ST1300 - clutch plates and springs R&R help

minimum40

Hi All,

I have had my August registered 2007 st1300 for 6 months and have put about 7k miles onto it. It now has approx 56k miles on the clock.

Over the last 1000+ miles I notices some issues with the clutch. The biting point on the clutch travel has always been around or just over 3/4 out since I bought it with 49k on the clock. Bit cluky at first and sometimes didnt bite well accellerating hard in higher gears (as if it was in a neutral where there was not a neutral) flicking up with the left foot would sort it out. First Oil and filter change by myself made gear change much smoother and correctly changing was fine. Over 1000miles ago I thought I had the clutch slip a little nearer higher end revs when accellerating in 2nd or 3rd gear. Now, it will slip during most hard accelleration when you get over 5k rpm, (where the speed starts chasing the revs).
Im pretty sure it is time to replace the clutch springs and friction plates.
I have a haynes st1300 manual which seems to have most of the details I think...
I have bought ECB springs and plates, and a clutch holding tool... but am worried what I might be letting myself in for.

I was hoping people here might be able to guide me a little, and was surprised that I have been unable to find any ST1300 guides for replacing cluch springs and plates.

Some Assumptions and items to check on my part:
  • I need to empty the engine oil before removing clutch housing cover?
  • I need new clutch housing seal?
  • not sure if I need any special sockets or tools other than clutch holding tool?
  • is there any special care I need to pay attention to with new friction plates before installing to plate holding basket?
  • is there any particular way round or notch correct possitions that the plates should go in?
  • is there any special terminology I need to look out for?

I'd really appreciate it if anyone can point me at some really good information or privide their experienced pointers and knowledge?

Many thanks to the ST-Owners community who provide excellent information, innovation and reassuring mechanical knowlege.
 
Re: ST1300 - cluth plates and springs R&R help

My only offer of help is, we can check your manual against my Honda manual. Which, by the way, was in new condition and purchased for $35 at my Honda dealership! I hope others chime in and help you out. At that millage, I'd spring for the seal. Change it while you have the bike apart, IMO. You will have to drain the oil, might as well start clean.
Tom
 
Re: ST1300 - cluth plates and springs R&R help

It's surprising you should need a clutch this soon, unless the bike was a police bike? You don't see much reference here as this has not been a common problem. Have you tried bleeding and flushing the hydraulics? A lot of poor clutch behavior can be traced to poor fluid condition.
 
Yeah, I had wondered myself.perhaps the clutch fluids would be a good idea before doing the whole clutch.
My pan was previously owned by the DSA for rider training and rider examination, still has the orange reflectors that most riding schools pans and duevills have.
My thinking was that it should be the friction plates because it would have been used predominantly around town training the newbies.

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The wrong engine oil is known to contribute to clutch slip, what oil have you been using?
Plenty of information available here on that topic. You may be correct about the hard service of that bike wearing the clutch plates prematurely. On a normal use bike with that low milage, changing the hydraulic fluid and engine oil type would be at the top of the list to trouble shoot your symptoms.
 
One other thing to look at if you do end up replacing the clutch is the water pump. Look for signs of a leak from the small round weep hole this will have nothing to do with the clutch action but it is part of the front cover that has to come out anyhow. Mine is showing some signs of leaking and I thought I had to rebuild it this summer but I found the issue somewhere else. When I was talking about doing that others mentioned doing the clutch at the same time in my case. I think the water pump parts and all related seals came to $100. Some of them are needed to do the clutch anyhow so it would be less than that in parts. Because of this I looked into that process a little bit. One thing you should check on about the EBC is if it can be used with synthetic oil. I thought I read at one of the web sites that I was looking at that it could not be used. There was another clutch that was a little more that is typically used by police departments that is a little stronger. I will see if I can find the name for you. There are also a couple posts where people have done clutch work on here that may help.

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Could be the oil, but I have experienced the slipping progressively getting worse from hardly ever/not sure if there was a slip or my lazy hand not fully releasing the clutch with whatever oil was used when I bought it. Since then I used Castrol 10-40 4T stuff, then Silkolene 10-40 comp 2. I believe both I used were synthetic.

Oils I buy are ebay kits with filer as advertised for the st 1300.
I quite often find oil recommendations on this site advertise brand which cannot be found in the uk?

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Sorry the silkolene is comp 4 also has 4T on the bottle.
Anyone know what this 4T means?

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You should be OK oil-wise if you are using motorcycle specific oils. Those will not contain the friction modifiers used in cage oils.
 
4T is a description used on some oils to designate that it is for 4 stroke motors (so don't get 2T - a mate did, went on a few thousand km trip, helped him change the oil after and he was about to put the same back in) As Jeff says, should be no problems with bike specific Silkolene
 
I'm going to delay replacing clutch and springs at the moment and do the clutch fluids, first. The seals are covered in moisture, chance my clutch is not fully biting I guess.

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