On the motorway & bang is all I hear, I quickly draw in the clutch and move to safety. The problem was clear the chain had left the bike, smashing the hugger, chain guard & the tail tidy. But luckily no serious repcussions. So I bought a Tusbaki chain, renthal sprockets but painfully the chain comes with solid nose master link. Needed a industrial strength tool to fit it. Which was a big annoyance. So with it all fitted I was excited to go ride & was shocked, depressed and seriously annoyed that I had no clutch action. Completely soft and feels it is only going back and forth on its spring. So did it break on the motorway, has the chain flying off caused the clutch to break? or did the clutch break first that caused the chain to let go? did I damage the clutch whilst taking off the clutch slave? The clutch is completed soft, tried the basic bleeding technique, its an RR5 with a hydraulic clutch. I am so annoyed with this (as had a lot of work and money spent on the bike already). I don't want this to be the straw that broke the camels back but I am I now almost ready to give it up for a ZX10r. Hoping fellow riders can give me an easy fix and allow me to be on my way with out giving up on my repsol honda.??
Buying another bike is an easy fix but what do u do with a clutchless blade? What if the same happens on the 1st ride on the new bike. Step back and think. Slave cylinder is only a piston pushing a rod pushing a plate. Easy to check which part of the train aint working. U said wasnt much damage; thankfully. Dump the oil and take off clutch cover check all looks ok, pull in lever does plate move out? I assume the rods in place. If not clutch prob ok check slave. Bleed from top and bottom. Is fluid coming out when u bleed? No? Bleed from top. Yes, take off slave take off res top push in piston fully pull in lever does piston move? Try all above.
thanks for the words of wisdom. I don't own a bleeding kit, but following the instructions in the manual I was getting oil at the cylinder slave whilst bleeding. I did this a few times and the level has moved from the upper to the lower. What is for sure the lever isn't doing anything, zero level resistance. I will check the clutch plate. If I can at least diagnose the fault that will help.
Just before you go dropping the oil and stripping things off have a quick look under the sprocket cover I'm not familiar with the RR5 but I'm assuming the hydraulic slave cylinder for the clutch is on or close to the gearbox sprocket cover, if this is the case my thoughts would be either the pushrod has been bent by the chain coming off (if this is the only damage you have you can count yourself very lucky) Or maybe something isn't seated quite right under the cover Try the easy options first as often associated problems that occur after somethings gone wrong aren't usually to far away from there
The rod went in and out smoothly, nothing notable on that. Having read on another forum they pumped the clutch for about 10 mins in order to bleed it properly. Ive only done 1 resivoir's worth. So I feel I should give this a good go before i try another else. fingers crossed this is all i need.
Can't imagine the clutch being broken from the chain snapping, sounds to me like a pushrod issue or bleeding the system, strange thing is why would it need bleeding? Has the slave cylinder been damaged by the flying chain
ok been pumping and bleeding for an hour and no luck & it has come back. Of course i got the routine wrong a couple of times so was like starting again. I've tried with the engine running and not. I had good movement on the bleeding, so full resevoir being emptied a good number of times. How many resovoirs would you say completes a cycle? How do i check the cylinder slave works? or the rod has some action. Having opening the cyclinder slave i moved the gear into 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the rod didnt move? is even supposed to?
From my experience, I would say only 3 or so... obviously you MUST NOT let the reservoir level drop too low, else you will just suck air in to your lines. Sounds like you've removed the slave... so just very carefully operate the clutch lever and you will see the piston move out of the slave cylinder... don't go mad else you might push the piston all the way out!!! The clutch release rod will not move at all if you're simply slamming new gears home. Enlighten me if I've missed something, but although you say the clutch lever action has gone all springy, what is actually happening with your clutch? Is it constantly released (i.e. you can change gear easily, but cannot drive the bike forwards when it's in gear) or is it constantly engaged (i.e. you cannot change gear easily)
So what is actually happening is probably the correct starting point, with the nike ticking over in neutral i can force it into 1st and the bike jumps forward and cuts out. I have only done the twice as i dont want to smash the gear box. So at this point I am working with a complete clutch failure. Whether i have the clutch pressed or not it makes no difference. So logically the problem for me is one of three broad areas, 1st - the master cylinder connected to the lever has air in it which isn't being cleared with bleeding 2nd the cylinder slave has taken some damage somehow. you mention piston in the cylinder slave, is this the black rubber centre that should move when you press the clutch. i.e pushing the rod in and out 3rd something at the clutch end of the rod which isn't working causing a complete malfunction. Sorry for the lack of technical data, I am keen on learning because i haven't had a good run with local mechanics. If someone can suggest a local mechanic then that too would be helpful.
I can't see the problem being over on the clutch side of the bike, from your description the clutch clearly isn't being disengaged when the lever is pulled. you are correct in number 2 above when you pull the clutch lever in you should see movement at the slave cylinder.
Ahh, I see...... that sounds quite bad then!!! Would seem unlikely... you've bled the system, cannot see how there could be so much air in the system that you get no movement whatsoever. Although, another possibility is that one of the flexible hose sections has been badly damaged by the chain, and is simply ballooning when you press the clutch level...... unlikely but possible. Yes... you should see this move outwards as you squeeze the clutch lever. This is the first test I would do, as the result dictates whether its a problem on the hydraulic side (relatively cheap fix) or a problem on the clutch side (potentially expensive fix).
