A little Maintainence

One of the great things about owning such a simple bike like the Ducati is that you can do much of the work yourself. By doing this I feel closer to the bike, kind of like I know it better and actually have a little more commitment to it. I know, this sounds like a relationship and in many ways it really is.

The latest work that I performed was installing a new clutch and clutch basket. You know that it is time for a new on when the clutch begins to slip and/or when the clutch starts making more noise than your exhaust. The noise that you typically hear is the “teeth” of the clutch banging against the clutch basket. Typically the basket is soft metal and the clutch is a harder metal and these two are not in constant and even contact. This means that the basket tends to take the brunt of the punishment.

This picture illustrates this:

As the basket wears out the is more movement and thus more noise. I also noticed that my clutch started slipping a bit. So I make the trek over to see Chris Kelly over at California cycleworks. Chris always provides great service to me and I like patronizing a local shop. I bought a Barnett clutch pack and a Nichols clutch basket. I was really happy with how well made the basket was. It is a quality piece and it shows. Unfortunately it will be hidden from site but sometimes the most important pieces are. here is a pic of the old and new one side by side.

You can really see the damage on the old one.

Removing the old clutch and basket is relatively straight forward. Removing the basket is tricky only in that you need something to hold onto the basket as you bust the nut loose. I actually used the old clutch to form a tool instead of buying a custom made tool. I mean no need to buy something that you don’t use that often and that you can fabricate yourself.

I used an impact wrench to hit the center nut and it came off pretty easily. Below is what the nut looks like. I simply inserted my newly minted tool into the basket, used a breaker bar in between the two bolts, and used the impact.

This is everything taken apart. My buddy Kyle came over and we had a couple of beers and did some work.

Here is everything put back together.

Overall this was really straightforward to do. There were some things that were tricky though. The clutch pack thickness had to be experimented with. The pack came with some replacement plates of varying thickness and I had to experiment with it in order to get it right. Also, don’t forget to get new springs while you are changing your clutch. I use stainless steel ones so they don’t rust out. This was a bit experimental also as some springs were tighter than others making the clutch pull tough. But I think that I have finally gotten it right and it feels good again!

Happy wrenching!

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