gandy666

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 681wt_1098

using this 'how to' guide http://www.visordown.com/workshop/diy-- ... /2444.html

may have to do the clutch on my GSX 1100g this weekend. sourcing friction plates at the moment. some people say EBC are good, some say they're crap. what do you think? may go for genuine suzuki parts. generally will i get away with just friction plates or should I change the whole lot - springs, spacers etc. wont really know what I need until I take it apart tonight.

phoned suzuki tech support and a couple of other dealers mechanics. issue is not the oil - 10W40 semi synthetic is the recommended oil for the bike. taking the slave off tonight to check the push rod, and will drain the oil to check out the clutch. everything is pointing towards frictions plates / springs / spacers. the push road appeared fine when i cleaned the slave up on saturday - took it apart, cleaned the piston etc - but will double check just to be sure.

the clutch slips when I open it up and its in gear. Is is ok up to 4000 revs, then it starts to slip at anything over that, and only when the engine is warm. will phone suzuki in the morning to see what they say, and get the clutch out at the weekend and see how it looks. thanks for the reply mate. seems to be one thing after the other with this bike. hopefull this will be the end of it, but haven't done a cluch before, certainly not on a shaft drive

the oil specified for the engine, according to the manual, is 10W40. it does not specify synthetic, semi synthetic or anything else. If it has semi synth in it and its slipping, and fully synth is not appropriate for older engines, then what alternatives do I have apart from synthetic and semi synthetic? i will have the clutch out this weekend, but if its fine, and semi is slipping, what should I put in instead?

has semi synthetic in at the mo. have heard that fully synth is for more modern bike. if synth is 'the best' and semi is the next best, whats after that? maybe thats what i need

so, draining some brake fluid out of the reservoir had no effect. still started to slip about 40 miles into my journey. next cheapest thing for me to try to change the oil. I have semi synthetic 10W40 in it. Manual says 'use SAE10w40' but does not specify whether it should be synthetic, semi or summat else. anyone aware why there would be a problem using this oil in my 20 year old bike? could it be getting too thin when it heats up and this causing the slip? what type of oil should I be using if semi synth in not appropriate? By the way, this is a shaft drive - there is the hydraulic clutch in there, but is there something else clutch like at the shaft that could slipping?

no play at the lever. I'll bet too much fluid in the reservoir. hope its this cos the others will cost a few bob

dunno what was in, but I blew it all out anyway and used dot 4 from one cannister. have my straw at ready to remove a half cm or so

actually the oil is 10w40 Motul 5000. The clutch fluid is getting pretty hot as the cable goes under the tank, over the head, the length of the engine. before I bled it, the oil had pretty much turned to a petroluem jelly consistency in the reservoir, tho maybe it was because it was old. all the old stuff was blown out so confident its cleared

hi guys thanks for the replies clarification: 1. when cold, does the clutch slip or does it fail to disengage the drive (so you cant change gear) when cold, clutch is absolutely fine - behaves as expected. I can change gear, I can drive off, there is no slippage. 2. does it slip when hot? yes, after about an hour or so of driving. 3. do you lose lever pressure after a few pulls of the lever? no the pressure remains constant - the lever feels more 'springy' after about an hour which makes me think the pressure is building up, the expanded oil has nowhere to go, so it starts to push out the clutch piston which pushes the clutch rod in. there is no leakage of clutch fluid anywhere and there is no indication of the level in the reservoir, probably because the level does not come down to the observation window. 4. what engine oil is in it? Its new Motul 5100 10w40. I also fitted a new oil filter and I checked its at the correct level on Monday. 5.what does "engine spins when i change gear" mean? sorry this isn't clear - after about an hours driving i change gear, it goes into gear, give it some revs and the clutch slips and there is minimal power getting to the rear wheel. I can actually put it in gear, let out the clutch and the engine does not stall. 6. when you bled it through, did you just top up the old fluid with fresh or drain all the old fluid out first? i drained all the old fluid out first, blew it through, took the slave cyclinder apart, cleaned it out, then bled through with fresh fluid. Judging by the pressure at the lever, there is no air in line or in the slave. the clutch is not sticking - it begins to slip after about an hour of driving. when I filled the reservoir, apparently there is a fill level line, which I did not notice. it was right to the top, I put the seal on, and a little flowed out which I mopped out. Its filled right up so i would expect that even a slight expansion will have an affect.

