Clutch problem? Or not ? 04 Lemans

[stormsedge]

The early Guzzi's input splines were smaller and tended to weardown with the dual disc arrangement over time (been awhile since I've had one apart, but I believe the "center floater" causes the wear)...the later Guzzis like ours have a larger spline that is supposed to put most of that concern to rest. My old SP (at about 60K miles) had a worn input spline which caused occasional clutchomania, but it was not a showstopper. In fact, despite the latent recommendations I will probably receive, I even replaced my clutch discs once on the worn input spline due to that particular fix being cost prohibitive at the time. The guy who bought it from me never messed with it either to my knowledge although he did install sportier bars and a cafe racer fairing. Not going to get into the idle discussion...but I may bump mine up a little . Keep smiling. k

[Greg Field]

The "bigger" referenced is the change from 2mm spline depth to 4mm spline depth. It is said to have helped, but IMO and IME it doesn't do a thing. The bikes that are prone to quick wear on the trans-input splines do it just as quickly on the 4mm splines. IMO, these bikes are built such that the centerline of the tranny shaft is not aligned with the centerline of the cranksaft, or the flywheel is not centered on or concentric with the crank. My friend Bob Nolan first proved this by building a jig to check alignment and then another to correct alignment. Misaligned bikes continue to wear splines until you correct the alignment. Those that are correctly built are not prone to quick wear with either the 2mm nor 4mm splines. I have sitting next to me a 2mm hub taken out of a bike that had it fitted for 140,000 miles by the same owner. It is in nearly perfect shape. He had me replace it "just because" with a 4mm kit.

 

The center "floater" plate is not splined to the input hub. It is splined to the i.d. of the flywheel. The only splines it can wear are those on the i.d. of the flywheel, again, usually on the bikes with a misalignment, or those used violently, through compression braking or abuse.

 

As I've said before, my experience indicates that idle speed has nothing to do with spline wear. Here's one data point: the aforementioned 140,000-mile hub was used in a bike that the owner kept at a low idle, 'cause he wanted it to "lope like a Harley." His flywheel splines were also perfect, so we re-used the flywheel. Pete may disagree with my opinion on this matter. He hasn't said. If he does, it's based on experience, at least. I have some experience, too. Mine's based on 12-20 clutch jobs per year for at least the last 10 years. This year has been slow. I've only done 5. And I've been working on Guzzi clutches for 23 years. Not just one that I do not remember the details of.

[stormsedge]

Hmmm, pair of threes. I fold k

[gstallons]

Do I have a choice? I'll taks option "d" none of the above.................

[Greg Field]

There's no real downside to a slightly higher idel. I usally have even the Eldo at 1200 rpm. It won't save your splines, though. I like a higher idle mostly to keep hot idle oil pressure higher.