Posts Tagged ‘clutch hub removal’

I managed to get to the tool store tonight and picked up a “T” bar styled 3/4 inch breaker bar and inch and a half socket.  Pulled my baby out of the garage and pushed her front wheel up against the garage wall.  Got out a torch and heated the compensating sprocket nut for several minutes (until I started to smell something “h0t”.)  Slid my 3 foot cheater pipe over the breaker bar and heaved on it.  Mother of all nuts – the damned thing broke loose!  There is a God!

After completely removing the compensator hardware there I was with a piece of steel jammed between the front and clutch basket sprockets.  Solid as hell.  I seem to remember that the original Harley tool was two bars that fit above and below the center line of the shafts and had a couple of long bolts between them to lock them into place.  Guess I’ll have to fabricate one for future use.  For now, there’s that tool wedged in the primary chain.

I was contemplating a torch to cut the damned thing out but decided to see if I could pry the thing loose wth a crowbar.  Placed the crowbar tip into the clutch basket area and gently pried on the very end of the gear jam tool.  Pop.  Got one tooth.  Pop again.  Got another.   One more tooth and the tool was out also.

Off comes the clutch basket, front sprocket and primary chain (without any damage I might add.)  Only thing left is the clutch hub.  Memory told me that the hub usually isn’t on too tight since it fits on a tapered shaft.  Wrong again.  This baby was on there solid.  It is a stock three adjuster clutch hub and uses Harley Davidson special tool number blah blah blah to remove it from the shaft.  Since I am replacing the hub and fiber plates I wasn’t too worried about what ever it took to get it off.  After some thought I decided I could use a standard gear puller using a couple of the fiber plates for leverage.

I slid two plates over the hub studs and installed the three clutch adjusting nuts to hold them to the hub.  Slid a deep well inch and an eight socket over the loosely installed hub nut so the gear puller wasn’t grinding against anything that could be damaged and cranked down on the gear puller.  After applying considerable pressure the hub loudly “popped” off the shaft.

Finally the primary is clear to come off.  However, its late and I decide to wait till the weekend to go any further.  I want to examine the inner primary very carefully for cracks etc.  The inner primary for the 82-83 FXR is not an easy item to find so if this one needs any repairs I want to get them done and done right.  So, Labor Day weekend looks like the target for completing the front drive sprocket inspection project.  I kind of hope that it is loose.  If so, I think I’ll just replace/tighten it and put things back together.  If not then likely it is time to dig deeper into the engine in search of the vibration source.

Good night!

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