K75 Clutch

[Acejones]

The clutch shudders on takeoff especially when cold. The bike has about 19000 miles. What do I need to check or do ? (and how)

Thanks,

Dennis

[98lee]

The clutch shudders on takeoff especially when cold. The bike has about 19000 miles. What do I need to check or do ? (and how)

Thanks,

Dennis

First, check for adequate freeplay in the cable adjustment. Should be about 1/8" at the "V" of the clutch lever. That means 1/8" before any resistance is felt in the lever. If it's too tight, the clutch will slip and chatter.

Here is the correct way to adjust a K75:

http://ibmwr.org/ktech/sidestand-clutch-adjust.shtml


:dance :dance :dance

[tvguy]

If the "chatter" is still present after adjusting the clutch I have one of those "I hope I'm wrong" suggestions, because the fix is labor intensive.

Check the "weep" hole under the bell housing/clutch cover for an oil drip. Low mileage K's commonly seem to develop rear main seal leaks (front transmission seal leaks too) maybe they get dry and crack from non-use? I'll let the experts chime in on this.

Has anyone in the collective tried to "fix" these leaks with a "Mystery oil" additive solution??:scratch

[58058D]

As a veteran of one to 4 seal jobs on each bike, nothing I tried worked except to replace the seals, if there is leakage. Though, I never had chatter, the clutch begins to slip steadily. Is it possible the plate got warped due to non-use or overheated from slippng the clutch or something else?

[tvguy]

Gee thanks Jim,

Call it blind hope or bone idleness one always dreams of snake oil repairs:rolleyes

The good news (in my experience after doing two of these) is that the new seals last a good while. 70K miles or more, (I sold my RS) and am still working on the current RT. There seems to be something about riding them often, or maybe I ‘m lucky?

On my RS the clutch chattering started after the oiling, I’ll refer you to the bone idleness remark above and add procrastinator. I could live with the slipping (grab a lot of throttle in 5th gear) but eventually it started chattering too, heat was the villain.

[Acejones]

Thanks guys for the responses. There's no leaks, drips, or runs. I think I just need to try adjusting the clutch.

[lostboy]

If shuddering persists after adjusting the clutch and checking the cable, lube the driveshaft splines. A dry or worn rear spline sometimes causes this.

[58058D]

Glad to read there was no apparent oil leaking. That is good news. I think TVguy must be right about the new seals, the last I had installed when I did all the work is about about to break a record for me. Alas, none of the snake oil I tasted worked for me.

[deilenberger]

IMHO - The usual clutch area leak on K bikes is from the O ring behind the big nut and washer that hold the clutch basket (aka housing) on the output shaft from the engine. It dries up and shrinks.

What usually happens is the O-ring leak causes someone to go in there - but they've already bought the rear main seal, and since it's really "right there" - might as well install it. In about 4-5 of them that I fixed, I never saw any definative evidence that the rear main seal was actually the source of the leak.. it was always appeared to be the O ring. But since I was "right there" - they also got a new rear-main.