How to replace clutch plates? (clutch, gears not working)

After riding in very soft clay from a sudden torrential downpour and attaching itself to the WR's rear tire, I found myself stuck on Westside Road in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. After trying to loosen the stuck clay by using agressive throttle action, the clutch plates broke and will have to be replaced. I ordered the clutch spring and a set of metal and fiber plates from an authorized Yamaha dealer. I was told it is a fairly easy procedure, however, my skills are limited.

Has anyone else attempted to replace the clutch plates as a result of a "burned out clutch" ? I could not find any threads on this mechanical issue.

Fred

Rider1a: How do you know the plates are broken ?

Most people are capable of following the maintenance manual literally through step-by-step instructions.

You need the correct tools and competency to use them. ...and of course you have support here.

It's pretty easy. ...and it's fairly obvious if you have errored in some fashion.

It's still not clear to me how you reached your conclusion as to the symptom.

What exactly were you doing? I've never heard of such a thing.

Were you bouncing off rev limiter for an extended period of time yet going nowhere?

Broken clutch plates? Did you have to walk bike home?

Oh crap...that sucks. Let me know if you need the service manual.

motokid wrote:

What exactly were you doing? I've never heard of such a thing.

Were you bouncing off rev limiter for an extended period of time yet going nowhere?

Broken clutch plates? Did you have to walk bike home?

I was bouncing off the rev limited as I was trying to push ahead on a muddy road. The soft clay based road had little rock so it was soft as butter. My friend was on a KLR. After 1 mile of going through the muck, our bikes refused to go father. The rear tire and wheel well was heavily impacted with hard, clay-like mud. We turned off the engine and waited several hours for the road to dry.

After some time spent on digging out the heavy rear tire accumulation, the rear tire would not turn. The clutch cable is fine. So, I went to up on my friends KLR back to the lodge to get his truck. Eventually after power-washing, cleaning the heaviy thick clay on the bike. I turned on the engine and engaged the clutch. If engaged in first but would not move. I tried all gears but no results.

I put the bike on the centerstand and the rear wheel turns fine. When I do put the bike on the centerstand and engage the first gear, the rear wheel turns but you can stop the wheel from turning, by putting your hand on it. It turns very weakly. Then removing the bike from the centerstand, I tried to engage the gears as I attempted to ride it, but it does not respond to any clutch input.

I called the Yamaha dealer (a good one if you can imagine that) and he said it was almost the clutch plates. I ordered all the parts needed to change the clutch plates for $160.00. Tomorrow night, I will tear into the bike with the proper tools, shop manual and a friend who has much more experience related in these matters to assist.

I will hopefully post some of the pictures of the process.

Sorry to hear about your trouble but Welcome to NM riding--fact of life out here especially in the rainy season.
I've seen guys dumped on their face on KLR's when the mud clogs against the fender. I think you will find the clutch change is realitively easy--just make sure you have the correct gaskets. Have not done my WRR but have done a lot of other bikes over the years--most are stright forward. Get the manual and don't forget an oil change.

rider1a wrote:

motokid wrote:

What exactly were you doing? I've never heard of such a thing.

Were you bouncing off rev limiter for an extended period of time yet going nowhere?

Broken clutch plates? Did you have to walk bike home?

I was bouncing off the rev limited as I was trying to push ahead on a muddy road. The soft clay based road had little rock so it was soft as butter. My friend was on a KLR. After 1 mile of going through the muck, our bikes refused to go father. The rear tire and wheel well was heavily impacted with hard, clay-like mud. We turned off the engine and waited several hours for the road to dry.

After some time spent on digging out the heavy rear tire accumulation, the rear tire would not turn. The clutch cable is fine. So, I went to up on my friends KLR back to the lodge to get his truck. Eventually after power-washing, cleaning the heaviy thick clay on the bike. I turned on the engine and engaged the clutch. If engaged in first but would not move. I tried all gears but no results.

I put the bike on the centerstand and the rear wheel turns fine. When I do put the bike on the centerstand and engage the first gear, the rear wheel turns but you can stop the wheel from turning, by putting your hand on it. It turns very weakly. Then removing the bike from the centerstand, I tried to engage the gears as I attempted to ride it, but it does not respond to any clutch input.

