Just the clutch, or...

[Tinman]

Clutch and pressure plate?

It's been 15k kms on my machine, and my clutch is slipping. Figured it's time to change it, but should I change the pressure plate too?

Looked in the forums, but haven't seen this question addressed.

Did see Lenny's post on the pressure plate and throwout bearing fork upgrades, but still undecided as mine has worked fine for what I'm doing...

[Guest Lenny]

The stock clutch disc is fine and should hold up good. I went to a Kevlar disk and a high pressure plate because I could slip the stock setup. But I had lots of power and large wheels. I doubt you would need a high pressure plate and the stock disc should be fine. My only thought would be if the pressure plate spring plate got hot and lost some of its push. Probably not but I guess I would replace both seeing as its not the easiest thing to redo should you fine it necessary. I didn't like the Kevlar disk and went back to the stock one but still used the high pressure plate. If you do go with a new pressure plate, you have the option of taking the spring plate out of your old one and adding it to the new plate doubling its pressure. Mine was triple the pressure from stock.. This would probably extend the life of the disc thinking that as it wares and gets thinner, the pressure plate can't push quite as hard on it with it reaching farther to do its job. A second spring would help this a lot. My thinking is that as the disc wares, it sooner or later starts to slip. That slipping causes a lot of heat which then caused an accelerating failure. As usual, I'm always trying to over think everything and beat it to death. Do reinforce the engagement fork.

[Tinman]

Lenny, you always have the most detailed, helpful advice. Perfect! And now that I'll be adding the springs, I'll strengthen the throw bearing fork too. Thanks again!

[j bender]

Any time you do a clutch you sould replace clutch disc,pressure plate, throw out bearing and surface flywheel that is norm in indistry

[Kinarfi]

I have over 16000Km on mine and still have the original, but I would say go stiffer on the springs, there have been times when I dumped the clutch with high revs and it didn't even pull the engine down, I think it should have, am I wrong?

[Tinman]

I agree Kinarfi.

I've worked on high performance cars and motorcycles, and they always do when I dump the clutch. Motorcycle clutches are different, but they work the same way. I think I will add the springs. Just have to print Lenny's pic of the throw out bearing fork upgrade. Wife is with me on most of my trips, so it has to be reliable, just so I don't hear the 100 question interrogation as I try to fix the machine.

As an aside, on my last trip, something unusual happened - three different failures:

#1 a short circuit that cut out my fuel pump and

#2 my rad fan. Only found out the total damage as I repaired each in turn.

Then,

#3 no fuel pressure. I patched the pump up directly to the master cutoff switch, but left it on by mistake when I came across an idiot in no-man's land with no 4x4 blocking the road and refusing to budge. Left the master on, pump working, and figured I had burned out the bosch pump when I realized what I did. So, I switched to my old joyner pump. Still, no fuel pressure.

Looked in the tank, it was full of crap. Pulled the hose, and no gas leaked out. Turns out it was blocked. Sheesh. Blew through and it cleared the garbage enough to limp home. suuuu, I got some simple work to do.

Lesson: Always bring extra wire, always look for the stupid solution first. And don't trust your gas stations.