrade my clutch at or around 25-30 thousand miles. Only 15 thousand for now. I did the complete Buckeye Preformance Flanders upgrade on my bike with help from brother just before surgery. Be glad to get my two new tires on sometime and ride it.

 

TAKE CARE GOOSE,AGAIN,NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU MY FRIEND.

 

One armed Fuzzy :thumbsup2:

[WillB]

Give PCW a call (they don't have on-line ordering). 518-346-7203 http://www.pcwracing.net/

 

Just tell 'em you want a clutch spring upgrade for a Royal Star Venture. Should cost around $82 for the kit (but if you can convince them to slip it into a flat rate priority mail envelope instead of a box, you could save another $5).

Goose

 

Is this the same information I will need to do my 1300cc? I never having done one before will be learning from the get go.

[Prairiehammer]

Is this the same information I will need to do my 1300cc? I never having done one before will be learning from the get go.

 

The clutch spring for the 1986-1993 First Gen and the Second Gen are identical (same part number).

But you can get an EBC spring on eBay for half that price.