Help: Clutch Removal Problem

I feel your pain Terry ,

I was trying to fix the basket gear free play , same problem. I decided to live with it for now. You might want to search the posts and see if anyone has removed it by using the puck slots for leverage with a wheel puller ?

Keep us posted if you have any success .
Mark

Well .... if you can stay away from the shaft . I forgot you didn't need the gear .

Why do you want to remove the clutch plate? The centrifugal clutch assembly goes in place of the small gear. The rest of the clutch is left intact so that you can still pedal-start the bike.

When you install your centrifugal clutch, note that it is press-fit onto the taper of the crankshaft, there is no Woodruff key, or keyway locking the two together.

There have been cases of the clutch assembly slipping on the shaft and machining away the taper. There are some posts here in this forum about that.

You then have to machine a keyway into the clutch and install a Woodruff key onto the crankshaft to get it working again.

I bought my centrifugal clutch separately and did the keyway modification right away, and have had zero problems.

I post this info, just so that you are aware of what might happen, and how to solve the problem.

Hi Terry,
That is the way the centrifugal clutch comes. It is just a taper fit onto the crankshaft, and you tighten the bolt down, and it forces the CF onto the taper of the crankshaft and locks the two pieces together. I think Loctite will help keep the bolt tight.

When I installed my CF, I test fitted everything on a spare crankshaft I had before installing into the bike, and when I went to install it, wouldn't you know it, the taper on the engine's crankshaft was different than the taper on my spare crankshaft, and the CF was up too high it was hitting the new cover for it.
I had to use the Dremel to remove some of the taper from inside the CF, and while I was at it, I added the keyway slot.
After all that was done, it went in good, and the final few turns of the bolt seated the CF onto the taper fully home, plus the Woodruff key is in there to prevent any slipping or movement.
I have had 100% reliability with this setup so far.
I am very happy with the CF setup, and all my future builds will have one.

That is what happened to me, so I had to Dremel the CF a little bit and remove some of the taper so that it would slide further onto the crankshaft.

Hey Fulltimer,
How's that CF working out for you? Fits OK? Any problems?