Blasted clutch parts,need finish suggestion.

[chuck58pan]

I had my clutch shell,hub and spring retainer blasted to remove some heavy rust. my question is how to finish it to preserve and protect the metal. I have some miricle urethane paint that seems tough, maybe parkerized or just oiled. looking for suggestions. I have read some clutch posts and will probably fill in the pieces with a 3 1/2 plate police with some new steels . thanks, Chuck

[FlatHeadSix]

chuck

I'm a huge fan of the parkerizing process, it is a very easy do it yourself project, and it works if done correctly.

You can parkerize all the clutch parts. The final step in the process involves getting the porous treated metal to soak up some oil, preferably something that displaces water like WD40. All of the contact surfaces will quickly return to bare metal, but that's ok.

try it, you'll like it!

mike

[john HD]

chuck

would agree with mike, i blasted a bunch of stuff years ago to assess what i had in a bucket of parts that was given to me by a friend.

after blasting i sprayed everything with LPS #3 for storage.

years later the parts have still not started to rust.

john

[VintageTwin]

I like the V-Twin Extreme Duty Police Service bonded friction plates (18-1124) and Barnett or now, I guess it's York® rattleball-less (smooth) steel drive plates. There's a half-plate in that Police Service kit too. I like the (18-3124) Nyla-tron (nylon with no backing plate) hub liner too (comes with rivets). You can use the http://brattons.com #2710 rivet tool to set the liner rivets tight. I've never used their brake rivet tool, but it looks like a complete set for linings of both brake and clutch.


The half-peen is to counter sink brake linings that ship with just a hole drilled. Pretty cool. Made in Taiwan. About 27 bucks.
Nyla-tron delivers smooth release and excellent ratchet
jockey/rocker clutch to road transition.
Fact is, there's alot more choices of clutch packs now in the 2008 catalog. I'd get one and take a look for yourself. Free, at price we can all live with:
http://www.vtwinmfg.com/NewVtwinWeb/Par ... cInput.jsp
If you bead blast what you have, you wouldn't want anything greasy to transfer to the discs. The clean fiber of the discs will keep the drive plate surface margins polished.

Note: I'm now speaking to the new de-vo-tee of 74 cu. in. OHV, whom visit this site, that may not know as much as the rest of us.

[mbskeam]

I have had the nylatron inner disk from day one, it floats and seams to work very well,oil does not affect it at all.
you could also just paint the parts with a rattle can, they dont get that hot.

mbskeam

[Kuda]

"I like the V-Twin Extreme Duty Police Service bonded friction plates (18-1124) and Barnett or now, I guess it's York® rattleball-less (smooth) steel drive plates. There's a half-plate in that Police Service kit too."

Just a heads-up: I recently ordered the V-Twin kit mentioned above from JP Cycles. When it came in, there were 4 plates and 5 steels, but no 1/2 plate. When I called to find out WTF happened, I was told that the 1/2 plates are no longer available and are being "substituted" by an extra full plate. Quite a disappointment...

-Kuda
'49 panchop

[VintageTwin]

Don't be disappointed. The extra plate works just as well. I'm on the Big Island at present, but I'll be back in the shop Tuesday morning. Put the clutch together asyou have it, if you have any problems, we'll work them out. I had the same clutch you did. If you don't like the parts you get, don't get mad, tell us what's wrong and we'll tell you what to do.
I'm writing a pilot of Discovery Channel about Tedd Cycles rogid Panhead kits. They're helping us out. Thanks to everybody that bought Vol 2, so far. We'll carry on past that here at good ol' hydra-glide.net. The home of Panheads.

[Cotten]

You will find that running a spring ("half") plate is an improvement in not only clutch action, but reduced noise.

....Cotten

[Kuda]

You will find that running a spring ("half") plate is an improvement in not only clutch action, but reduced noise.

....Cotten

Bingo. I don't care much about noise, but it's tougher to get a smooth release with the full disk. Seems as if it's "grabbier" than the old 1/2 plate. If it hadn't been so loose (rivets shot), worn, and oil soaked, I'd reuse the old one. But it's way too far gone. So now I'm on the hunt for just a 1/2 plate...

-Kuda
'49 panchop

[panz4ever]

Kuda, J&P Cycles lists the Extreme Duty Police Service Clutch Set under the Vintage catalog as part # 6300155. Was gonna order it but....questions is...Is this the one you ordered and they sent you the one you describe above instead? And, forgot to say that this is just for the fiber plates. Doesn't include steel plates

[VintageTwin]

And, forgot to say that this is just for the fiber plates. Doesn't include steel plates.

Yea, you need to order the smooth steel drive discs separate from the bonded fiber discs.

