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Essentially, What You've All Done Is Made High Speed Cheese Graters.....
The problem with clutch slippage isn't the plates at all.
It's the material of the clutch pads. It's Very Poor. I'll quote Jim from Creative Engineering as he said it best:
"Ground up underwear glued together with Cheese-whiz". So now your "solution holes" are going to eat your clutch pads away, and I guess it doesn't matter because that material was on it's way out and you guys are going to be at the real solution before anyone else....
Different Clutch Material.
Jim has purchased some excellent dry clutch friction material that should last as long as the engine.
He just has to find the time to make the dies.
You see, the design of these clutches only leaves a small window of adjustment. It all relies on a constant that doesn't stay constant:
The thickness of the clutch pads. This stock material gets ground away like a pencil eraser, and when it wears past a certain thickness....No More Adjustment.
Here's a nice write up by yours truly:
Happy Time Clutch Adjustment
The adjustment of the clutch on these engines is a magical ballet between a few factors:
1. Flower nut depth/tension
2. Internal Clutch Spring Tension (which actually is adjustable externally and is the most important)
3. Thickness of the clutch material
4. Pin Length
When one thing changes, everything else has to be adjusted.
The Internal Clutch Spring Tension can be adjusted by removing the clutch cable stanchion from the block, taking a 3/16" steel dowel and inserting it into the hole to find one of the four square notches on the internal spring adjustment nut inside to lock it, and spinning the motor (with the spark plug wire off) to tighten or loosen. Running the engine backwards tightens the internal spring; running the engine forward loosens it. Another problem I can see by design, is that there is nothing to "lock" this adjustment in place once the adjustment is made on the internal spring tension; meaning, it could "float" upon operation of the motor by vibration either to tighten or loosen....I bet on the latter.
Take calipers and measure the thickness of a couple of your clutch pads.
Find a measurement from a new set of pads. Are your pads "mushroomed"
and/ or deformed at all ?
Like I said, it's a ballet,
So start by tightening the internal spring a bit. (Back off the flower nut first by holding in the clutch lever to release the pressure) Remove the cable from the arm and stanchion from the block and go to work.
A good start is 1 revolution backwards to tighten the spring. I had to tighten mine by 4 revolutions, so results may vary depending on what Hong Kong Phooey decided to tighten yours at or if it loosened by vibration.
-Then snug up the flower nut
not too tight, by holding in the clutch lever in after the Stanchion and cable are reinstalled.
Remember: Every Time the Flower Nut Is Adjusted , The Cable-To-Clutch Arm Set Screw Must Be Reset
And lastly, loosen the clutch actuator housing screws and notice if the pin pushes the housing out. If so, take note of the gap where it stops pushing between the actuator housing and the block. This determines that the pin is now too long and will need to be shortened just under the amount of this gap. Just make sure the actuator housing gap is parallel to the block top to bottom, left to right to determine more accurately how much the pin needs to be shortened. Just play with the three screws on the housing and go by feel. You will know when you got pin length right when there is ever so slight of and outward push from the pin to the actuator housing just before the housing snugs up to the block.
Now, if after all of this the housing doesn't push out at all, or the arm has to swing waaaaay in to operate, or doesn't operate at all. Then you have the opposite...The Pin Is Too Short, or the clutch pads have worn so thin that they are out of useable adjustment spec.
(watch out for that ball bearing behind the pin that likes to fall out and roll under your work bench)
Then the ballet begins between the flower nut, arm-to-cable set screw point, and feel.
I like it where the cable is set just off of where the arm starts to tighten when turned. A good tip is to leave the cable housing "adjuster screws" at the lever midway, and at the stanchion all the way in. This allows you to dial it in and fine tune it to exactly where you want. Bringing out the cable housing adjuster at the stanchion tightens the cable without having to dilly dally with the cable set screw at the arm, and can provide a more minute ( my'noot ) (SP?) adjustment.
HTH
'BrettMavriK
here's my clutch plate: I also noticed some adjustment issues. Previously my clutch would disengage fully at my current adjustment of the flower nut but now it grips more and will stall the engine at a stand still and will probably glaze the pads... One adjustment back of the flower nut causes the clutch to slip...
People attempting this mod shouldnt go to crazy with adding more holes than what is already shown in this thread b/c eventually there will not be enough surface area to grip to the clutch pads...
Nice tutorial BTW Brett
