Changing clutch - special Honda tool?

[Rhubarbray]

Ok, I have the friction plates, steels, and gasket to replace the clutch on my '01 ST11. It slips under hard acceleration and there's VERY little engagement point between off and on. I have the manual, plates are soaking, I opened the manual,...........only to see I need a special Honda tool to hold the spring towers on the clutch hub to get the central nut off. Not happy. Couple of questions, 1. What size is that staked nut? How does the Honda tool work? It sounds like there's a set of hollow tubes that fit over the spring towers and secure to the holding plate. That's it? Seems like a recipe for snapping a tower or two to me! If I can see the tubes correctly they look like they're hollow with a nut securing them to the plate, are there supposed to be bolts going through the tubes threading into the spring tower?

Does anyone have pics or dimensions of one? I can machine one up at work but it'll take me a while. I looked up the price from Honda,.................$500!!! Damn!!!

 

[Paul]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/263119880022

 

[Rhubarbray]

Well, would ya look at that!

 

[Rhubarbray]

I'm looking at the manual again and if the springs and plate are removed there's still no way to remove the inner drive basket so yes, it does look like the 11 is an oddball.

 

[raygks]

I just replaced my clutch plates last month, had a really hard/unsuccessful time with a breaker bar, even with gears engaged and rear wheel chocked thru swing arm.

You need a 30mm socket, after multiple attempts & sore arms/body, called a buddy with a simple battery operated impact wrench(for wheel lug nuts removal), took less than 3mins to remove said nut and basket.

I didn’t buy the special tool since I didn’t figure my 2000 model clutch lasted 270kkm

Original clutch stack(friction/metal plates) & springs thickness till in specs but having slipping during hard acceleration in lower gears and hard shifting as well, especially in lower gears/neutral. Going up steep incline is a major issue for me with pillion.

New plates & EBC springs(oem springs not available) cured all the above mentioned, shifts like butter now, neutral is a breeze.

I bought new clutch cover and slave gaskets, but original was in good condition so clean up and reuse without any leaking for last 500km.