I called the Yamaha dealer (a good one if you can imagine that) and he said it was almost the clutch plates. I ordered all the parts needed to change the clutch plates for $160.00. Tomorrow night, I will tear into the bike with the proper tools, shop manual and a friend who has much more experience related in these matters to assist.

I will hopefully post some of the pictures of the process.

that's crazy!check out youtube eh,I've seen some honda stuff very cool
How'd you do with it?
j

Just asking the obvious, but did you adjust the clutch before assuming the clutch plates need replacing?

My friend and I replaced in the clutch plates in about 1 hour. It fixed the problem. The bike shifts very smoothly. I plan to write a review of the process soon.

FYI, even for a non-technical person such as myself, the replacement of the clutch plates was very easy. Using the shop manual, you basically, remove part of the side case (with black faux siding), unscrew the clutch plate assembly and replace the clutch and friction plates. I kept the original gasket since it was still in excellent condition.

I also changed the oil just to make sure I purged any shaved particles from the initial clutch damage.

Fred

Good idea changing the engine oil.
A smoked clutch often pollutes the oil.

rider1a wrote:

My friend and I replaced in the clutch plates in about 1 hour. It fixed the problem.

Great news!

Usually a smoked clutch means it has overheated in the process, I hope you did the springs as well or you could be back in there soon

Replacing the clutch plates on a 2008 Yamaha WR250R...my experience

My 2008 Yamaha WR250R engine revs to a sweet spot, and as the bike surges forward, I feel the familiar speed, exhilaration and lightness as the hard packed clay road drops away beneath me on West Side Road. I am located just off Highway 82 near Cloudcroft, New Mexico. I catch a brief whiff of pinon smoke that seems out of season here in the summer—perhaps someone at a nearby pueblo is firing pottery. Ahead a lovely view of the white horizon of the White Sans National Monument desert capped with toothy ridges of rock in the foreground. towering above the scrub like trees, and as I traverse the road on West Side, I drop the WR250R into a lower gear and gun it up a hill just freshly grated with an inch or two of fresh dirt.

I've been absorbed in the scenery, but now I am starting to look at the ominous looking cloud facing my riding friend and I. My dual-sport compadre, Terry, is on a 1997 Kawasaki KLR that has chipped black paint covering it's Barbie blue stock plastic. Terry is now smartly conquering the modestly grated road with his heavy two-wheeled beast. As a certain tinge of dual-sport hubris takes over our conscience, we decide to take one of the dead-end side detours called National Forrest road 90B that appears to have a much more challenging surface. As we carefully get to the end of this obstacle strewn forest road, we hear the sudden explosion of lightning. Within a a few minutes, the local Indian rain god, unleashes a heavy torrent of rain on us. Then our problems start...

As we proceed to quickly ride back to the main West Side Road, I get the funny feeling that my friend riding on his KLR is no longer behind me. I turn around and quickly find that due to the heavy rain, he has crashed his bike as he tried to avoid a large muddy rut, ostensibly caused by a large 4X4 surveying the riding terrain the days before. I dismount and help him lift his bike. I did this actually several more times. Eventually, as we made it back on the West Side Road, we decide to find the closet paved road. No sooner, had we gone a few hundred yards, than our respesptive bikes were sloshing all over the road due to the heavy mud consisting of a clay-like soup.

Our bikes eventually bog down due to the heavy amount of mud accumulating on the rear tire. My friends, KLR due to more rear wheel torque, is able to spin-off the clay ooze from the back tire. I attempted to do the same, but suddenly notice the gears are no longer engaging. I turn off the engine and begin the messy process of removing mud from the rear tire. The front sprocket cover is packed with the clay and if I allowed it to dry it would be even harder to extract. After much effort and waiting out the rain to complete it's deluge, the bright New Mexico sun appears. It is getting late. Since my bike won't function properly, we stash the WR250R behind a tree and decide to return the next day in my friend's truck and use his attached trailer to retrieve it. I then drove my friend's KLR with he riding as pillion back to civilization. I thought to myself, it would have been a long ten mile hike back to the freeway especially with a limited amount of water. The Kawasaki KLR beast saved the day!

