Hello everyone I have been a long time lurker of your website and finally decided to sign up!

I have a bit of a different situation. I am in the process of building a T-Rex reverse trike replica kit. It is coming along nicely and I have equipped it with the zx14 engine from a donor bike (which I did not hear run before I bought it). I have gotten it running, idling all is well. So at this point Im pumped. take it out for its first test ride last night, I get 1/8 mile down the road and it just starts coasting (as if I have the clutch in). I tow it home and upon inspection of the clutch it appears that the first 2 plates have come out from behind the fingers on the basket. I pull it apart reassemble as it should be and it does the same thing again.

My question is...what is making the first 2 plates come out? are the pressure plate springs not holding enough tension to keep everything in? Could I be missing a plate? It does not look like its been tampered with but the engine is from a 2008 zx14 and has been sitting for at least 4 years.

Thank you in advance for any advice!

Possible over packed plates. Count how many are used on a parts page, note the assembly blowout, note any odd size plate does not hang up going in so as the remaining plates stick out farther than the big clutch outer and those fingers/forks/tangs hold the pressure plate in past the tangs. Remove the oil cap at the clutch cover, photo shoot the assembly so as to see where the pressure plate is in all this?

YOU are in luck. I now have my 2008's clutch plates removed and I can count and inspect for you if you wish. Also have dissasembly pics of factory installation if that helps. I noticed the two outer plates and pressure plate all stick together through oil/suction when you disassemble. I would assume the same is happening during normal operation of the engine. For some reason, yours are getting pulled out of the grooves.

As you can see, it should be impossible for what is happening in your clutch to occur if the plates are installed properly. The spring plate should ride below the level of the fingers on the basket while the clutch is engaged. Those plates can't come out unless the spring plate is extending too far when you disengage the clutch.

If your stack height is too high, the spring plate would not be as deep into the basket fingers as mine is. This could allow the spring plate and the first few plates to extend beyond the fingers in the basket and the grooves in the hub. Once out, they aren't going back in on their own if the plates, basket or hub has moved at all.

I do not believe it is imperative that the plates be installed in any order or front/back arrangement as long as the innermost plate is the one that has the larger ID. All other plates have the same ID. The innermost will also probably be the thickest plate but you may see some discrepancy in normal thickness due to plate wear. Coulda swore my steels were getting progressively thicker as they approached the inside.

The innermost plate has a larger ID to accept the anti-judder spring and washer. These are two thin rings at the bottom of the basket. Mine did not come out when I removed plates. Have to look for those next time I work on the bike. Should be a thin cambered edge ring that acts as a spring and a large narrow washer, both same OD as the innermost plates enlarged ID (innermost should fit around them).

This is a cross section view of the plates arrangement. C is the innermost plate. A and B are the anti judders.

Do you have your largest ID plate out of order? If not at the inside of the pack, that would raise your overall stack height considerably and could possibly allow the outers to get pulled out of fingers when you pull clutch lever.

* Last updated by: Rook on 11/29/2016 @ 10:15 AM *