Norm's Bikes: Panther Progress

It May Be Reverse Progress!

Last weekend the first test ride did not go as planned.

The clutch would not release completely which made coming to a complete stop a bit tricky.

"No officer you can't give me a ticket for a California stop, it's the clutch honest"

The clutch cover has been removed and the clutch inspected.

The first thing of note is that the clutch spring nuts are all over the place, they should all be just flush with the end of the stud.

The first thing I needed to do was make a tool to remove the nuts.

As the measurement was a bit tricky with everything in place, I made a best guess.

The first piece was good enough to remove the nut which had least tension.

Once I had the first nut I could make decent measurements and remade the wrench.

As you can see the Panther was previously owned by Mr. Phil I. Stine

When I was an apprentice millwright, the manager of the engineering department Mr. Dodds, called vise grip or pipe wrench damage the marks of the Philistines.

Translation to UK English:

Vise Grip = Mole Grip

Pipe Wrench = Stillsons

These were made by guys who were either too lazy or too uneducated to use the correct tool.

OK once in a while you have no choice, but you need to do your best to avoid them.

But even worse, beat the crap out of everything in sight with a hammer and punch or chisel.

Grrrrr.

Once the nuts and springs were all removed with the Mk II tool the cover and clutch plates were removed.

Now I have a conundrum, The assembly has the correct number of friction plates, which is three as per the addendum note on the Burman drawing of the clutch and gearbox.

The problem is that instead of one plate in the back of the set up there are two.

Both plates in question are seriously scored, now this cannot be from friction / slip between each other as they are both internally splined with no chance for relative rotation.