Clutch slipping out?

[steve053136]

My 2000 750 has been having a problem at the higher rpms. When i am on it full throttle it seems to slip out at 9k rpms. the rpm jump from 9 to 12 really fast and i don't gain any speed. Once i back off the throttle a bit it the rpm will fall back to 10 and will accelerate normal up to redline. does this sound like the clutch?

[katana96]

How many miles are on the clutch this sounds the same as what my friend's bike did when it's clutch was on the way out. His went at around 29k

[steve053136]

it have 22k

[benzo007]

Could it be the rev limiter kickin in?

[The CyberPoet]

More likely used an motor oil with a friction modifier. If it was slipping at lower RPM on wide-open throttle (when torque is highest), I'd say burned/worn clutch plates, but the fact that it's slipping at high RPMs tells me that it's probably a coating issue.

What oil did you use last time?

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[steve053136]

I use Castrol Actevo 10w-40. I bought a bunch of this in order to get free shipping. on the bottle it says "with Synthetic Active Protection Molecules"

[The CyberPoet]

I use Castrol Actevo 10w-40. I bought a bunch of this in order to get free shipping. on the bottle it says "with Synthetic Active Protection Molecules"

They took the product semi-synthetic a while back to improve it, and did so without bumping the price up significantly. Good choice, IMHO.

But that also means it's most likely a bad cable adjustment or sticking under the front sprocket cover area, with the full tension of the clutch springs never being reached.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[hardlydangerous]

Yeah that's the clutch slipping alright

Try adjusting the clutch push rod free play first and make sur ethe cable free play is also correct.

[The CyberPoet]

Uh, in my mind, two threads crossed (oil thread & this thread). HardlyDangerous is right (and I amended my previous post).

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[BelvedereAndTonic]

Hey all, just thought I'd share my experience with this problem and get your opinions. I have an '01 750 with 8500 miles, and I had recently started having the same problem - high rpm clutch slippage. I took my bike in to my local shop which does my maintenance, and they didn't buy the oil theory, as they claim they haven't run into that problem with any other customer bikes, and they only use one type of oil (not sure what, although I see 50-gal. drums of Motul in their shop area). Anyway, I was inclined to agree being that they've changed my oil four times without any problems before this. They put my bike on their dyno to see if they could duplicate the problem, which they did, and they tried tweaking the clutch cable adjustments, but it didn't help. After disassembling & inspecting my clutch, they saw signs of premature wear. They say this is most likely a result of me and the previous owner riding the clutch too much (guilty), and probably exacerbated by my 300lb. frame (save the fat jokes....) Anyhow, they ended up resurfacing my clutch plates and installing heavy-duty clutch springs. This seems to have completely solved the problem, although the clutch lever pull is significantly heavier than before. I'm just wondering if the $140 I spent sounds like a hose-job, and if this is only going to be a short-term fix? I'm watching my pennies, and would like to believe I can make my clutch last till about 15k miles now that I've broken my nasty clutch-riding habits. Or am I being too optimistic?

[The CyberPoet]

Well, if they replaced the friction plates, you definitely didn't get hosed. Sounds like they put at least two hours of labor into it, which is what $140 buys you these days if you're lucky.

An OEM clutch for me typically lasts about 30k - 50k miles, with a mix of city & highway use, and Suzuki says they expect the clutch lifetime to be a minimum of 20k miles in regular city riding if you use the clutch correctly.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[BelvedereAndTonic]

Actually, they didn't "replace" the friction plates, they said they "resurfaced" them... I agree that the time they spent justifies their labor cost, but I'm also wondering if the resurfacing and the new springs are a band-aid fix that will just make the problem pop up again in a few thousand miles? Thanks for your input, CP.

Well, if they replaced the friction plates, you definitely didn't get hosed. Sounds like they put at least two hours of labor into it, which is what $140 buys you these days if you're lucky.

An OEM clutch for me typically lasts about 30k - 50k miles, with a mix of city & highway use, and Suzuki says they expect the clutch lifetime to be a minimum of 20k miles in regular city riding if you use the clutch correctly.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[hardlydangerous]

re-surfacing the clutch plates means they scuffed the friction plates to remove most of the glazed surface with steel wool and the metal plates with sand paper so the plates will grab better.
It is a cheap *** temporary fix but could last a while with the new HD springs. Even if the clutch is still slipping it won't be as noticable with the heavier springs. That's there way of covering their own *** for a few weeks/months.
Without the heavy springs it would last maybe a couple days. once a clutch is burnt from slipping it's shot. resurfacing is just an old racers trick to get you one last race out of the clutch before it's replaced.

[The CyberPoet]

+1 on HardlyDangerous' comments.

You might get through indefinitely if your shifting habits dramatically changed, or you might get the problem again in short order. If there were any friction modifiers in the oil that was in the bike can also play into it; if that oil is since long gone, but there was surface adhesion of the friction modifiers (from modern car oils), they may have been able to sand away the modifiers...

Personally: If you're going to bother taking the time to disassemble a clutch stack, replace the parts -- it's the labor that's the bigger of the two costs.

Good Luck!
=-= The CyberPoet