roversrov

Hi, I am a newbie member to the YOC with a recently aquired 1991 XJ900F. When I got the bike the speedo dial was very faded and the petrol gauge plastic cover had a crack in it so I bought a good used instrument set from an eBay seller. Rather than replace the complete speedometer unit which would of course have given an incorrect odometer reading I decided to take off just the needle to remove the faded dial, marking the back of the instrument as best I could to give the same MPH reading. Now I seem to be going a bit faster than the speedo suggests; could someone with the same bike check exactly what MPH they have in top gear for any given RPM? My first question on joining the Yamaha Owners Club was on a clutch problem I had at the time and I posted that in the New Members-General Area; although I got several helpful answers someone suggested that technical queries should have been posted in the "Garage" section, I just checked that section and can only see photos of members bikes??

I have the Haynes manual so I took note of the alignment marks mentioned in the book: the pressure plate looks symetrical so I am not sure why I have to do that. I am beginning to think that I have to use the very best grade of oil possible to help cure this drag problem.

It mentioned on the box about soaking the plates in oil but then I thought that the installed plates had been soaking for 20 years and were giving trouble anyway so I just liberally coated the new plates and left them to stand for a few hours. Now I know for sure the clutch is designed to be wet plate I will have to do that and soak them properly. As I said in an earlier reply I checked the operation dry viewing through the filler hole and the plates separated individually and equally which is the way you would think a clutch should operate, but when I put oil in they separate at one plate only leaving the others to fight their way through sticky oil. With the engine stationary and a gear engaged you can appreciate how difficult this is by trying to turn the back wheel by hand, it is almost impossible. I am using a good quality (but by no means the most expensive) 10-40 semi-synthetic oil. The bike was fine when I got it with just the clutch operation on the heavy side which prompted me to put a new cable in.... downhill thereafer!

The cable came from an eBay seller and looks exactly like the original, freeplay at the lever checks out, the adjuster is at rhe bottom end and the routing I tried I tried to keep it as smooth as possible.

Hi, thanks for the advice, I may redo this question in the correct section. I did mention it was a cable, when I replaced that is when things started to go wrong. I checked for grooves in the basket fingers and there are very slight rub marks, not enough to cause drag I would have thought but I had better smooth them off. When I put brand new plates in and before filling with oil I checked the operation through the filler plug and noticed that the plates separated cleanly and individually when operated but when filled with oil they stick together in one clump so not surprising they drag.

Hi, I bought a well cared for 1991 XJ900F a couple of months ago and I was very pleased with it but found the clutch very heavy and tiring to use, the cable looked original and felt stiff so I decided to replace it as a matter of course; the start of my problems! Finding neutral became tricky and acting on advice from the seller decided to clean the clutch plates, they looked OK flat with no warping and within manufacturers tolerances for thickness. On re-assembly engaging 1st gear stalled the engine with excessive drag. I replaced the clutch friction and plain plates with new just in case there was a problem I had not spotted but the same thing again excessive clutch drag stalling the engine. So I am getting worse and worse despite replacing clutch components with new items. The problem seems to be oil on the plates, are they meant to be oily?? there is an oil deflector plate in the bottom of the casing which seems to have been a design afterthought as is sits loose in the bottom held in only by a lug. The clutch basket looks OK with very little wear and no loose or wobbly bits. So I now have a bike where I pull the clutch in to engage a gear and the engine stalls with drag which seems to be because the plates are oily, but the clutch is in a casing where oil is present anyway so what have I done to make it worse than when I got it? Any thoughts on the problem would be appreciated!!