Clutch question

Nortie · Aug 18, 2025

Hello everyone
I have about 5mm rotation movement on the clutch basket the rivets to the back plate are still tight in position and the cush drive springs look ok.
Is this normal ? The movement happens before the springs are compressed.

cliffa · Aug 18, 2025

Hi Nortie, it's possible that the ends of the springs have started to eat their way into the alloy clutch basket (this has been seen before), so look carefully there.

Nortie · Aug 19, 2025

Hi Cliffa, there is no damage to see the springs look nice snug in their place, only thing i can think is that the eyelets have worn out and in doing so created the play i feel. No way of cheking this without removing the rivets. That’s why i like to know if the 5mm movement is something to worry about.

TonyA · Aug 19, 2025

Nortie said:
Hi Cliffa, there is no damage to see the springs look nice snug in their place, only thing i can think is that the eyelets have worn out and in doing so created the play i feel. No way of cheking this without removing the rivets. That’s why i like to know if the 5mm movement is something to worry about.

Is the basket moving independently from the clutch basket ring gear. ? This sounds way too much to me.

kev · Aug 20, 2025

Yeh 5mm sounds like a lot. I had less than 1mm and was worried….

Nortie · Aug 20, 2025

Hi Tony , yes it does but as said no play on rivets, that is why i”m confused and don”t know what to do. I understand that it must be able to move for the cush drive to work but as you say 5mm seems to much play to me aswell

Nortie · Aug 20, 2025

Hi Kev, i wouldn”t of worried about that hardly noticable, did you have anything done to it?
It looks as if yours is axial play ( if see it wright on the video ) mine is rotational

cliffa · Aug 20, 2025

@Nortie , @BLIGHTYBRIT/SF forwarded me the video you shared with him. Have you actually removed the clutch basket yet and inspected the back of it? I would say the rotational play is excessive, and as I mentioned before, either the springs are chewing their way into the alloy of the basket, or your Cush springs have weakened and shortened allowing the backlash.

Nortie · Aug 21, 2025

Hi Cliffa i Just send Blightybrit a video and photo to send on to you. But like i said already there is nothing out of the ordinary to see , only option left i think is the eyelets for the movement of the cushdrive have worn or its chewing through the rivets , but they don’t feel to be loose if i rotate the basket

TonyA · Aug 21, 2025

Nortie said:
Hi Tony , yes it does but as said no play on rivets, that is why i”m confused and don”t know what to do. I understand that it must be able to move for the cush drive to work but as you say 5mm seems to much play to me aswell

You need to remove the clutch assembly and inspect. Send to Stu for reworking. Start by removing the clutch springs , plates and hub. Have a close look , take the basket all the way off . Something is worn out.

TonyA · Aug 21, 2025

TonyA said:
You need to remove the clutch assembly and inspect. Send to Stu for reworking. Start by removing the clutch springs , plates and hub. Have a close look , take the basket all the way off . Something is worn out.

Nortie said:
Hi Cliffa i Just send Blightybrit a video and photo to send on to you. But like i said already there is nothing out of the ordinary to see , only option left i think is the eyelets for the movement of the cushdrive have worn or its chewing through the rivets , but they don’t feel to be loose if i rotate the basket

There should be no where near 5mm of rotational movement in the gear teeth meshing !

TonyA · Aug 22, 2025

Nortie said:
Hi Cliffa, there is no damage to see the springs look nice snug in their place, only thing i can think is that the eyelets have worn out and in doing so created the play i feel. No way of cheking this without removing the rivets. That’s why i like to know if the 5mm movement is something to worry about.

The clutch assembly should be tight , if you can rotate it with your hand it’s loose. Time for a rebuild or replacement. Is this an early billet clutch basket or the later cast basket ? The internal parts can be sourced and clutch rebuilt. You really need to contact Stu at Motorvated for his opinion.

TonyA · Aug 22, 2025

TonyA said:
The clutch assembly should be tight , if you can rotate it with your hand it’s loose. Time for a rebuild or replacement. Is this an early billet clutch basket or the later cast basket ? The internal parts can be sourced and clutch rebuilt. You really need to contact Stu at Motorvated for his opinion.

I see you are in Germany , I remember you now. Based on your description, you already have the clutch basket off and viewing it from all sides. If you can move the clutch basket with only your hand it is loose ! Try Ollie Thiel for his advice.

Nortie · Aug 23, 2025

I’m Belgium not German , i figured out whats wrong i think. After looking at more photos on the forum i noticed that on mine you can see the alloy at the end of the springs so the hole in the black plate is to long and creates room for spring move , again no visual damage to be seen to either part, so my guess is it was like that from the go. Welding a little plate so it would be flush with the end of the springs will solve the problem .

cliffa · Sep 2, 2025

Nortie said:
I’m Belgium not German , i figured out whats wrong i think. After looking at more photos on the forum i noticed that on mine you can see the alloy at the end of the springs so the hole in the black plate is to long and creates room for spring move , again no visual damage to be seen to either part, so my guess is it was like that from the go. Welding a little plate so it would be flush with the end of the springs will solve the problem .

Yes, it seems to be that on the early bikes, the length of the cutout is longer than the pocket in the clutch basket. Mine is the same. You can see in this thread..

Thread 'Billet clutch basket surprise...'

Nov 21, 2021

Just stripping down a mk1 Sport with a transmission concern....gotta say...this clutch basket sub-assembly is a new one on me!

It looks as though on later bikes (maybe a TVS improvement) they are the same length, so the springs are always in contact with the backplate…

cliffa · Sep 3, 2025

I’ve been looking for this picture, and finally found it. @Stu Bodycote posted it a while ago.

The backplate has plates welded on as you can see. I wonder if the factory did it?

Nortie · Sep 3, 2025

Hi Cliffa , i’m going to do something simular . This photo convinces me i was thinking the wright way time will tell

cliffa · Sep 4, 2025

Nortie said:
Hi Cliffa , i’m going to do something simular . This photo convinces me i was thinking the wright way time will tell

Hard to tell from that picture, but I presume the plates are inserted into the slots in the backplate. I think I’d put a bit more weld on them as well. I’d hate for one of those to come adrift.

cliffa · Sep 5, 2025

@Nortie actually, thinking about it those plates welded on are doing very little. Don’t forget that the springs must bear on the driven plate which is sandwiched between the backplate and the clutch drum.
Have a look at Ken’s thread here and you can see what I mean. Basically all the backplate does is hold it all together and retain the springs. All that is really important is the the spring pockets in the drum and in the driven plate are the same length.

Post in thread 'Another clutch basket failure.'

Jun 9, 2020

OK, finally got the tools and got it apart. It appears that the rivets just came apart. I call them rivets, but it's kind of a weird design.

This is a picture of the basic parts. You can see two of the rivets to the right, along with the collars that appear to have been installed and then the rivets peened over in the plate to the right to keep them in place. But there's no sign in that plate of any marks from the pins being peened over, so I'm a little unsure of what happened here. I left the other two rivets the alloy clutch basket at the top to show where they fit. The rivets...

Clutch question

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