The first port of call for VFR clutch problems is the push rod, they get an indentation on the seal and hold the clutch open for a fraction of a second making the bike lurch. Periodically take off the slave cylinder (cable tie the piston to stop it falling out) check the rod for burss, remove with fine emery, clean and grease the push rod.
I have to say that sometimes, it's not actual job that is difficult , but the tools you need and have to make due with substitutes, that are the problem. I remember how my axle tube on the front wheel of the ZX-6R looked after replacing the wheel bearings without my bearing puller set to help. I'm not bad at using drifts but honestly, the whole neighbourhood learned some new swear words in different languages that day. If I had oodles of money to spend on tools, I would get things like that specialist clutch basket holder, a puller to get off the bearing from the bottom of steering stems, brake piston pullers, a properly built cast and die set for all sizes, etc etc. One Snap-On tool chest would not be enough. Anyway, I'm glad you had a slightly easier time with this job than with the shock. :) When I replaced the alternator cover gasket on my better half's Honda, I spent most of my time scraping the old gasket off. I didn't think of a window scraper, I have a surgical knife and lots of blades for it. I think the scraper might have been quicker. At least that's one tool that won't break the bank.
If you haven’t got a clutch holding tool, I haven’t, you can use a 2p coin between the teeth of the gears to lock them. It won’t damage anything as the coin is way softer than the teeth. Not sure on an 800 but certainly on a 750 you can remove the clutch cover with the bike on the side stand and only lose a teaspoon,if any, of oil. As someone else has said check the clutch pushrod and slave cylinder piston are clean and free to move. Really enjoy your videos.
I have replaced countless clutches on cars and vans over the years and they can be quite stressful to do sometimes even on a lift. But have never replaced a bike clutch. Makes me want to do one now but as both my bikes are quite new may take a while!
@@bennettsbikesocial Ha would have to be BMW wouldn't it. By the way we chatted at the NEC last year I mentioned "Aramid" when looking at your ripped jeans display. All the best M
it looks like ill be doing this to mine in the spring, twice now its almost drove out from under me from the clutch just slamming engaged. glad to know its easy to fix as ive never done a clutch on a bike before.
A few rookie errors in this vlog ... I appreciate you're not a professional mechanic like myself & applaud you for giving it a go, but you really need to check up on the key facts of a wet clutch strip & install ... pushrod needs inspecting for corrosion & any burrs at the slave end need to be sanded glass smooth & rubber grease where it slides thru the oil seal at the slave end ... Gasket surface where crankcase halves join need a smear of Honda bond or similar to ensure no oil leaks, also a good smear around ignition pulse coil wire rubber block to seal it into clutch cover & where it contacts the gasket ... good choice to file the basket wear away 👍 this would also have been an ideal opportunity to drill extra oil passages into inner clutch hub to aid better oil flow thru the plates, a well known mod for any wet clutch, steel plates always need checking for flatness & de-glazing with 400grit wet/dry paper to a dull finish, you're misinformed about new plates needing a soak in oil, they live in oil all their life, it's easy to burn out the new friction plates on 1st ride if not soaked ... a good well put together vlog otherwise, keep up the good work.
Thanks very much, and some really good advice here, thank you! I really don't want to produce 'how to' guides with these videos - when I do those they're typically written and with the help of specialists in those areas. These are meant to be more of a diary of life with an old bike, but I definitely don't want to lead anyone down a wrong or dangerous path. Cheers for the really useful tips, John
Had a a similar issue with my £500 auction, 64k miles VFR750FL (rattle can sprayed black but did have new tyres, stainless downpipes, head bearings. brake pads, luggage & new MOT). To be honest I had ridden the bike for nearly 2 years & it wasn't that much of an issue. I think it was down to a cracked steel clutch plate because the previous lady owner had never changed the oil (clutch plates were blue) & it was very low. Her husband then overfilled it with Racing Cart oil ! as it was all he had & I had to ride it home in Winter😫 the gear linkage came loose on the way. Beware when the advert says ready to go ! I did a full service when I got home BTW. Later I managed to get a NOS Honda clutch kit for £80 & dressed the clutch drum in situ with rags covering parts & lots of brake cleaner. I would not recommend this but I was in a rush. I changed the oil & filter & again a week later (in case I missed any bits😱). She's now up to 70k miles & still going strong. Had to do regulator/rec issue last year plus some electrical corrosion issues, wheel bearings, fork seals (I also put braided brake pipes for peace of mind & a Micron tailpipe). Not bad for a 33yr old bike that had been used & abused before I got it 5yrs ago (still has original battery and chain I bought it with). Also have a nice low mileage 750 (which I admit is a bit quicker) but my 'past its prime' 750 (named steady Eddie) is my go to weapon of choice. It was going to be used as a parts bike & I keep expecting it to die but every thing still works (though rear shock is a bit bouncy with a pillion) think it may outlast me. Oh yeah & it sounds amazing, especially in a tunnel.
