Six Spring Slipping

[Butch (cb)]

With very nearly 1500 miles under our belts now I'm beginning to give the old girl a harder time out there. Just beginning to notice some slight clutch slip when tramping on. Which is a shame as that clutch has been working pretty much OK and is not too hard at the lever. I'd be keen not to wind down on the springs any more than is necessary. Any thoughts on how much turn I might be able to get away with on each of the nuts?

[t20racerman]

My 4 spring started slipping badly this weekend for no reason I could see and as I was hoping to go out for a long ride I took the plates out and gave the surfaces a rub down with 400 grade Emery as they looked a bit glazed. As I hadn't got the time to check if this was enough I wound the adjusters right down so about a cm of thread was showing through. This solved it, but did make the clutch a bit on the heavy side. I will back these backoff to a position of about 4mm showing through - as it was before.
Feel free to tighten them up a fair bit more if necessary - it won't hurt if you do. Are your plates good ones though? There are a few comments on this forum about useless clutch plates....

[Goldy]

I have just taken up on mine a little. It,s a compromise between having the nuts too tight so that the clutch is difficult to operate and having it slip. Tighten the nuts half turn at a time whilst operating the clutch lever to feel that it,s not too heavy to operate and of course check that it,s still releasing square.

[RichardL]

Butch,

I'm wondering what lubricant you're running in the primary.  I,  and several others here,  run ATF instead of the originally specified oil.  I think of ATF as less slippery and, by definition,  more about how it stops slipping than how it keeps slipping.

Richard L.

[Butch (cb)]

Thanks for responses folks. I do have a lever with less pull, which gives more mechanical advantage but found this did not quite give me the full range of travel for correct clutch operation at each end of the travel. The plates were new 1500 miles ago but I'm unsure of their provenance, I can't remember whether I picked them up in the day (late '70s) or more recently. I'm due a service within a hundred miles now so I'll swap out the primary oil for the ATF and see how it goes.

[a10 gf]

Goldy wrote

check that it,s still releasing square

Patience in doing the fine-adjustment cured any slip tendencies here, and still keeping a light clutch lever.