. If it hadn't been so loose (rivets shot), worn, and oil soaked, I'd reuse the old one.

I'll post my Police Service clutch so you can see exactly what parts they sent me years ago. The real half-plate may indeed make release smoother and quieter (there is a reason Harley made a spring plate for sure), but I used the Nyla-tron hub liner and riveted it tight to the hub. I'm pretty sure that I don't have a half plate either. I used that extra steel drive plate that came with the kit. My clutch is apart, so we'll know tomorrow. Wait till you see how tough those bonded fiber discs are......they can take some real abuse (like non-stop parade duty, the worst duty there is, riding with the clutch half-engaged) and not even show wear.
So, basically what I'm trying to say is that if you have the original cork/steel hub liner and it's oil soaked and loose, you should replace it with a Nyla-tron. I had smooth release with my Police kit. Of course you need to make sure the clutch hub studs are straight. That makes clutch release smooth if their straight and jerky if even one of them is crooked.
You know, with alot of these parts, the aftermarket people that make this stuff have found over time, what works, with fewer amount of ingredients and they go with that.
I'm assuming that we're talking about 3-stud hubs and not 5-stud. I don't know anything about 5-stud.

[Kuda]

And, forgot to say that this is just for the fiber plates. Doesn't include steel plates.

>Yea, you need to order the smooth steel drive discs separate from the bonded fiber discs.

Yep, had to order (and wait) for an extra steel to intall the kit. And yeah, it was the Police Service clutch that's advertised as having a 1/2 plate...it didn't.

>I'll post my Police Service clutch so you can see exactly what parts they sent me years ago.

I'd like to see that, yeah.

>The real half-plate may indeed make release smoother and quieter (there is a reason Harley made a spring plate for sure), but I used the Nyla-tron hub liner and riveted it tight to the hub.

That's what was on there before, but the free-floating Nyla-tron hub liner. Replaced it with the riveted liner that came with the clutch kit.

>I'm pretty sure that I don't have a half plate either. I used that extra steel drive plate that came with the kit. My clutch is apart, so we'll know tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to hearing how much difference you feel it makes. I could definately feel it...

>So, basically what I'm trying to say is that if you have the original cork/steel hub liner and it's oil soaked and loose, you should replace it with a Nyla-tron.

Nope, other way around: old oil soaked Nylatron (not that I think it's affected by oil), replaced with a new stock type liner.

>Of course you need to make sure the clutch hub studs are straight. That makes clutch release smooth if their straight and jerky if even one of them is crooked.

New hub too, also V-Twin, with the long rollers (Big Fix) and the plastic clutch hub retainer.

>I'm assuming that we're talking about 3-stud hubs and not 5-stud. I don't know anything about 5-stud.

Nope, it's a 3 stud. Never saw much point in the 5 stud myself...

All in all the clutch isn't bad, but it's not as "featherable" as the old one, so like I said, I'm still on the hunt for a 1/2 plate...

-Kuda

[VintageTwin]

but the free-floating Nyla-tron hub liner

Free-floating?? I think the liner(s) should all be riveted tight to the hub. A younger than me Harley mechanic at San Diego Harley told me that the hub liners didn't need to be tight, but that was after he loosely riveted mine.
Mbskeam backed my claim that the Nylatron liner could get oil soaked and not be affected (it's nylon).
How did you rivet that nyla-tron liner on the hub? Loose?
Look for the half plate but don't buy it yet. We don't want to start throwing more money at the problem.
Hang on till you see the pics I'm going to post.
Yea, the featherable thing, I think is related to whether the liner is loose or tightly riveted. I would have hated a grabby clutch, and could never have lived with one, so I never had a grabby one with my set up. So I think we're away from the 1/2 plate being a problem.
3-stud cool. Let's don't over-engineer what Bill and Walter designed, unless they need us to, is my reasoning too. We're all on the same page now.

[VintageTwin]

I was wrong. My Police kit did contain a half-plate. That's the smooth steel drive disc on the right.
My half-plate looks like a bonded fiber disc with one side missing the fiber, is all. You might be able to make your own 1/2 plate by removing the fiber off one fiber disc. Call Kick-Start (616) 245-8991 (EST) and ask them if they have any half-plates. If they do let us all know. If they don't, then tell us what they told you to do.


This is the front side of the Police Clutch half-plate.

This is the friction side. It does look like all they did to make a half-plate was leave the fiber off the front side.
I'll post a pic of my nylatron liner later today. I'd like to know what you used to rivet your nylatron liner in place and whether it was tight to the hub or loose.

[PanPal]

The other side of the half plate should have spring fingers. The spring fingers make the difference in the progressive pressure when you release the clutch. I notice a big difference with it in also. It didn't work well without the half plate.