You can make a clutch holding tool from the old plates you are taking off if you have a welder (all supposing your replacing both friction and plain plates)
I did this and now my bike cuts out when I put it in first gear , I think the plates are binding , I did make sure to not touch the clutch lever during the install , any suggestions?
I done my clutch years ago was fine did both seals master slave .then left for year plates stuck .whould not disengage .had take it apart steels rusted .but issue knocking clutch it works fine but knocking piss me off .goes whem clutch is in .i approved it but still not complete gone .help please i have two anti judder ring i had it wrong way around fixed that.i cant work out .what i did wrong .first time have two vfr 750 s rc 36 californa one and reg one did both years ago and ran perefect know i have this and followed same methods very frustrating
Hello sir Mechanic just changed the clutch on my vfr800x. Now when engine is warm going to natural is almost impossible and when i first gear even clutch is pulled fully bike is trying to move forward slowly. Can you please tell if he did something wrong to my bike
Sorry to hear that. It sounds like the clutch is dragging. It'd be worth checking that the clutch is fully disengaging and that the master and slave cylinder are operating correctly. I'd take it back to the mechanic.
@bennettsbikesocial thank you sir for replying. Basically, he changed all parts of the clutch except I think he said casing or housing 🙄🙄 where all clutch systems go in I think. But tomorrow I'm taking it to the Honda to see what they say. By the way, your videos and reviews are one of the best on RUclips
On first 5th gen VFR (I think 1998-2000) the clutch is not same, and inner plate is different than first one you pull out. Also on newer 5th gen with automatic choke and HISS, the clutch should be same as CBR 600 F4i.
You keep saying "it's only a £500 bike" but a good running bike which is reliable and fun for that price is worth spending a bit of money on ! Of course you won't get it back if you ever sold the bike but that's not why you spend money on old bikes, it's to keep them from being scrapped, they won't make bikes like that ever again !
Surprisingly easy? Maybe for an experienced mechanic with a workshop and all the required tools! As an ageing biker who has learned from bitter and costly experience, I would advise anyone new to biking to pay a trusted mechanic to do anything but A: lubricate the chain (you can still lose fingers doing that) or B: put air in the tyres (which is very fiddly). If you can afford it obviously. Bikes are not designed to be worked on. Trust me.
...this isn't an advertisement..." "...they don't sponsor us..." They just gave you stuff for free and on a completely unrelated note you featured them in a video and stuck their stickers everywhere. You lot should by lottery tickets, that's super lucky that those things happened at the same time by accident. I can't wait to get stuff for free from Wemoto as well since it's apparently unrelated to any kind of that "advertising" or "sponsorship" business, I guess they just send it out at random. Again though, super lucky that one of the people that got the free stuff is on a youtube channel and can tell people about Wemoto and make money off the content they can now produce thanks to that free stuff, all ethically acceptable since it was all just a coincidence and not a sponsorship or advertisement. Lucky!
You're confusing support with sponsorship. Though given that I'd explained in the video, I doubt it's worth wasting my time explaining again. Maybe have a look back at old videos. Have a look at the walls in the background. Stickers everywhere. Wemoto has supported articles I've done many years ago too, including in print. I did a series on rebuilding a ZX-6R and Wemoto supported a lot of that. I made sure it was clear they provided the parts for it, and the stickers were in a lot of the shots. It was a written article. For this bike I asked if they'd be willing to supply some parts for the project, but I've bought more for it than they've supplied.
