[tinkerman]

I have been reading this forum for a long time but just joined today. Thank you all for all the great information and entertainment too. I am currently restoring a 1991 300 fw that I inherited from my dad. The bike has only been run less than 10 hours in the last 15 years and the clutch plates stick after sitting for a day. I am going to change the clutch discs and plates and look for the cause of an irritating squeaking noise. When I first crank it and it is in neutral it starts making the squeak. It squeaks very slow at first and gradually increases to about 100 squeaks per minute. I believe this noise is from the change clutch slowly rolling over while the engine is running in neutral. Is the clutch rolling over in neutral a normal thing? I know the noise is not normal. When you shift to a gear the noise stops instantly and starts again when you go back to neutral. Any ideas on what I need to check to stop this irritating noise when I change the clutch plates? The noise gets a little quieter as the motor warms up. Could it be the one way bearing? The bike has less than 100 hours on it since new.

 

[tinkerman]

Thanks for the welcome and quick response. Was not sure if the one way bearing turned with the crank or the centrifugal clutch drum.

 

[tinkerman]

I will check that bearing for sure. I am running honda GN4 oil now but who knows what was used in the past.

 

[tinkerman]

So I pulled the right side cover and clutches yesterday and so far everything looks good. Tried to do it without the kickstart and reverse shaft falling out, but I think that is impossible. Now I have to figure out how that stuff goes. The clutch lifter plate that is on the end of the clutch adjusting bolt was pushed in so far that the little fork was about to come off the pin on the cover. I had adjusted that way to get the clutch to release at all. Maybe the fiber discs are swollen. We will see when I start to mic things. Removing the 26 year old cover gasket was straight from hell. Spent a lot more time scraping than turning wrenches. Also found one of the 4 clutch spring bolts loose but not backed out. Still looking for something that would cause the squeaking noise, but with the cover off everything rolls over quiet and smooth.

 

[tinkerman]

I got the clutch discs, plates, and springs changed out and all the shafts and washers back in place. Shade - the throwout bearing was fine but the way I had the clutch adjusted up it had a tremendous amount of pressure on it. Yea I know it was not set right but I did it in attempt to make the clutch release. Maybe it had something to do with the noise? The discs were thicker than spec (swelled) and the springs were too short. Maybe my clutch sticking problem is fixed anyway. I am about ready to put the cover on so what is the best way to keep the tri ball and spring in place. Manual says put grease on it. Are there any other tricks? Do I need to back the adjustment off? Maybe I am too worried about all that junk falling out of place. lol

 

[tinkerman]

Thank you for the encouragement.

 

[tinkerman]

Well I got the 300 back together yesterday and the new clutch works great. It took me two tries on getting the cover on because the first time I did not pay enough attention to the crank bearing. Once it went down, it went down flat on the gasket. Good advice to back the clutch adjustment out before putting the cover on. Shade, you were right again as the squeak noise I was hearing was caused by the excessive side loading on the throw out bearing. I know that because when it is cold and idling, I can hold up on the shift lever and still hear it a little. I did it to myself by adjusting the clutch screw to far counter clockwise to get the clutch plates to release. Shade, you are the man!!!

 

[tinkerman]

After thinking about it I can now answer one of my original questions. It IS normal for the centrifugal clutch drum and the change clutch to roll over slowly when idling in neutral. That is what causes the atv to jump just a little when shifting from neutral to first.