Clutch chatter

A few weeks back one day I had my clutch chatter when I was leaving work. Yanked it back in, slowly released, all seemed fine. Seemed strange but didn't think too much of it.

Spent the weekend doing a bunch of maintenance, oil, fluids, filter, etc... Took the bike for a short ride last night and it all seemed fine.

Leaving the house this morning, with the trailer attached, I get some serious chatter rolling off the driveway. Happens again at the first stoplight. Luckily I only have one more stoplight and I rolled through it. The next two stops after spending 40 minutes on the highway it seems fine.

Have I got something going amiss? Or am I not slipping it enough with the load? I've done some pretty hard launces with the ST before (not with trailer attached) and I have never flt a clutch chatter or even slip, just load down the engine and slowly wind up.

Could it be somethig else, gear teeth slipping? Hopefully not.

This is a pretty common problem on a lot of motorcycles. It can happen either when cold or warm depending on what type of oil you are running. Typically it is caused by additives that are present in lubricants that are meant for automotive engines that are not compatible with wet clutches on most motorcycles. Many times changing the type of oil will take care of the problem but in some cases replacement of the clutch fiber plates may be needed due to the glazing of the surface and absorption of the slippery additives from the oil. It really does not hurt anything but can be really annoying and may get progressively worse with time.

I got no warning when the primary gear bolt exploded. I doubt there is any gear slipping. The primary gear is a 2 gear sandwich with three springs to take up backlash. They slide onto a splined primary drive shaft. They directly drive the clutch basket. If the bolt backed off you'd likely get a crank position sensor error before you'd get any ground up gears. The main fat gear is furthest on the spline shaft.

The chatter is when you're letting out the clutch and the plates are engaging or when you're in neutral?

bdalameda said:

Typically it is caused by additives that are present in lubricants that are meant for automotive engines that are not compatible with wet clutches on most motorcycles.

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Well I have 70k miles on the bike and running Delo for all of them. The previous owner put 30K, not sure what he used.

st1300r said:

The chatter is when you're letting out the clutch and the plates are engaging or when you're in neutral?

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Happens when trying to roll out in first gear.
I put 1500 miles on the bike this weekend, 2/3 of it while tugging the trailer. Never had it chatter again, so I am guessing I was a little over-zealous on the launch those few times.

Good too know the gears are not ready to explode.