Q: My 1981 Suzuki GS 850, the one with the shaft drive, has recently begun to make a horrible noise that seems to be coming from around the clutch area, and it has me worried!
It has me so worried that I decided to take off the clutch cover and have a look inside, which turned into a nightmare because after putting the clutch cover back on it then pissed out oil all over my foot and I spent many hours on the phone trying to find a gasket. I did eventually find a ‘pirate’ gasket that cured that problem, anyway…
So I took out all the plates, steel and friction, but none of them were broken or damaged or badly worn and the big nut inside the hub is nice and tight so I put it all back together but still the irritating noise remained.
So my question is, what should I look for next and have you ever had a similar problem with this type of motorbike? Your help on this matter will be greatly appreciated.
Edward
A: You should have gone further whilst you were inside the engine because your problem does indeed arise from the clutch, or more specifically the clutch basket itself.
Take it to pieces again, as your did before, and remove the ‘big nut’
you described. If you have trouble undoing it try putting the bike into gear and standing on the back brake whilst the plates are still in there, it makes life easier, then pull out the whole assembly off the gearbox shaft.
Once you do have a good look at the back of the clutch basket and I bet the rivets that hold the back plate onto the basket are all worn and loose. This will cause the noise problem and an even bigger problem if they break off, because it might just wreck the entire motor.
So, don’t ride anymore until you fix this! Go on -line and you’ll easily find a heavy duty replacement back plate, rivets and springs in a kit and then you’ll need to find a good engineer to fit it all together, but do it now rather than later?