When you file scallops on the basket down, your just increasing the gap between the basket and the drive plate (sintered) plate gap... this gives the Ducati dry clutch that wonderful clacking sound... the wider the gap, the louder the clacking. So all that does is just bang the crap out of the Drive plate tangs.. wears those out. I changed baskets a few times on my Ducati in 16k miles..baskets are around $250-300 but it doesn't have the primary gear horizontal lash springs ??? press fitted on the basket. But 100K VFR so what right...super cheapo drive plate kit..you'll be in there again soon, when the clutch starts slipping If your doing a clutch pack change on a motorcycle w/ far less miles, make sure that basket to drive plate tang gap is in OEM spec....and buy QUALITY DRIVE.SINTERED PLATES !!!
I was wondering about the increased gap myself. It would be great if John could report back about noise and general clutch operation down the road a bit.
Love these videos on old bikes it just goes to show how well made Japanese bikes are made and there really are bikes for all budgets.
The first port of call for VFR clutch problems is the push rod, they get an indentation on the seal and hold the clutch open for a fraction of a second making the bike lurch. Periodically take off the slave cylinder (cable tie the piston to stop it falling out) check the rod for burss, remove with fine emery, clean and grease the push rod.
Well said Dave, that's exactly what I keep telling em on VFR Owners forum, but they just don't get it, most owners are armchair mechanics.
I didn't know. Thank you.
Loving these as I am balls deep in my own 5th gen VFR800 restoration.
Great video John 👍 Nothing more satisfying than getting a basically sound old bike and making it a gem again.
I have to say that sometimes, it's not actual job that is difficult , but the tools you need and have to make due with substitutes, that are the problem. I remember how my axle tube on the front wheel of the ZX-6R looked after replacing the wheel bearings without my bearing puller set to help. I'm not bad at using drifts but honestly, the whole neighbourhood learned some new swear words in different languages that day. If I had oodles of money to spend on tools, I would get things like that specialist clutch basket holder, a puller to get off the bearing from the bottom of steering stems, brake piston pullers, a properly built cast and die set for all sizes, etc etc. One Snap-On tool chest would not be enough. Anyway, I'm glad you had a slightly easier time with this job than with the shock. :) When I replaced the alternator cover gasket on my better half's Honda, I spent most of my time scraping the old gasket off. I didn't think of a window scraper, I have a surgical knife and lots of blades for it. I think the scraper might have been quicker. At least that's one tool that won't break the bank.
Strangely, I find these really therapeutic. Cuppa and relax.
Good work.
Safe happy travels 👍
Good to hear, because most of this VFR hasn't been therapeutic for me! Cheers, John
Yeah me too but this year when cant fix noise clutch feel like tearing hair out
If you haven’t got a clutch holding tool, I haven’t, you can use a 2p coin between the teeth of the gears to lock them. It won’t damage anything as the coin is way softer than the teeth.
Not sure on an 800 but certainly on a 750 you can remove the clutch cover with the bike on the side stand and only lose a teaspoon,if any, of oil.
As someone else has said check the clutch pushrod and slave cylinder piston are clean and free to move.
Really enjoy your videos.
Thanks for this - nice one! Cheers, John
Wemoto- A true faithful friend 😎
I have replaced countless clutches on cars and vans over the years and they can be quite stressful to do sometimes even on a lift. But have never replaced a bike clutch. Makes me want to do one now but as both my bikes are quite new may take a while!
If you've done cars I reckon you'd have no bother! Unless it's an old GS, where you still have to split the engine and gearbox! Cheers, John
@@bennettsbikesocial Ha would have to be BMW wouldn't it. By the way we chatted at the NEC last year I mentioned "Aramid" when looking at your ripped jeans display. All the best M
Ah, excellent! See you next year?
it looks like ill be doing this to mine in the spring, twice now its almost drove out from under me from the clutch just slamming engaged. glad to know its easy to fix as ive never done a clutch on a bike before.
