EFM Autoclutch

[TapioK]

Carlos, the extra piece is not in these pictures, it was as a part from the Big Dog original clutch assembly(?). I have no idea why EFM had left or put it in. I sent a picture to Garry, he had no idea what it was…
The reason I did it my way is, I figured there may be a difference between clutches, and I wanted to see how it looks, not just trust on feel or blindly go 2 turns… I figure that with conventional adjustment you get to same result easier, but like I said, I wanted to see,
I didn’t like the idea of operating just by feel and then second guessing the adjustment and wonder if this is the way it should feel or work…

Think of the situation where you are in somebody's house in a party, you go to sleep and wake up in dark somebody riding on on your dick, feels pretty good, huh! you feel fingers on your eyes keeping them closed and hear “shhh”. OK, you enjoy and push back like there is no tomorrow. Everything is pretty good in your life, until you hear a male voice saying “OK, turn over loverboy, now it’s my turn”.
That is was trusting on a feel does to you!. Not good. :down:

Tapio

 

[RCAdd1ct]

Will the clutch dust have a path to get out of the clutch hub?

Mine did not and I had to do maintenance every 600 or so miles.

 

[05 old dog]

same here....clutch dust sucks...glad they are easy to take apart and clean.

 

[TapioK]

The way I see the adjustment (admitting I may be wrong, I’m not a clutch guru) , problem with “turn 2 turns” is, that springs in autoclutch push the pressure plate to open position, not closed as in normal clutch when engine is not running. in normal clutch its easy, just turn that ¼ turn, thats it. you don’t need to take in consideration the differences in thicknesses of the packs, or in baskets...

Now you should turn rod open the distance of the pressure plate movement plus that said ¼ turn. Movement should be around .055 - .06 according EFM.
If your basket and plates are on EFM specs, adjustment is most likely around 2 rounds as said, but it is not accurate. How accurate the adjustment has to be, I don’t know, but I wouldn’t like the rod restrict the movement of the plate -slipping clutch maybe?

In theory you could use ¼ turn adjustment, would you adjust the rod while engine is running say 3000rpm… that may be a bit difficult and painful though.

That’s the reason I pushed the pressure plate open against the rest of the plates, and then adjusted the rod, mine is most likely around ¼ round from touching.
My thinking may be fault, but the clutch seems to work nice and smooth.

Shit, I think I’m turning into Sven with these theories!

Tapio

 

[Little-Boo]

same here....clutch dust sucks...glad they are easy to take apart and clean.

X 3

 

[Little-Boo]

Carlos, the extra piece is not in these pictures, it was as a part from the Big Dog original clutch assembly(?). I have no idea why EFM had left or put it in. I sent a picture to Garry, he had no idea what it was…
The reason I did it my way is, I figured there may be a difference between clutches, and I wanted to see how it looks, not just trust on feel or blindly go 2 turns… I figure that with conventional adjustment you get to same result easier, but like I said, I wanted to see,
I didn’t like the idea of operating just by feel and then second guessing the adjustment and wonder if this is the way it should feel or work…

Think of the situation where you are in somebody's house in a party, you go to sleep and wake up in dark somebody riding on on your dick, feels pretty good, huh! you feel fingers on your eyes keeping them closed and hear “shhh”. OK, you enjoy and push back like there is no tomorrow. Everything is pretty good in your life, until you hear a male voice saying “OK, turn over loverboy, now it’s my turn”.
That is was trusting on a feel does to you!. Not good. :down:

Tapio

If that works for you, then I would continue to make any future adjustments the same way. I have taken mine apart several times now to clean the clutch dust and I always adjust it my way and it seems to work for me.

Be careful of sleeping over at parties, no matter how good it feels to have someone riding your dick it could have consequences, especially if it an all male party :lol: :roll:

Ride safe

Carlos :roll: :roll:

 

[TapioK]

Carlos, now I know for sure where the rod adjustment should be, in future it is easy to just most likely loosen the rod a bit when plates wear down… No need for visual, except on parties of course

How often do you need to open the setup to clean it? If every 600 miles, that really sucks, on a road trip that would mean like every day!

