BDL clutch basket wearing?

[Guest]

This is my first post in the forum and I searched for a good while trying to find any similar issues people may have had, but found nothing. So here it goes...

I have a 60 Pan that I converted to a 1.5'' BDL open primary. I was having some clutch plate dust and aluminum shavings coming out of the clutch basket on my open primary. (more than is normal) So I pulled the clutch plates and found that the inner most fiber clutch plate had worn the shit out of the inside of the clutch basket on the face where the fiber plate was contacting. It caused little aluminum shavings which hung up and caused more and so on and so on until it wore a bunch of groves in the clutch basket. I've only got 4500 miles on it since I installed it and I am running standard 3 steel and 4 fiber plates that were in the stock clutch basket. Anyone have any similar problems? How did you fix it? Should I run a BDL Kevlar clutch to prevent this?

Thanks for the help.

If anyone wants pictures for reference I can put some up.

[Hubbish]

Not really a problem. The more you remove material, the deeper the basket, etc. There are high-spots that look like they would gouge
a new plate, then take a flat file and knock them down. Let the new fiber take care of the other grooves where it will just make a cut into the fiber and you are done. So the more wear, the more the high-spots you didn't address will eventually wear out, smooth out. The think is to have more backing saved, less material removed, add a steel backed up to a steel if you want to take up wear at the clutch outer.

Some styles have the roller riveted to the steels. Note how the markings say 'out' and this says the cut side, the most flat side of the steel faces you on assembly. Find the same side with the frictions, so all cut sides face the pressure plate or face you on assembly. Plates have memory. Press fingers together as if you pray you understand this. Now lay your hand over the top of your hand and note how memory flows together, flip a plate and finger fights fingers as if palm to palm. That's your generic clutch assembly as to how to stack all plates.

[Guest]

Dude thanks for the help but I honestly don't understand one bit of that last paragraph.

[Tattooo]

Dude thanks for the help but I honestly don't understand one bit of that last paragraph.

LOL I'm with you... It sounds like something Roach on JJ would say.... LOL

[boomboomthump]

LOL.

I'm not sure if the BDL clutch would be any different since the disc orientation is still the same. I'm running a Primo Pro Clutch in mine and it works so much better than the stock style clutch. Smoother, easier pull at lever, virtually zero chatter.

On top of those benefits, the one that is relevant here is that with the Primo clutch you don't have anything creating wear by spinning against the inside of the clutch basket. Nothing actually touches the basket. The hub is offset slightly and the first disc is a thick steel. The fiber discs sandwich against that which is locked to the hub. Nothing touches the back of the basket. It's really a great design. Just throwing it out there since you were potentially looking at a new clutch. If you shop around you can get one for $415. Worth every cent.

[Guest]

LOL.



I'm not sure if the BDL clutch would be any different since the disc orientation is still the same. I'm running a Primo Pro Clutch in mine and it works so much better than the stock style clutch. Smoother, easier pull at lever, virtually zero chatter.

On top of those benefits, the one that is relevant here is that with the Primo clutch you don't have anything creating wear by spinning against the inside of the clutch basket. Nothing actually touches the basket. The hub is offset slightly and the first disc is a thick steel. The fiber discs sandwich against that which is locked to the hub. Nothing touches the back of the basket. It's really a great design. Just throwing it out there since you were potentially looking at a new clutch. If you shop around you can get one for $415. Worth every cent.

Thanks man. That's the kinda info I was hoping to get. I really appreciate it.

[Guest]

I cleaned up the worn part of the clutch basket and installed a BDL Kevlar clutch. I soaked the plates in ATF for ten minutes before installing, seemed to work well aside from slinging fucking ATF everywhere on the first ride.

So I believe what was causing the wearing issue was that the clutch I was using had the old sintered friction discs and I think the metal in the sintered discs was causing the grooves and bad wearing on the clutch basket. Not to mention it was old as well and slipping a bit at high RPMs. I think those two things combined were gouging the aluminum basket and causing the aluminum dust and bad friction plate wear. Ill run the new clutch for a while and pull it off to check things out.

Also the BDL Kevlar clutch is a little more noisy cause it doesn't have the spring loaded anti rattle ball things on the steel plates like stock steel plates. BUT it does seem to hook up and slip when needed. A great improvement over the old bitch of a clutch I was running.

Don't know if anyone gives a shit but maybe it will help someone else in the future.

[Davestune]

why did u soak the plates?
I run mine dry Kevlar plates also 7 yrs old no problems

[Guest]

why did u soak the plates?
I run mine dry Kevlar plates also 7 yrs old no problems

I soaked them because the instructions for installation from BDL said to also soak the plates if you are running them dry and BDL knows a lot more about clutches than I do. So I followed the instructions.