Don't neglect your clutch arm pivot bearing...

[Justin B.]

When greasing the splines on the wife's '84 R65 I found a problem with the clutch arm.  When I first pulled it off the pivot point a quick glance revealed what appeared to be a solid bushing pressed in, I didn't give it much thought and tossed it into the "to be cleaned" pile.  While I was cleaning it up I started looking at it closer and decided the inner part should probably rotate so I took a punch to it and after a few taps it started to move.  After getting it pushed out I found a needle bearing assembly pressed into the clutch arm!  The grease was absolutely rock hard and actually had glued the two pieces together.  After much scrubbing and greasing the roller bearing and dressing up the little inner sleeve/bushing with some emery paper all now rotates smoothly.  Barbara had mentioned it had been starting to shift funny/not as easy.  I suppose this, along with pretty dry splines, could have been causing some clutching issues.

I also took this opportunity to remove the smog plumbing.  Every one of these I have have removed had the fitting into the heads just barely finger tight!  So, if you've been scared of this thinking that maybe these things would be frozen into the head, don't worry about it!

[trolle]

When you are at it check the rubber cup protecting the clutch piston and rod. If it has any faults change it.

greetings from a warm and sunny north

trolle

[airhead]

A friend bought his 100 to me a few weeks ago 'cos he was fed up with a hard clutch action, and was at the end of his cable adjustment. As the clutch wasn't too old, he bought a cable along for me to help him change it. I thought it was reasonable as that seemed the most likely problem, so we changed the cable. Only problem was, the action was still stiff, and there was still no adjustment!!
A bit more probing and I found the pivot bearing seized, exactly the same as yours, with old stiff grease as well. A bit of cleaning freed it, but comparing his arm to a spare of mine showed the arm was ever so slightly bent and small stress fractures were appearing (not long till it would have broken) the reason for the lost adjustment.
Only problem was, later I decided to check the bearings on the arm of the 65, and found just the opposite, the bearing was worn and sloppy (though I do oil it every now and then). So it ended up costing me $15 for new bearings.............as I had given my him the spare arm for his bike!!! Ah well!!

Bill.......................;-)

[Ed Miller]

Poor Bill.  No good deed goes unpunished.