no haynes manual for this bike. have an online PDF which is not particularly comprehensive and is quite a faint copy. read elsewhere I need a 50ml socket to get the the clutch basket off. hopefully a sook with a straw will sort out the level of the reservoir

thanks for the replies guys. done a bit of research and I may have overfilled the reservoir when I changed the fluid and bled the system on Sunday. makes sense - brake fluid expands as the cable goes over the engine, thus engaging the clutch, thus the problem only occurs when the bike has fully warmed up. didn't happen until 38 miles into a 40 mile journey. same last night. certainly was not a problem before I lost clutch pressure on Friday. sounds feasible and I can do it by the roadside afore I drive tonight - just have get a straw and sook some fluid out. will let you know how I get on.

hi, so the hydraulic clutch on my GSX1100g has gone altogether. there a few kits around on the net. anyone who's done a clutch rebuild before, do I just need the friction plates, or do I need the full kit with separator plates and springs? bike has only done 18000 miles amd i haven't thrashed it. bike was laid up for a while so assuption is the friction plates dried out and with me using the bike pretty regularly now, the friction plates have disintegrated. cltuch was absolutely fine til last week, then the pressure went in the lever, assuming cos the friction on the plates went. i bled them through, now the engine spins when I change gear. also. do I need to change the oil when I change the plates? How easy a job is a hydrulic clutch rebuild ? anyone got some instructions?

checked the seal - it was absolutely fine. cleaned out the caliper pot as well - was a small ridge of dried crap - now its completely smooth. lubricated all over with brake fluid and checked for leaks under pressure before re fit/ thinking if it was the oil it would have happened before now- changed it weeks ago. oil was semi synthetic and proper bike oil - not car oil or anything

thanks for the reply stu. would that suggest that if the 'hole'that allows the fluid to flow back in res was blocked it would cause the symptoms I'm seeing? or if it were blocked I'm thinking the clutch would be engaged constantly cos the pressure was not being released. only happened for the first time tonight so not sure how its going to be tomorrow. clutch has been absolutely fine until I put new hydraulic fluid in it then bled it through. assumption is if there were air in the line, pulling the lever would barely engage it. this appears to be the opposite problem - or perhaps the clutch is slow to release because the push road is sticky with crap. if i remove the bolts that hold the slave cylinder to the push rod, is the piston likely to pop out? or if i removed the reservoir cap, will that release the pressure so I can take out the push road without having to worry about re bleeding and fluid all over the place? pretty sure the system has been properly bled and there's no air in it

hello there, have a strange issue with the hydraulic clutch on my GSX1100g. I've had it about 2 months, it was in storage for a year or so. Clutch has been fine up to this point, but have been using the bike in anger for the last 2 weeks, doing about 80 miles a day. had no issues up until friday when there was no pressure on the lever at all. closer inspection revealed that the reservoir was empty and the fluid had turned into a kind of waxy oily stuff. so i cleared all the oil out of the pipe by blowing through, bled it though, took the slave cyclinder off and cleaned that thoroughly as well, then checked the spring and all seemed well, put it all back together,took the bike to work this morning and all was well. brought it back tonight and the clutch started to slip after about 35 miles, so was thoroughly warmed up. Plenty of tension still on the lever, I'm thinking that the fluid has warmed up, expanded and is engaging the clutch without me actually putting pressure on it. I changed the oil in the bike about 4 weeks, using synthetic motorbike oil (Motol 5000 10w40) so I dont think the oil is to blame. I'm thinking it will be fine tomorrow once it cools off, then will start slipping again when it warms up. I cant find a method of adjusting the clutch as it just engages a lever that activates the clutch mechanism? has anyone ecountered this kind of thing before? I was thinking I would open the bleeder nipple when the bike is warm this morning, without pulling the clutch lever to relieve some pressure but the assumption is as soon as I pull on the lever the pressure will go back up and I'll be back to square one. wondering is the master cycllinder should perhaps have a small valve somewhere that releases pressure in the case of fluid warm up and perhaps that is blocked? any help appreciated. cheers!

