EC200 Clutch - or lack of

[Muzungu]

At randomw times the clucth control on my 2011 200 dissappears - the clutch lever can be pulled right back to the bars and still dragging - this is rather unsettling on slow twisties as assists in making bike drive into corners it shouldnt! And then a few seconds later is fine.

I can find no problem with it, bleeding is fine as are fluids.

Is this a common problem?

M

[GGEvo]

Has this fault on my '10 EC300. My clutch was disengaging after about 3-5 secs. Dealer advised there was a fault with the seal in the master cylinder. Easy fix under warranty but frustrating all the same.

[noobi]

If you have no free play in the lever it can result in inconsistent engagement points with the lever. Free play=good.
Otherwise it could be the seal

[stainlesscycle]

either master or slave has a seal problem. both are cheap and relatively easy to rebuild.

[mrkartoom]

I have almost the exact same problem on my less than 1-hour old clutch. When cold the clutch disengages against my fingers on the grip, then after a minute I have to pull it to the bar to get it to disengage. I have torn the slave apart and bled it 2x. Going into the master cylinder is next on my list. I am hoping I will see something in there to indicate the problem (imperfection in seals, scored cylinder wall from leftover machining debris, etc.). Hopefully this is my problem and I can get it sorted.

I noticed my problem only after removing the two rear bolts on the case guard/slave, but I think that was merely coincidental and the problem was there from the start. I've only ridden the bike one good time and may just not have noticed it. However, this may explain the couple times I stalled it in slow corners. I remember being a bit surprised that I stalled it each time.

[GGEvo]

Must admit my problem started and took me a while to notice it was a problem, just thought it was me getting used to a hydraulic clutch. However, it gradually got worse until one ride it became unrideable - just kept disengaging and would re-engage after a few pumps of lever.

As mentioned, the dealer knew exactly what the problem was. Said they had a few returned and thought it was a bad batch of seals in master cylinder. Has been working faultlessly since this was replaced.

[mrkartoom]

Originally Posted by GGEvo

Must admit my problem started and took me a while to notice it was a problem, just thought it was me getting used to a hydraulic clutch. However, it gradually got worse until one ride it became unrideable - just kept disengaging and would re-engage after a few pumps of lever.

As mentioned, the dealer knew exactly what the problem was. Said they had a few returned and thought it was a bad batch of seals in master cylinder. Has been working faultlessly since this was replaced.

You have a 2010 and we have 2011's. Odd if they would still be shipping bad seals, but I hope this is the problem as that would be a simple fix.

[lankydoug]

If it is slowly disengaging and you're not losing fluid it just about has to be the clutch master cylinder internally leaking pressure. New seals should fix it unless there is a problem with the bore.

[mrkartoom]

I'm definitely not leaking any fluid and my slave looks perfect. I'm going to pull the master apart today and see. I wanted to do some more jetting and test riding before I tore into the clutch again, but it's rain rain rain for days on end here now so I might as well tear into it. I'll report back on what I find.

[mrkartoom]

Okay I took mine apart and here's what's in there.

I don't really see anything obvious with the seals, but other than nicks or tears not sure what I'm looking for.






There is a washboard-like surface effect on the interior of the cylinder bore, which I assumed would be smooth. Anyone know if this is normal?




Finally the machining in the reservoir. This looks pretty sloppy here. The bore of one hole overlaps the other and actually there are vertical slits open on both sides of the wall in between, which is <paper thin and bent over as you can see. Tiny shreds of hair-like machining strands left dangling off the bores. hmmmmmmmmmm