The next morning we rise early and manage to retrieve the bike. I have never had a major mechanical failure on any Japanese bike and this was my first experience. After deciding the clutch plates had to be replaced, I called a local authorized Yamaha dealer in Alamogordo. I was told by owner of the store, the required clutch plates would take one week to receive from the mothership Yamaha and it would be an additional week before they could inspect and repair my bike. Frustrated by this lack of concern about my plight, I called another Yamaha dealer in Texas and had the needed clutch plates and springs in my muddy hands in less than a day and half thanks to UPS!

Fortunately, I had a on-line (twtex.com) friend, “Ruidoso Ron”, who lived in Alto, just a short trailer ride from Cloudcroft, who has an extensive motorcycle workshop located next to his house. I took up his very generous offer to help me change the clutch plates. The pictures and description is located below for your edification.

I was able to download a copy of the service manual for the WR250R by doing some modest Google searches. I found an electronic copy of the WR250R manual from an external web link posted from a fellow users on the Adventure Rider site (advrider.com). In addition, the Yamaha dealer in Texas had written a detailed instruction sheet for changing the clutch and friction plates. How cool is that!

1. Remove the black faux clutch side protector or cover.

2. Unscrew the right brake bolt pictured below. Make sure and remove the cotter pin located at the end of the bolt first. This allen wrench hole is composed of soft metal, so make sure your tools have a firm bite in the hole. You can also gently remove the two springs located behind the brake as well. The brake pedal will just dangle off the side as you conduct the clutch replacement procedure.



3. Remove the clutch cover bolts.



4. Gently remove the clutch cover pictures slowly. There is a rubber gasket behind it. If you plan to reuse it, the gasket should easily removed from the back of external clutch plate.

5. When the external clutch plate is removed, this is what it will look like. I did not drain the oil before this procedure. No oil spilled out when the plate is removed.



6. Unscrew the five brown screws. There will also be five clutch springs located behind each screw that is removed. These should be replaced at the same time as the new clutch plates.

7. Below is what the clutch springs looked like once the five screws have been removed. The middle silver bolts will stay in place.



8. Carefully lift out the clutch pack. You will notice the series of metal clutch and friction plates. These are the same plates you will replace in the same sequence.



9. Now is a good time to get a pan of motorcycle oil and allow the clutch and friction plates to soak for about ten minutes. This is important, since when the engine is started for the first time with the new plates there will not be any lubrication. Soaking the clutch plates helps minimize undue friction.



10. Remove all 13 plates from the clutch basket. They should gently come out. Remember the sequence since you will reinstall the new plates in the same order. There are two type of plates. A plain one shown below and another metal one with small ceramic pieces attached to the surface. Please reinstall by alternating both types of plates unto the clutch pack.



11. Once all the new plates are installed correctly. Attach primary gear clutch pack attachment that you removed earlier in step 8.

12. Replace the five clutch springs on the primary clutch pack that were displayed on step 7. They should easily come out.

13. Then reinstall all the cover plates in the reverse order. The manual calls for 7.2 ft. lb (10Nm) of torque for all bolts that you have removed. Do not exceed this, or you could strip the bolt holes.

14. It is also strongly recommended you change the oil and filter after this procedure. There could be minute traces of metal shavings that might have gotten trapped when the clutch plates failed. Changing the oil and filter should help in preventing any damage that such free-floating metal particles may create. I also suggest printing out the specific parts of the service manual for a detailed schematic of the clutch plate assembly for easy reference.



High resolution images of the above pictures here

Good luck!

Nice write-up!

I'll add to your steps 12 & 13.
Make sure you use the correct size torque wrench.
When rebuilding a clutch on a GS1100E I was using very nearly the lowest setting of a torque wrench, and snapped a clutch spring bolt. 2 days before a long weekend trip

There's no pic of the damage
What did the friction plates look like?, glazed or worn out? Did you measure them?
It doesn't look like it's even been hot

The old clutch plates look darkened and were slightly warped. The clutch springs were ok and the tension up to suggested spring rate, but replaced them just to be on the safe side.

rider1a wrote:

The old clutch plates look darkened and were slightly warped. The clutch springs were ok and the tension up to suggested spring rate, but replaced them just to be on the safe side.

Question, were you slipping the clutch in the mud or did it just start slipping? Basically I'm asking what was your technique in the quagmire?