So, no shit, there I was. I rebuilt the clutch on my P200, following the excellent Youtube video by Scooter Mercato, and also consulting the page on Scooterhelp. Unfortunately, my clutch wasn't working after the rebuild. I'd pull the clutch lever, but it was as if the clutch wasn't doing it's job. If I was in gear, the wheel would remain locked to the engine. I spent several evenings trying to sort out the problem until I finally hit upon the issue and solution.
The CliffsNotes
I had the brass spacer washer in upside down.
The Details
The clutch in an injected P200e like mine presses up against the injector gear. In this picture, I've marked the injector gear with red slashes where the clutch presses against it.
Here's the side of the clutch where it goes into the engine. You see the complementary red marks on the part of the clutch that is driven by the engine. The blue marks on the outer gear indicates the drive gear of the clutch. This is the gear that should NOT go around when you have the clutch lever depressed.
The crux of my problem was that I installed the brass spacer washer in the clutch upside down. In this photo, you can see me installing it correctly, with the concave portion upward. It was illustrated this way in both of the clutch rebuilding sources I referenced above, but I didn't notice.
And here we see the problem. With that brass spacer installed upside down, I held a straight edge across the top of the clutch and drive gear. The yellow line illustrates where the clutch would be sitting flush against the injector gear. Notice that in this picture, the red lines for the clutch are pressed up against the injector gear line, but the blue line for the drive gear is ALSO pressed up against the injector line. That means that there is friction between the injector gear and the drive gear. Even when I released the clutch, the friction against that injector gear was causing the drive gear to rotate.
So, here is a picture with the spacer properly installed. You can see that with the spacer installed this way, the drive gear is about a millimeter lower. It doesn't press up against the injector gear, and is free to spin independent of the engine.
So, after three days of scratching my head before I discovered the problem, the fix was simple. I flipped over the brass spacer, and life was good.
Hopefully someone in the future will benefit from my anguish!
I have a similar symptom but I am sure I put the spacer in properly. I also have a standard injected '79 P200. I just "upgraded" to a Malossi (extra plates, heavier springs)clutch kit. I know there are extra plates in the stack and understand they are thinner to achieve the proper stack height. That being said, my clutch seems to always be at least partially engaged. I am able to ride with no problems and now that it has been a week or so, it seems to be easing up (breaking in, perhaps). The real problem, or concern rather, is that is makes a horrific sound in the lower rpms while riding. Any input, ideas, things to check, etc?
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, I'm still not sure if the brass washer I got in my clutch rebuild kit was upside down or if it was simply too thick, but this was exactly the problem.
ReplyDeleteWhich way does the brass washer go? When it is in place does it look like a 7 or an L?
ReplyDeleteWith the clutch flat on your bench, the washer should look like a V not a ^. Does that help?
Delete