Clutch Slipping

[T-Town Mini]

This is what the clutch shoes looked like after only a few passes up and down the street. It's barely engaging 1/3 of the shoe.

The engine it's mounted to is a Tecumseh H30 so it's low on power but, shouldn't it at least fully engage the drum?

What's up? :shrug:

I've ordered new jackshaft gears to fix the gear ratio issue but after discovering this...is there another problem with my clutch?

 

[jeep2003]

its normal for low powered bikes. the right gear ratio will help but the clutch will wear in eventually and be a little better. you can stretch out the spring a tiny bit that should help. But you should get your engine in top condition. pull off the head and clean it up, pull out the valves and clean up the ports, give the valve lash some extra space, and if you really want to hotten it up get rid of the compression release. you wont be disapointed in what the little hs30 can do for no money at all

 

[The Restore Kid]

That is kinda weird.. Probably just because it's still new and hasn't burnt itself into shape how it want s to be, yet..

 

[T-Town Mini]

its normal for low powered bikes. the right gear ratio will help but the clutch will wear in eventually and be a little better. you can stretch out the spring a tiny bit that should help. But you should get your engine in top condition. pull off the head and clean it up, pull out the valves and clean up the ports, give the valve lash some extra space, and if you really want to hotten it up get rid of the compression release. you wont be disapointed in what the little hs30 can do for no money at all

That all sounds like a good idea...I didn't do anything to the engine other than rebuilding the carb, add the clutch then mount it to the frame. Thanks. I'll do something with it before I eventually bite the bullet and get a replacement engine.

 

[T-Town Mini]

That is kinda weird.. Probably just because it's still new and hasn't burnt itself into shape how it want s to be, yet..

Yeah, that crossed my mind. Could I speed up the process by sanding away the glazing on the shoe to form it a bit?

 

[mckutzy]

It might be a little off, but how is the throttle setup. Is it fully engaging.
I had a throttle cable slip off of the throttle nut a bit(where it clamps down), almost fried my clutch. Found out later what it was, sanded the glaze out of the drum, cleaned assembled, fired right up and very good take off.

 

[The Restore Kid]

Sanding it would make it a little more sticky, but it's not a full pull because only the edges are grabbing on the weights.. They will wear in.. That is just how the maxtorques work.. The spring is wrapped inside the back 1/2 of the weights, so they are allowed to tip just slightly.. It's just because it's all new..

I think Jeep is actually on the rite track with the engine might not be getting up to speed.. If your throttle isn't pulling the system enough, if the system is not dialed in rite, if the spring is not in the rite location.. The engine can't get to speed, because the governor is set too light..

The engine can't get the rpms it needs..

Those engines honestly will go like hell if ya let it.. NO GOVERNOR they will spin like a son of a bitch, but thats rough on stuff..

However, you CAN set the governor so it's pulling %90 harder than it's supposed to, and it makes a shit ton of difference.. I would MUCH RATHER have an engine that MIGHT blow itself up if held wide open (and be able to let off) than ALWAYS be twisting the damn thottle until the cable is ripping off the motor, and STILL not even get the engine barely above an idle...

Setup your throttle system.. so the throttle on the carb BARELY SHUTS when the engine is not running.. Like, if it's not running, you hit the gas, let back off, and the carb only goes back to 1/2 shut hmy:

Then when the engine starts, the governor will pull the carb back to idle speed..

But you want to make sure you are getting ALL of your throttle pull, being transferred to the motor... If you have to turn the grip 1/2 before the carb actually does anything, the governor is way to light....

About any engine has adjustments you can ad tension without having to mess with your cable... If it won't adjust out.. adjust everything back to the lighter side, THEN reattach your cable with more tension, and start going through your adjustment again..

 

[T-Town Mini]

That's some great information on set-up, thanks. I understand completely what you're saying to take any remaining "slack" out of the throttle response.

However, my throttle is using a direct connection:

When my son did the test ride he knew not to hold it wide open and so he feathered the throttle once he got it going. The clutch engaged enough to move it along but that was on level ground. As a result, the engine never did really rev up.

After the test ride, we lifted the tire off the ground and gave the engine full throttle...it didn't seem to want to rev. It was more or less on or off even though the throttle had full control of the butterfly's movement. At full throttle on the twist grip making it wide open the revs didn't seem to want to climb as if it were still being limited.

Jeep2003 mentioned the "compression release". I know nothing about that. Could that be what's restricting it? How is that disabled?

*I know this is not the Tecumseh thread but, the question is about clutch engagement so the discussion is still on topic.

 

[jeep2003]

probrobly needs a good carb cleaning. either that or your choke is on. If the jets are clogged you wont get the right air fuel ratio at all rpms and it wont run right

 

[The Restore Kid]

Yeah the fuel jetting isn't correct.. if it comes up in speed for a second then farts back out it is probably too rich.. If it's lean they usually run like hell, but die out and won't accelerate..

 

[T-Town Mini]

Thanks, guys. I'll see what I can do to adjust the carb when it's ready for another run.

I got the clutch back together on the engine and I'm waiting on those new gears (should be here this week) before taking it out of the garage. The weather's getting nice out...I'm itching to get it working the way it should.

 

[T-Town Mini]

I'll try and get a video uploaded of it running in a future update.

 

[george3]

Yeah the fuel jetting isn't correct.. if it comes up in speed for a second then farts back out it is probably too rich.. If it's lean they usually run like hell, but die out and won't accelerate..

Yep sounds too rich. If your not getting full power out of that little engine the clutch will slip. Don't feather it to take off. Ride it like you stoled it, but don't hold it full throttle for a long time once top speed is reached. Only a few seconds at a time without running a Governor.