Tapio

 

[05 old dog]

not really every 600 mi...i have ran 1500 mi with no problems just cleaned to avoid sticking, preventive maintenance if you will , ive tried several different lubricants and found anti sieze works best for me

 

[oldmutt]

I hope I am missing something. This cleaning thing every 600 to 1500 miles is this with an open primary or with a wet setup. I thought about getting this but if this is required with a wet setup then no chance. I change my primary oil every 3000 miles along with my engine oil and I now have 17000 miles and I have never taken my clutch apart to clean it.

 

[Little-Boo]

Carlos, now I know for sure where the rod adjustment should be, in future it is easy to just most likely loosen the rod a bit when plates wear down… No need for visual, except on parties of course

How often do you need to open the setup to clean it? If every 600 miles, that really sucks, on a road trip that would mean like every day!

Tapir

I have done it twice since Installed as a preventive maintenance and not because it malfunctioned on me. The first time at about 600 to 1000 miles. The next time I did it was after a rally with lots of stop and go and maybe 800 miles. That was about 8 months ago and have not had any problems yet. I have about 900 + miles since the last time I took it apart. I have removed the outer bearing support once (Baker Open Primary) and hitting it with compressed air while working the clutch lever. Don't know if it did any good, but I was going to go on a 300 round trip ride and I didn't want any problems. That may be the thing to do, because I have not had to take it apart lately. I plan on removing my Tranny after the Holidays to install a fresh rebuilt tranny that I had done by Andrew Barnes (Bigdogtech01) a member on here. I will see what it looks like then.

Carlos :thumbs:

 

[TapioK]

OK, thanks.
Tapio

 

[oldmutt]

Carlos:
You are running a baker open primary where I can see the stuff collecting in the clutch. Has anyone with a wet primary needed to take it apart for cleaning?

 

[05 old dog]

no the oil in the closed wet primarys keep the clutches clean ...the problem is with the open primarys and mine has hung open twice when it was new and i ran a dry spray lubricant on the balls...thats a bad feeling when the tranny wont dissengage at a stoplight !

 

[TapioK]

Carlos, did you mean that clutch dust sticks to the bearings preventing them to move freely? Or dust preventing plate movement inside the basket?
I'm just thinking that maybe adding lubricant to balls (as Old Dog says) will just cause dust to stick even more... I suppose I will learn with more miles with this thing...
Old Dog, did you mean that "oilbath" in wet primary washes the bearings clean, while not entering the basket. I suppose the EFM is similar in wet and dry primaries?
Have you tried not to use any lubricant in balls? Or powdered graphite?

 

[Little-Boo]

Carlos, did you mean that clutch dust sticks to the bearings preventing them to move freely? Or dust preventing plate movement inside the basket?
I'm just thinking that maybe adding lubricant to balls (as Old Dog says) will just cause dust to stick even more... I suppose I will learn with more miles with this thing...
Old Dog, did you mean that "oilbath" in wet primary washes the bearings clean, while not entering the basket. I suppose the EFM is similar in wet and dry primaries?
Have you tried not to use any lubricant in balls? Or powdered graphite?

The Balls stick or jam with the clutch dust, it started to hang on me the first time so I took it apart to clean. However, like I said I have open primary and I can take the bearing support off and blow compressed air on the ball :lol: feel good :lol: and it has kept me from having to take the pressure plate off to clean it. I do that as a preventive Maintence to make sure it won't hang up on me. My Neighbor has the same set up on a wet primary and not a problem there at all. So I guess it works best on wet primaries.

Carlos

 

[Little-Boo]

Carlos:
You are running a baker open primary where I can see the stuff collecting in the clutch. Has anyone with a wet primary needed to take it apart for cleaning?

Yes, I have the Baker open primary and you can't see it collecting on the balls unless you take of the outter bearing support.

Carlos

 

[RCAdd1ct]

500-600 miles on the BDL top fuel.

Max was 800 miles.

Two tow trucks later I went back to stock.

Main deal is to let the clutch dust out. The BDL has no venting. If it was vented it would be better.

Rows of vent holes in the outer clutch hub would do it, but I just went back to stock instead as it was no longer going to be a commuter.

 

[05 old dog]

so carlos you use no lubricant on the balls??? just steel on alum??

 

[RCAdd1ct]

I tried running dry after chatting with Garry.

I made it 15miles and was one of the times a tow truck was involved.

My fault, I left the tools to open it up at the house, but still it stranded me.

 

[05 old dog]

hmmm....well ill stick with the antisieze...it has worked the best so far...