Mountain Ride - Lost Clutch - (not so) fun Ride Down

So we had a group ride, our yearly Jericho Prayer Ride. The last portion of the ride is up to Mount Lemmon north of Tucson. As we ( my wife) and were 2nd from the front lead, I noticed the clutch was slowly disappearing. I manged to stay in 2nd the rest of the way. Once at our destination, it was gone. I pulled the cover off the handle bar reservoir and it was pretty full but there was fluid dripping on the left side in the area of the slave cylinder. I had rebuilt that several years ago. Luckily there was a back up vehicle with us who was able to give my wife a ride down as I chose to ride it down in 2nd. Just wanted to get as close to home as possible before I had to figure out a tow/haul the rest of the way.

Actually got down the 15+ miles without a problem and was blessed with clear stop signs and perfect timing for green lights. 25 miles later I was home and only stopped once. Just finagled my way down streets missing lights or stop signs with traffic at them.

So I check boats.com and they want $85.00 for a new clutch cylinder. Any place cheaper than that ? I haven't taken her apart yet to confirm were the leak is at, but that will be my guess.

I have other ones off my parts bikes I can rebuild, but been there, done that.

Yikes!!

Glad you made it home ok. I'll be back in town Wednesday.... Available until Sunday pm. If you want some help, we can take it apart and see what's going on.

Besides, i need a new right side muffler, mine is rusted out. Grins!

Let me know...I can come up after dinner we well...

Couldn't you change gears without using the clutch? I rode my 2004 Kawasaki Concours home from work one day without using the clutch and it was easy to shift through all of the gears. I was lucky in that there was enough incline at the parking lot to get it rolling so it didn't choke off the engine when I shifted to first and I was able to roll through all of the stop signs on the way.

Hmmm, the price of the slaves has gone up a little, they used to be around $60 - $65 a while ago. Your best bet is to replace, not rebuild them as rebuilt ones often do not last long or leak from day one. It depends on how well you hone the cylinder prior to replacing the rubbers. If you have to hone a lot off to eliminate the pitting and corrosion it will probably leak. To me, the price you pay for a new one is worth it in the long run, and we are not talking a major capital investment even at $85 anyways, especially over a potentially critical part...

Not to hijack this thread, but was getting ready to leave Phoenix yesterday and went out to clean up the 89 VR as I'm leaving her up there for mountain runs this summer. Started her up and let her run...as she hasn't been running in a week.

Hopped on board, hit the clutch and shifted to 1st....clunk. No clutch! She's been sitting with bars over in locked position for a week. No leaks underneath except for the normal coolant pee when she comes up to Phoenix!!

So when I come back, need to figure out what happened. Just rebuilt master last month.

So Bill, I'll be paying attention to your clutch repairs....I might be next! BTW, I'm fairly certain the clutch system on my 89 is original.....

Dave,

Haven't touched the bike yet. I did bring the part bike over that we picked up. So it is my house. I am really contemplating switching out the shock on the parts bike with my current one... scares the crap out of me to do it again...but contemplating it. That way I can change the clutch slave and find the oil leaks while the bike totally torn apart. That way when it never goes back together, we have another parts bike.. :rotfl:Also that bike has nice exhaust to put on your bike, Or you can have the ones I took off my 87.

Kic good to see ya on here. Just rebuilding those things is a crap shoot. And some just go. "Blue Beast" had 78k and I worked that clutch. Changed fluid a couple times and just WENT!! My 85 started slipping and leaking at 19k??

I rebuilt a few slaves.As Bob says, as long as there in no pitting you will be fine.You can not take too much off when you sand it down. I do have a couple of spares I keep. Good luck.

Ray.

I rebuilt a few slaves.As Bob says, as long as there in no pitting you will be fine.You can not take too much off when you sand it down. I do have a couple of spares I keep. Good luck.

Ray.

I would try changing the fluid. Same thing happened to me two years ago going up pikes peak. the fluid gets dirty and the higher altitude makes it boil.