cheers for the reply mate. yer the leads were defo on right - given they were marked 1 to 4 even I couldn;t get that wrong - although I may have quoted the wrong connection order. point was that the coils were working. swapped the plugs over and the problem did not swap so the plugs were fine, under load and otherwise. compression seems fine - no sure what the oily stuff was as no fuel could have been getting through at all, ad if it was it should have been getting burned off as there was spark. I took the carbs right off but left attached at the cables and there was a lump of clay in carb 2's primary jet which I cleaned off - took all the main jets out and put a guitar string through them and a big skoosh of carb cleaner. did them all and now have the bike running on all cylinders under throttle however still backfires now and again and I dont feel its idling right, specially when cold. power increase has pretty much doubled, so getting there . also I believe the main jets fit into some kind of aerated cylinder - again I cant see how to get at this and I dont have a compressed air line to give it a blast. cant see that it comes off down the way into the bowl, and cant get anything in there that is thin enough to get a grip of them, so only way can be up, into the carb body somewhere. the thing with the idle jets is i cant see how to get them out as the floats are in the way and its not obvious how they are attached. i dont want to force them off in case I break anything. I put a thin guitar string through them however there is probably crud inside / around them and they really need to come out altogether. I had a go at removing idle jet 1 however my screwdriver could not find a slot and I am hoping the idle jet screw is not knackered. i know its soft metal so wary of damaging the end. No smoke at all when running. Bike was stood for about a year and a half with a 3/4 tank which I've cleaned out. is a j reg with 17k miles. given the condition, its been kept indoors but there is some corrosion on the frame so there was some condensation in there somewhere. wasn't really prepared for storage from what I can see

thank you

correct plug caps are on the correct plugs - sorry i thought this was clear - first thing i checked. leads are numbered 1234 and are the originals on the bike as fitted by suz and are on left to right. chill oot man

doesn't really feel like its running rough - just a lack of power. bike has only done 17k. will take it for a run tomorrow - if 1 and 2 have become black and sticky (the plugs that were fine in 3 and 4) then i guess that points to either carb or head gasket I guess. would a compression test verify for sure that its the head or something else deep inside the engine and expensive?

maybe its 1 and 4 then 2 and 3, however each coil sparks 1 plug on the left and 1 on the right. firing order is 1 2 4 3 which i thought was weird tho i dunno why

yep forgot to say. folded rubber glove and 3 fingers over each plug hole and turned it over. enough compression to force my fingers off the hole and 'felt' the same pressure in each case. I dont think the head gasket has gone, but if the plug change or carb clean doesn't fix it then i'll get a proper compression check done using the correct tool. plug residue doesn't feel oily - more sticky. also not losing oil. bike is air cooled.

update: bike was laid up for a while and however float bowls drained clear and there was no sticky residue in 1 and 4 when I removed the bowls. also floats were not stuck. checked the plugs and coil and I have spark on all 4 plugs. Coil 1 controls 1 and 3, 2 does 2 and 4 so coils are ok. plugs 1 and 2 were brand new - now they are black and sticky. this suggests that fuel is getting through however is not being burned properly. possible that the plugs are stuffed - i thought new plugs would work out the box but have heard that the quality can be suspect. have cleaned the plugs and swapped them to the other side - assumption is if the problem swaps sides, then great - change the plugs. could be failing under load. if not, then I'll change the ht leads for coil 1. if that doesn;t work then the carbs will have to come off altogether. was getting exhaust out both ends cos obviously headers 3 and 4 go to the collector box then split out to 2 main pipes