Clutch won’t work - anyone assembled a clutch?

[Xsr900 0]

EDIT: I’ve managed to put the clutch back together with the spring screws close to spec at nearly 80 inches of torque using a beam style torque wrench. However, now the clutch doesn’t seem to engage/disengage and I can’t get in or out of gear.
I’ve aligned the arm lever attached to the clutch case with the dot and the arrow as mentioned in the service manual, I’m able to push the lever by hand to ‘engage/disengage’ the clutch but it doesn’t seem to do anything. I’ll be honest the clutch seems ‘soft’ as in I can pull the clutch cable with very little resistance.
Not sure if the teeth on the rod isn’t engaging properly with the pressure plate or it’s something else I’m not familiar with. 
Has anyone had any experience with assembling and disassembling the clutch that has suggestions?

Im swapping my clutch plates and ran into an issue tightening the spring screws to spec (7.2 pounds per) the screw heads break off before even reaching the spec torque. This has happened repeatedly and I’m at a loss for what I’m doing wrong. I’ve even gone to lower torque of around 4 pounds and it still breaks off before hitting the designated torque….full disclosure I am on a 2018 xsr900 but just looking for advice as there’s a lot of knowledgeable people on this forum!

Edited January 24 by Xsr900
Updated - clutch/spring screws have been put back together. But now clutch won’t work.

[klx678 376]

My quick thoughts on this, there may be better from others here...

If you are using a regular ft-lb torque wrench that low a reading may not be accurate with that tool.  They are usually not accurate in the bottom and top range, I forget exact levels, but I'd say anything less than 15 ft-lb. 

Get an inch-lb wrench and do it at 86 inch-lb.  I'd also say do it in two steps, going 40 inch-lb then 86 in-lb.  I use an inch-lb torque wrench on any 12mm and smaller fastener.   I'm still old school using a beam style with the pointer and plate, but it's accurate and I just don't find it worth buying a clicker or dial tool.  If you have access to one it will do the job as well as a clicker or dial tool. 

[Xsr900 0]

I will give that a shot. The odd thing is Ive seen others on YouTube use the same torque wrench on the spring screw with no issue…I guess it could be I got a wrench from a bad batch…I wish there was an alternative way to find out if you’re screwing down the springs enough. I know someone mentioned if there’s space between the bike specific friction plate and the pressure plate than it needs to be tightened more. Wondering if maybe they just need to be touching for it be roughly at spec….but I’m just guessing here….I’ve just destroyed 3 bolts already so I have some ptsd from overtightening…

[klx678 376]

@Xsr900

One more thing I forgot about, that may be your problem.  If the bolts have oil on them it is recommended to reduce torque by 40% in Engineering Toolbox.  So instead of 86 inch-lb they would say go to 50 inch-lb.    But read on...

Otherwise clean the threads of the basket and the bolts with some contact cleaner and torque them. 

But I'd also put a dot of blue 242 LocTite on the threads, it's hand tool removal thread lock.  LocTite recommends reducing the torque value by 20%, making it about 68 inch-lb.  This was covered in an article by Kevin Cameron in Cycle World on the subject, click here.

Edited January 23 by klx678

[Xsr900 0]

Wow. Didn’t even occur to me this could be the culprit…

Some amount of oil may have gotten on the bolts, I didn’t keep track of them while I worked on the bike…trace amounts may have gotten on them while I left them on the inside of the clutch cover…I may have put them into a bag that had oily parts at some point too…and since I screwed them in, the oil might of transferred over through the clutch boss thread to the new screws I ordered that also broke off…

I will grab some loctite as well and report back!

 

[Xsr900 0]

Alright got the screws in at roughly 60 inches per but now the clutch isn’t disengaging when I pull it in clutch lever/arm…I have the clutch arm with the dot aligned to arrow…not sure what else it could be.

[klx678 376]

I know this sounds really stupid, but...  any extra parts laying about?   Correct number of each style plate in there?   Do not take it as any insult to mechanical skills.  Just remembering back to when I had a seizure problem with my TM125 way back when.   Found out a plastic drive "key" fell on the floor at home, so the oil pump wasn't pumping.  Just enough oil seeped through to not ruin bottom end.  Found it on the floor, put it in, had the cylinder honed and new rings.  

[ElGonzales 211]

Someone from here has made a video about fitting the clutch cover and what to look out for when doing so. I saved it for later.
Maybe you see something important:
 

 

[klx678 376]

Absolutely great video.  Simple and to the point.   I could not describe what was shown in that video, but it was pretty much the same as my old TM125 was back in 1974.    Kind of "threading" the gear onto the rack.   

We shall see if it covers his problem.  I'm betting it does.

[shinyribs 1,663]

For starters, don't stress over the torque rating on the clutch springs. That will have zero effect on the clutch working. Those bolts just hold the springs in place. You could seat them finger loose and the clutch would perform perfectly. You just need to snug them up so they don't fall out. 

 

Second, unpopular opinion, park the torque wrench and the manual from Yamaha. Yamaha gives insane torque specs and you'd shouldn't have that much faith in a torque wrench. Please, I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but don't pull on a torque wrench and wait for the click when you know you're already pulling too hard. I bet you know in your gut that you shouldn't be pulling in the wrench any harder, especially the second time it happened, but you were trusting the wrench over your gut.  Ninety percent of thread repair jobs I have to fix area guys blindly trusting their torque wrench. I hate them with a passion. I get flamed for this, but I don't break bolts or have them back out. 

You probably didn't get the teeth of the pressure plate properly engaged with the teeth of the basket. It's super easy to do. Since you say the clutch won't engage OR disengage this would be my guess as the clutch gets kicked in an inoperable position when this happens. It's also very easy to snap a pressure plate in this scenario as it's not seated properly, so take it easy on the torque. 

These little 6mm bolts only need to be snug. Run em down to they stop then a 1/8 - 1/4 turn max. 

[Pursuvant 427]

On 1/22/2023 at 11:54 PM, Xsr900 said:

...
I’ve aligned the arm lever attached to the clutch case with the dot and the arrow as mentioned in the service manual, I’m able to push the lever by hand to ‘engage/disengage’ the clutch but it doesn’t seem to do anything. I’ll be honest the clutch seems ‘soft’ as in I can pull the clutch cable with very little resistance.
 

There's some good posts, tips & explains about clutch reassembly, please search site, because there are things that are important to reassembly that are probably not on your radar. You still got opportunity to get everything good, especially things you're not aware of. Like the plates have an inside & outside, they need to face correctly. You can't tell that, unless you already know to look for it.

Search site and find the tips, great folks are already helping you get it right.

[Pursuvant 427]

Here's the tips on clutch

 

 

[Evill_Ed 713]

Okay, so my method is to remove the clutch pull arm by removing the snap ring. I slide the outer case cover back on letting the rack index itself. Once the cover is secured, I reintall the pull arm, aligning the dots and reinstall the snap ring. 

 I have not had any issues doing it this way. 

Ed

[Pursuvant 427]

3 hours ago, Evill_Ed said:

Okay, so my method is to remove the clutch pull arm by removing the snap ring. I slide the outer case cover back on letting the rack index itself.....

Ed

That's your way because you are brighter than I could ever hope to be. So obvious,  Just fantastic, I have got to do it this way next time just so I can get that satisfaction from learning.

Thank you sir, and I'm always available to be shown a better way, so keep it up plz.

[klx678 376]

I never messed with it, but wondered if that was a possibility... clearly it was.