Clutch problem with 4000km

[JaimeV]

Hi all!
A colleague and I bought 2 ST recently. After less than 4000km we both felt harder change gear and went to the Yamaha dealer.
Both bikes need to replace some discs in the clutch (guarantee).
We ride mostly in dirt, and sometimes in hard condition but we did the same with our olds GSA and didn’t have any clutch problem after 65.000km.
Anybody with the same problem?

 

[digitalmoto]

Hi all!
A colleague and I bought 2 ST recently. After less than 4000km we both felt harder change gear and went to the Yamaha dealer.
Both bikes need to replace some discs in the clutch (guarantee).
We ride mostly in dirt, and sometimes in hard condition but we did the same with our olds GSA and didn’t have any clutch problem after 65.000km.
Anybody with the same problem?

So far, I haven't had any problems. I mostly ride one tarmac with some gravel fire roads when I commute home and on weekends when I can find the time. I've got 4500 miles on my bike at the moment.

Could have been a bad set of cluth plates from the vendor. Fingers crossed.

Didn't you just do the Sardinia tour? Was that you?

 

[mingo]

If you've been riding some very technical off road and doing a lot clutch slipping, it does eventually wear out and you need new plates.. Replacing the clutch plates on the SuperTen is easy.. the clutch is easily accessible.


Every seen a GS split in half to reach the clutch? It's an 8 hour job at the dealer's and costs about $2000 for parts ($1200 and labor $800).

 

[JaimeV]

Digitalmoto, yes it was me, I did the Sardinia tour, fantastic!

Mingo, In this tour I did some very hard tracks but I'm usually doing this kind of hard riding. As I told you, in the GS I did 65.000km without any problems.
I know change the clutch in the ST is much easier and cheap than in the terrible expensive GS but 4000km is too little.
Hope is only a bad set and not a design problem.

 

[donaldb]

Done just over 9000km and have done some pretty hectic routes with my s10 and no hiccups from clutch at all.

Hoping you just had a bad batch of clutches.


Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Firefight911]

If you can, get some pictures of the steels and friction discs. Then, see if you can get the run out measurements.

Between the look of the steels and frictions plus the run out you will be able to determine if there was excess slipping involved in their failure.

Make sure the basket is checked and the free length and condition of the springs.

Dry or wet clutches can take slipping for a very long time, within context and reason, as long as it is done under low rpm. Any time some excess rpm goes along with clutch slipping you can rest assured the life will be very short, regardless of whether it's wet or dry.

Keep us posted on what you/they find.

How about oil use? As in what type have you been using? Motorcycle specific? Automotive oil with friction modifiers can be a detriment to wet clutches that share oil with th engine.

 

[GrahamD]

Sounds very odd to me that 4000Km would kill a wet clutch.

They will last as long as a BMW clutch, so I would say a batch problem there.

 

[snakebitten]

The rental S10 that I just put 3500 kilometers on, already had 70,000k on the clock. And from the overall look of the machine, those 70,000 kilometers were not gentle.

I felt that the clutch needed some refreshing. Hydraulically it felt great......just like my personal S10. But mechanically she had very little slack. (engaged almost immediately as you released the lever)

And neutral was a bit$& compared to mine. Mine finds neutral almost magically.

But 4000k? For 2 bikes? Something not right about that.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[JaimeV]

Yesterday I went to my dealer to solve the clutch problem. It works well except change gears is harder to usual.
The just change the complete clutch. No questions, no complains. The new discs serial number is different to the old ones so we suspect Yamaha improve this ones. They did the same with my colleague bike.
Amazing service! ::012::
After having a GS, I was also impressed how easy is to change the complete clutch, just 20 minutes!! ::008::

 

[NoMorBills]

I have just around 9,000 miles and I have noticed hard shifting on occassion. Not consistant just ocassioally. I don't feel that it is clutch related but I believe it is the nature of the beast. Time will tell, it may get better or it may get worst.

 

[mcbrien]

I have just around 9,000 miles and I have noticed hard shifting on occassion. Not consistant just ocassioally. I don't feel that it is clutch related but I believe it is the nature of the beast. Time will tell, it may get better or it may get worst.

I'm with NoMorBills , 5000 miles , Some times fine and sometimes notchy. My biggest problem is sometimes it doesn't want to shift from neutral to 1st .

 

[JaimeV]

In our case (two bikes with similar mileage), was worse when the oil was hot. One bike worse than the other.
With the new clutch everything is ok.

 

[jajpko]

In our case (two bikes with similar mileage), was worse when the oil was hot. One bike worse than the other.
With the new clutch everything is ok.

I understand what you are talking about. I have had some of the same problems when hot, but trying to get my service guys to understand and god forbid, check the clutch, would be akin to an act of war. IE, it ain't gonna happen.

I am going to pull the clutch and check it out myself.

Thank goodness you have a good dealer.

 

[fredz43]

Have you all cleaned and lubed the shift lever pivot bolt? A known source of shifting problems.

 

[jajpko]

Have you all cleaned and lubed the shift lever pivot bolt? A known source of shifting problems.

Yep, I've cleaned mine every couple k miles or more if needed. I had a complaint on a noise I couldn't identify from the FD. The guys said, " take off the rear wheel and check it out". WTF.. Anyway I did and greased everything put it all back together. It is just better if I do my own trouble shooting and repair it myself. ::009::

 

[JaimeV]

Have you all cleaned and lubed the shift lever pivot bolt? A known source of shifting problems.

Yes, my colleague bike clutch didn’t return to is normal position easy so we cleaned and greased and it did.
This wasn’t the problem.

 

[serhan]

Yes, I have the exact same problem, I am taking mine in on Tuesday. 3K miles.

I wish I had the time to do it myself.

S.