Cheers! Yeah, it's not too hard really. John
A few rookie errors in this vlog ... I appreciate you're not a professional mechanic like myself & applaud you for giving it a go, but you really need to check up on the key facts of a wet clutch strip & install ... pushrod needs inspecting for corrosion & any burrs at the slave end need to be sanded glass smooth & rubber grease where it slides thru the oil seal at the slave end ... Gasket surface where crankcase halves join need a smear of Honda bond or similar to ensure no oil leaks, also a good smear around ignition pulse coil wire rubber block to seal it into clutch cover & where it contacts the gasket ... good choice to file the basket wear away 👍 this would also have been an ideal opportunity to drill extra oil passages into inner clutch hub to aid better oil flow thru the plates, a well known mod for any wet clutch, steel plates always need checking for flatness & de-glazing with 400grit wet/dry paper to a dull finish, you're misinformed about new plates needing a soak in oil, they live in oil all their life, it's easy to burn out the new friction plates on 1st ride if not soaked ... a good well put together vlog otherwise, keep up the good work.
Thanks very much, and some really good advice here, thank you! I really don't want to produce 'how to' guides with these videos - when I do those they're typically written and with the help of specialists in those areas. These are meant to be more of a diary of life with an old bike, but I definitely don't want to lead anyone down a wrong or dangerous path. Cheers for the really useful tips, John
Where’s the next epsiode of “what bike next”? I love the new show really hope you guys keep it going!!
On its way...
@@bennettsbikesocial awesome it’s an awesome series y’all are doing!
@@bennettsbikesocial have you guys ever thought about doing a series similiar but someone buying there first bike?
All well and good doing your own servicing etc. if you know what you’re about.
Top Video! Keep them coming
Thanks very much! Cheers, John
Had a a similar issue with my £500 auction, 64k miles VFR750FL (rattle can sprayed black but did have new tyres, stainless downpipes, head bearings. brake pads, luggage & new MOT). To be honest I had ridden the bike for nearly 2 years & it wasn't that much of an issue. I think it was down to a cracked steel clutch plate because the previous lady owner had never changed the oil (clutch plates were blue) & it was very low. Her husband then overfilled it with Racing Cart oil ! as it was all he had & I had to ride it home in Winter😫 the gear linkage came loose on the way. Beware when the advert says ready to go ! I did a full service when I got home BTW. Later I managed to get a NOS Honda clutch kit for £80 & dressed the clutch drum in situ with rags covering parts & lots of brake cleaner. I would not recommend this but I was in a rush. I changed the oil & filter & again a week later (in case I missed any bits😱). She's now up to 70k miles & still going strong. Had to do regulator/rec issue last year plus some electrical corrosion issues, wheel bearings, fork seals (I also put braided brake pipes for peace of mind & a Micron tailpipe). Not bad for a 33yr old bike that had been used & abused before I got it 5yrs ago (still has original battery and chain I bought it with). Also have a nice low mileage 750 (which I admit is a bit quicker) but my 'past its prime' 750 (named steady Eddie) is my go to weapon of choice. It was going to be used as a parts bike & I keep expecting it to die but every thing still works (though rear shock is a bit bouncy with a pillion) think it may outlast me. Oh yeah & it sounds amazing, especially in a tunnel.
That's some good going! Nice one! Cheers, John
You can make a clutch holding tool from the old plates you are taking off if you have a welder (all supposing your replacing both friction and plain plates)
Good idea! I do have a MIG welder. At the time, I wasn't replacing the steel plates though. Cheers!
I did this and now my bike cuts out when I put it in first gear , I think the plates are binding , I did make sure to not touch the clutch lever during the install , any suggestions?
Great Video
Thanks very much! Cheers, John
was your clutch sorted out before john did his track day
I done my clutch years ago was fine did both seals master slave .then left for year plates stuck .whould not disengage .had take it apart steels rusted .but issue knocking clutch it works fine but knocking piss me off .goes whem clutch is in .i approved it but still not complete gone .help please i have two anti judder ring i had it wrong way around fixed that.i cant work out .what i did wrong .first time have two vfr 750 s rc 36 californa one and reg one did both years ago and ran perefect know i have this and followed same methods very frustrating
I'm really sorry, but I can't help! All I can suggest is getting a Haynes manual then having a careful look at everything and how it's assembled.
Hello sir
Mechanic just changed the clutch on my vfr800x. Now when engine is warm going to natural is almost impossible and when i first gear even clutch is pulled fully bike is trying to move forward slowly. Can you please tell if he did something wrong to my bike
Sorry to hear that. It sounds like the clutch is dragging. It'd be worth checking that the clutch is fully disengaging and that the master and slave cylinder are operating correctly. I'd take it back to the mechanic.
