breaking free a frozen clutch

I'm waking up my 69 fastback after a long sleep. When I was driving it regularly, the clutch would freeze up (that is, stay engaged even when I pull the clutch lever) if it sat for a day or so, but breaking it free was relatively easy with a few good stiff kicks. Not so now--I've kicked my leg off and nothing will do it. Will I have to disassemble the clutch, or any other ideas?


chris

Chris,
Try putting it in gear and with the clutch pulled in rock the bike back and forth until they free. It might be worth pulling the primary and replacing the clutch plates with a nice set of Sureflex plates. Then use ATF in the chaincase and add just enough to touch the bottom run of the primary chain.

One of Dyno Dave's clutch shaft seals may also be in order. Your gearbox may be allowing gear oil to travel along the clutch shaft and contaminate the clutch pack. The seal is a good idea and I include one whenever I put in a new clutch pack.

Chris,

My 850 used to do this without regular use too - if the "rocking" trick that Ron mentions doesn't work, the quick fix is to strip, clean the standard plates in some petrol and reassemble.
It may also be the crank seal letting in oil and allowing the primary to overfill - even after replacement of the seal and running belt drive I still have to clean out the primary every 1000 or so miles.

Nick

the only oil I find in the two bikes I built with a belt drive is from the gearbox. it comes from between the sleeve gear and main shaft. I would like to find a way to put a seal there.I looked at a friends gearbox that races a manx with a summerfield 6 speed box and it sure is a slick peice. it has needle rollers instead of bush's and a seal in the sleeve gear. shame the sleeve gear wont fit ours.

windy

I had a mod done to my gearbox to put a seal in there. It's a steel ring welded to the gearbox sprocket nut. It was then put in a lathe and turned to take a seal.
Since I run a dry clutch and an open primary chain ( it just has a chain guard not a full primary case) I could see oil dripping out there. I would lean the bike to the right in the warm up area before a race so the scrutineers didn't see oil dripping out.