Clutch hub quandary

[suicideshovel65]

Restropection on the clutch hub pull I did last weekend:

I was getting a "clunk" sound from the clutch area upon take off or accelerating from low revs in a high gear. I went to adjust the clutch and also found that one of the studs ("fingers" - which are normally I believe peened fixed) was spinning freely, preventing the nut from performing its adjustment role.

I was at a total loss of how to remove it, and ended up (shudder) hacksawing it off so I could remove the hub. The hub was as I suspected badly worn anyway, with grooves from the clutch plates clearly visible.
I couldn't help wondering though if the solution couldn't have been neater than reverting to the saw.
Does anyone have any other hypothetical solutions?

Anyone have any opinions either way on 3 finger versus 5 finger hubs?
Are OEM hubs still available, and are they better quality than the aftermarket jobbies?
FWIW I've already bought a replacement 3 finger here in Japan to get back on the road faster, but I've seen discrepancies of up to $50 in part costs (with cork disk rivetted on in both cases) that made me wonder...
I paid JPY14,1400 for the part delivered which is about US$132.

And BTW, I don't think that the "clunk" was from hub wear - I'm guessing the clutch itself needed adjustment...could see any play in the tranny mounts etc...

Cheers,

S.

[panhead]

Jan Willem Boon http://www.jwboon.com sells them (3 stud), but I do not know if it's OEM.

[dirtydistrict]

Hi suicide, to avoid these groove troubles on the studs, you could use some aluminium plates, they are lighter but also thinner than the so called "police" 3 1/2 clutch, so one more iron friction plate is needed.

[kell]

Maybe the loose stud caused the clunk.
You can replace a stud too, it requires a special tool to hold the end of the stud while you peen it. I had to do that because I boogered up the threads on one of the studs. Now if I take the clutch apart I don't just unscrew the nuts, because when you get to the last one the plate pushes it crooked. Now I back out the adjuster nut first and put big washers under it to hold that outer plate in so I can just spin the nuts off easy. As regards your question of a better way to remove a nut from a spun stud, maybe you could have compressed the plate enough (using the adjuster nut) to get vice-grips onto the stud. But it probably doesn't matter that you cut the stud because you can't reuse it anyway.
One last thing: the instructions that came with the Jims stud tool I bought tell you to put the tool in a bench vise in order to hold it while you peen the stud. But I couldn't get a bench vise to hold everything motionless enough under the heavy peening impact. I went out and set the end of the tool on one of those curbs with a heavy steel edging. Perfect.

[suicideshovel65]

G'day. After having ridden it post hub transplant, I can say that the clunk now appears to be gone. Will have to ride it a bit more under various conditions to confirm however.
Regarding the method of removing the nuts - that is how it was done here too. Unfortunately we couldn't stop the stud from spinning and couldn't get the vicegrips on it so out came the hacksaw...
Cheers,

S.