Clutch Plates and Oils
Stock steel backed H2 fiber plates, stock steel
plates, Barnett springs (all 5), Torco 85/90 wgt gear oil, and NOT ONE PROBLEM
IN OVER 15 YEARS, SAME CLUTCH, no creep, no "won't go into neutral", no
missssssed shifts, no drag, no problem of any kind, until the bike got stolen,
and I don't know after that.
And no, the bike wasn't anywhere near stock by a long shot.
I find Barnett plates to saturate and grow thicker as
they do, causing drag and creep in gear. Haven't had that happen with stock
plates, not once.
There used to be a company in Washington state, Metal Frictions, that made
EXCELLENT wet motorcycle clutch friction plates, the best I have ever used/seen,
and they were very close to the stocker Kawasaki plates, very, very close.
All this hooey about special gear oils for "wet clutch motorcycles" is just
that, hooey. ALL the wet clutch two stroke bikes I have here, upwards of 210 or
so, ALL have Sta-Lube 80w90 gear oil in them, and they don't creep and/or
saturate the plates, don't slip either.
It's like snake oil for front forks, ever look at an older Kawasaki microfiche
on the fork oils recommended, SAE 10, 20, 30 wgt MOTOR oils are included with
the "specialty" wallet flattener oils you can fool yourself with. I found low
cost motor oils worked better and lived longer in front forks than the over
hyped and over advertised stuff ever did. When I did Salaveriia's bikes for the
4 years we raced, and Cornwell's, they all had motor oils in the front forks,
and they had no adjustability or oiling issues. Cornwell is now an Ohlins
suspension specialist for World Superbike Championship Series teams, has been
for over 10 years now, and he still uses regular motor oils in his own bikes.
I think this advice is relevant, "don't put such a giant shoe on that you end up
tripping yourself". Erv Kanemoto.
About the first 12 years, I used stock clutch pusher,
after that, I made my own roller one.
As far as the release, I used the second design, full plastic, 6 flutes. Never
had one tear the plastic away from the steel center, but did have on the earlier
4 spline ones. Never did like the ball bearing ones, they always seemed to lock
up when the grease got stiff. I finally found a boat wheel bearing waterproof
silicone grease that worked well, too.