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had a problem and well, how much is a clutch?

7K views 36 replies 11 participants last post by  Doc 
#1 ·
shift lever arm came loose (aftermarket) and fell off while i was headed home. stuck in fifth gear so when i gt off the interstate i had to go about a mile on city streets. ended up having to stop at three lights and taking off in 5th gear. yesterday i got my replacemnt arm and used red loctite on the screws. while riding around last night i noticed while in 5th on the interstate i cracked the throttle and it revved up but only accelerated slightly then the revs dropped off and it slowly accelerated. other gears it pulls fine.

is it worst case on my clutch? how much is a replacement?
 
#3 ·
If it is only doing it in 5th, you have just mildly toasted your clutch. You could probably get several more miles out of it with a Screamin' Eagle clutch spring. But unless you have the tools and aptitude to do it yourself, you may as well let a mechanic change your entire clutch.

I did mine for $15 and the clutch is actually stronger than the day I bought it new. But I also had to fabricate a tool to R and R the spring.
 
#10 ·
Listen to Cody and MadDog on this one, they've been there.

As an aside, are you running stock gearing or have you done the Scotty mod or changed pulley sizes? Anytime you go to taller gearing, (The Scotty Mod or larger primary pulley or smaller rear wheel pulley) you are increasing the stress on your clutch. Your clutch will slip more readily with taller gearing.

Think of pedaling a 10 speed bicycle. In first gear you easily pedal whether going uphill or on level ground. At the same speed in 10th gear, moving slowly, its difficult to push the pedals around. That same principle applies to the way your motorcycle transmission works. Gearing for more top speed stresses the clutch at low speeds and on hills especially.

I have the Scotty mod. My clutch was slipping badly last week but in preparing for the Dragon ride I switched back to stock gearing. Suddenly my clutch was healed and did great in the mountains.

Anywhoooo, I love the Scotty Mod and recommend it for highway riding. But in the tights it's a bridge too far for your clutch. Fortunately it's only a 20 minute job to swap pulleys and primary chains so you can have horses for courses.
 
#11 ·
returning to this post. clutch is stock. my less love/more hate relationship continues. i replaced the primary fluid oct of last year and used the harley fluid; much smoother, easier to find neutral, shifting was a lot better. still had slippage in fifth but i ride it pretty much back and forth to work on occasion (no interstate) and just around the area so it was not a big deal. put it up due to winter in late nov. a few weeks ago we had a 60 degree day so i took it out for a spin. GETTING SLIPPAGE IN EVERY GEAR! wtf is with this bike? any ideas? stock clutch, bike has 6500 miles on it. smh.
 
#18 ·
Sorry to hear about the issue. First thing I would do is readjust the clutch. Sometimes this is all it takes after a limping home adventure. If this doesn't help then as mentioned above any heavy spring will definitely assist the stock clutch in lock up. The stock clutch is a pretty robust unit. I have 34000 miles on mine with a heavy spring. No slippage at all.

Doc
 
#20 ·


Not sure what you are looking for but searching HD part 37949-98A brings up Screaming Eagle clutch spring ... is there something different you are looking for?
 
#23 ·
I read through this thread and did some forum searches for more info on the SE clutch spring. I hear that the standard XR spring is lighter than the stock XL spring, and the SE is heavier than the XL... In other words, from Light->Stiff: XR->XL->SE. Is it worth looking into an XL spring at all?
 
#24 ·
The SE spring is available in 2 strengths. I'd order the lightest of the two SE springs and be done with it.
 
#28 ·
Everything I find shows as outbof stock ... even the Barnett MT-77 and MT-81. Your best bet may be to just order a stock one, they are pretty good and barring anything unusual should be fine for over 50,000 miles.
 
#31 ·
Or, you could call Ronnies, Surdyke, New Castle or one of the other online dealers and see if they can source just the spring for you. Sometimes calling them gets old parts that don't show up in their online catalogs anymore.
 
#34 ·
You're gonna need one of these ...

Tire Automotive tire Motor vehicle Bumper Font


Arm Bicycle part Camera accessory Wood Chair



Motion Pro part #08-0137 .... around $60 ...
 
#35 ·
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