Its just one thing after another

Having stripped, cleaned and rebuilt my carbs, I've finally got my enigne running. I pushed my car to the back of the garage, pressed the clutch pedal and selected 1st gear. No problem. I fed in the clutch and drove forwards by about a metre. A very exciting first drive. Pushed the car back and tried again. the gear grabbed but the car didn't move forwards so I thought I'd be OK. Tried to feed the clutch again but there was no weight in the pedal. The cable was OK but I can turn the clutch lever on the enigne by hand.

What has broken and how do I fix it?

As Mark says, it sounds like you've over actuated the clutch. On the R1 the clutch spring is a diaphragm spring, so it can go over-centre if pulled too much. I imagine if you pop the clutch cover off it should be pretty obvious if this has happened, as the diaphragm spring will be concave holding the clutch open, rather than convex pushing it together.

Agree with the above. Happened on my mate's R1 Mini rally car. While you have the cover off change the clutch diaphragm for a Barnett pressure plate. Much more clutch feel, no slipping and a lovely anodised red finish.

I have fitted a clutch pedal stop but haven't yet set it. I didn't know where the biting point of the clutch was until I got teh engine running. Typical.

The clutch pull lever moves through its 90° movement without any problem so it isn't stuck or jammed.

I have read through the service manual and can see that either the spring must be inside out or the pull rod and pull lever shaft have become disengaged.

Since I need to drain the oil and replace the clutch cover gasket, I may as well replace the clutch plates. What are the best plates to use? Yamaha ones or aftermarket?

Where can I get these from and also where can I get a barnett (or other) spring plate and pressure plate?

You dont actually need to drain the oil on the R1 when taking the clutch cover off, as the oil level lower than the clutch cover.

If you want to get the Barnett bits, Fluke Motorsport seem to be about the cheapest, although sadly one of the guys who runs it had a motorbike accident yesterday so it may be harder to get hold of them than they otherwise would be.

As to whats best, Im not sure. Mines currently running OEM frictions with the barnett spring conversion and its really good, although some people swear by the Barnett carbon frictions over the OEM ones.

Chris

That'll save me some oil then.

Is the original spring now useless or can it be popped back into shape. I'm thinking so that I can set the clutch pedal stop.

My local yamaha dealer is worse than useless so it may be easier to get hold of aftermarket plates.

I would think it will be OK once pinged back.

I think all Yam dealers are useless, either that or the two Honda ones I used to deal with were exceptional. The Yam dealers never seem to stock anything, and when you want it ordered in it takes 3 days for them to get anything in! A few months ago I called and asked them for about 5 mostly service items, they only had two of them in so I asked them to order me in the other bits and I would collect later in the week. They did this but forgot to put the other bits aside for me, so when I went to pick the stuff up they'd sold out of two of the other bits I wanted that they originally had in stock!
The other day I had another one, all I wanted was to order one of the little o-rings that seals the sump to the water pump drain pipe, they wanted advance payment over the phone for 50p's worth of o-ring and said they probably couldnt get the part number off the microfiche anyway so I was best off taking the old o-ring in for them to look at!

[Edited on 21/10/05 by ChrisGamlin]

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I have fitted a clutch pedal stop but haven't yet set it

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Isn't this a "rite of passage" for R1 BEC makers? The "classic" richard miles site (strikerR1 something) has a detailed description of this (I don't think it was the diaphragm going over-centre...) - dismantle then - er - mantle the clutch properly & reduce the lever throw!
cheers
Bob

Loosened the clutch bolts this morning and the spring just popped back into shape. The clutch friction plates are all 2.8mm thick which is below the service minimum. Perhaps it was as well that the spring popped as the clutch needed changing.

Bob, Rich's website is now at http://striker.r-one.co.uk

[Edited on 22/10/05 by ChrisGamlin]

Ferrino is right - you need 12mm of linear cable action(!) as per the bike....

(I wonder where you got that from!? )