Blaster pancake bearing mod

[Mert]

I fried my clutch ball again. This stupid design has been an annoyance for a long time and always seems to screw up at the most inopportune moments, like when you're miles from camp, or when police may possibly be pursuing you. I've seen the banshee pancake bearing mod and wondered why no one made one for the blaster.

After a few beers in the garage and a few minutes of research on the interwebs this is what I've come up with.

Bearings are on the way, a bearing and 2 thrust washers will go between the adapter I made and the pressure plate in the gap you can see in the 3rd pic.
I'll let you all know how it works, and possibly make a few sets to sell if anyone is interested.

 

[Awk08]

does this prevent the clutch side rod from spinning ?

 

[Mert]

yeah, it will still have the ball in there, but will also have a bearing to help with the load. This is what the bearing looks like

 

[dirtysquared]

Interesting Idea. I'm excited to see how it works out.

 

[Mert]

when my ball fried it also jacked up my clutch arm. So I tig'd it up with some A2 tool steel filler rod, so it should be indestructable now.

 

[Blaaster]

Interesting mod, has good potential.

 

[Awk08]

yeah, it will still have the ball in there, but will also have a bearing to help with the load. This is what the bearing looks like

yep, i'm fully aware what a pancake bearing is, but do not see how this is going to eleviate any of the load ?

it's the 2 rods rotating at different rates that welds them....1 at clutch rpm and 1 just sitting there stationary, seperated by a ball with opposing forces on it.
IMO, it would require 2 bearings, one on each side of the pressure plate to possibly free float that rod ?
(IF...there's enuf room between the rod/nut and clutch cover, + adding an outer pancake bearing on the outside will shorten the inner length of the rod = no clutch)
without an outside bearing, the rod will still rotate with the jamb nut.

without eliminating the high rpm's of the clutch side rod, I saw no way to prevent welding the ball when i looked into it before.

tuned in to see what you come up with.

 

[Mert]

the nut that fits in the octagonal hole on the pressure plate has been eliminated, the adapter I made is a cylinder that can rotate in the pressure plate, I milled some material off the end for a 8mm wrench so you can hold it still (like the pressure plate would have before) to adjust it. This is the exact same way that the mod for the banshee works in theory, but we'll see how it works in practice.

Having a bearing on the outside of the pressure plate would have no effect on the situation because when the clutch is disengaged (lever pulled in) all the force is between the rod and the pressure plate. The bearing on the outside might spin with it, but would not be holding any load.

 

[Mert]

Thinking about it I might still need to make a longer rod for my current design. It sticks out .150" further than the stock setup. I'll find out on thursday when the bearing gets here. Or I could make a short rod and grind radii on both ends to replace the ball and make up for space used by the adapter. At the shop I have the privilege of being able to use they have a bunch of cut off pieces of ejector pins used in mold making. These are pre-hardened and they have plenty that are 3/16", which is the same diameter as the ball

 

[bansheedave]

You are basically making your pressure plate like the one in my kx only using a pancake bearing instead of the roller bearing like in mine which is fine. But why not make a one piece shaft instead of piecing something together. Or am I reading it wrong and that's what your doing? Welding a rod together to eliminate the ball would create a stress joint which may fail under load. That's what I think I'm reading but unclear I guess.

 

[Mert]

not welding anything together. The adapter I made sticks out .150" past the pressure plate, so once a jam nut is on there it will be out that much further, which may be more than can be fixed with the adjustment. I will either make a longer rod to fix this, or make a short shaft that has a radius on each end to replace the steel ball in there. I would just make the inner rod longer but when my ball fried it made a burr and it's stuck in there. Splitting my cases this winter to deal with some other issues and I'll fix this then.

 

[amartin_72]

What type of riding causes this are you revving it a lot with clutch in?

 

[Mert]

slowing down really fast and dropping a lot of gears quickly. It's only happened 2 times in the many years I've been riding this blaster, but it's extremely inconvenient when it happens.

 

[DUALSTROKE]

What type of riding causes this are you revving it a lot with clutch in?

Holding in the clutch too long while still moving at a good rate of speed is what causes it.

 

[DUALSTROKE]

Good idea Mert and give you props for doing it. I have had a solution for this for years that costs almost nothing and no modding what so ever. Interested to see how it turns out.

 

[Blaaster]

Addition of white Lithium grease every season seems to help keep the problem at bay!

 

[Mert]

sorry for the delay. Life got hectic and also got a new truck and a new to me crf450x. But I finally got the clutch mod wrapped up. I had to take a little off of the adapter I made because it was just barely pinching between the center hub and the pressure plate. And my notches for putting a wrench on there dont stick out far enough so it makes it a pain to adjust. This will be fixed when my room mate makes one for his blaster. I havent ridden it yet but everything seems to be in working order.