@bennettsbikesocial thank you sir for replying. Basically, he changed all parts of the clutch except I think he said casing or housing 🙄🙄 where all clutch systems go in I think.
But tomorrow I'm taking it to the Honda to see what they say.
By the way, your videos and reviews are one of the best on RUclips
Thanks very much, and I hope your bike gets sorted out okay!@@chupacabra7224
On first 5th gen VFR (I think 1998-2000) the clutch is not same, and inner plate is different than first one you pull out. Also on newer 5th gen with automatic choke and HISS, the clutch should be same as CBR 600 F4i.
Plastic (car) frost scraper for gasket.
what year was this bike plz pal ?
5220přesně tak to je také jsem oživil 3 z roku 1999 a 2001 a 2003 vfr 💪❤👍👍
Do you reckon retro fitting a slipper clutch on street triple s would be easy?
I've no idea I'm afraid, sorry! If it's a component swap then potentially it might not be too hard.
You keep saying "it's only a £500 bike" but a good running bike which is reliable and fun for that price is worth spending a bit of money on ! Of course you won't get it back if you ever sold the bike but that's not why you spend money on old bikes, it's to keep them from being scrapped, they won't make bikes like that ever again !
Yeah, bill is probly around 2 Grand so far.... but it's only a £500 bike 🤣
Don't get distracted taking photos and videos 😂 ha
throughout the years i've used trw,ebc,barnett none of them like oem. for a bike like this one you should've used oem imo.
Who much easier than my r1200gs. I need to cut my bike in half to replace the clutch ..
Newer GS's are a lot easier as the clutch is behind the breast plate. Cheers, John
Honda = reliable
Surprisingly easy? Maybe for an experienced mechanic with a workshop and all the required tools!
As an ageing biker who has learned from bitter and costly experience, I would advise anyone new to biking to pay a trusted mechanic to do anything but A: lubricate the chain (you can still lose fingers doing that) or B: put air in the tyres (which is very fiddly). If you can afford it obviously.
Bikes are not designed to be worked on. Trust me.
...this isn't an advertisement..." "...they don't sponsor us..." They just gave you stuff for free and on a completely unrelated note you featured them in a video and stuck their stickers everywhere. You lot should by lottery tickets, that's super lucky that those things happened at the same time by accident.
I can't wait to get stuff for free from Wemoto as well since it's apparently unrelated to any kind of that "advertising" or "sponsorship" business, I guess they just send it out at random. Again though, super lucky that one of the people that got the free stuff is on a youtube channel and can tell people about Wemoto and make money off the content they can now produce thanks to that free stuff, all ethically acceptable since it was all just a coincidence and not a sponsorship or advertisement.
Lucky!
You're confusing support with sponsorship. Though given that I'd explained in the video, I doubt it's worth wasting my time explaining again. Maybe have a look back at old videos. Have a look at the walls in the background. Stickers everywhere.
Wemoto has supported articles I've done many years ago too, including in print. I did a series on rebuilding a ZX-6R and Wemoto supported a lot of that. I made sure it was clear they provided the parts for it, and the stickers were in a lot of the shots. It was a written article.
For this bike I asked if they'd be willing to supply some parts for the project, but I've bought more for it than they've supplied.
When you file scallops on the basket down, your just increasing the gap between the basket and the drive plate (sintered) plate gap... this gives the Ducati dry clutch that wonderful clacking sound... the wider the gap, the louder the clacking. So all that does is just bang the crap out of the Drive plate tangs.. wears those out. I changed baskets a few times on my Ducati in 16k miles..baskets are around $250-300 but it doesn't have the primary gear horizontal lash springs ??? press fitted on the basket. But 100K VFR so what right...super cheapo drive plate kit..you'll be in there again soon, when the clutch starts slipping If your doing a clutch pack change on a motorcycle w/ far less miles, make sure that basket to drive plate tang gap is in OEM spec....and buy QUALITY DRIVE.SINTERED PLATES !!!
I was wondering about the increased gap myself. It would be great if John could report back about noise and general clutch operation down the road a bit.
It's no noisier and it's working fine, but I do expect wear to be accelerated. Having said that, I doubt the rest of the bike will last as long!