2006 AE: serious, repeated "THUNK" when getting underway

[mcatrophy]

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I put it all back together, torqued it all down, turned the key, and.... SH_26.

The forum suggests a clutch bleed for that code, but I don't recall seeing anyone reporting an error code after a clutch soak.

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When I reassembled mine I got the SH__26 error code.

SH__26: Abnormal clutch movement is detected during check when main switch is turned to "ON".

Took the cover off, turned the switch on, could see some movement, but I didn't know what it should be. So I pulled everything off again, then reassembled, making sure the first friction plate to go on was outside the spacing ring that's at the back of the assembly. I suspect that this was the problem because it can easily be put together with the friction plate partly on top of the ring instead of round it.

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I also made sure the dogs on the pressure plate aligned correctly with the splines on the clutch boss.

After this, it all worked perfectly.

No bleeding is necessary as a result of this procedure, but it might need bleeding anyway - a procedure that seems very complicated according to the workshop manual. And I have heard of clutch juddering being cured by bleeding.

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Mcatrophy to the white courtesy telephone please!

Ok, ok, I hear it.

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I guess someone needs to drag Mcatrophy out of the bar or wherever he's hiding! You can never find people when you need them!! :angry2:

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It's so rare anybody wants me these days. Wasn't hiding, was on a cruise. No, not on a Hardley. (And, yes, there was a bar. Or three.)

Got to keep SWMBO happy.

 

[PhilMills]

Alrighty.

I pulled it back apart and put it back together, paying nice. close attention to the rings at the rear of the assembly. Everything's nice and snug with no play.

It's better - I can now do the turn-the-key-off-and-on-real-fast trick to get it to come up without SH_26 most of the time and when it does it goes easily from Neutral to 1st and back with the engine off. Woo!

...but it's not fixed. With the engine off putting it into first works, but there's some kind of a soft "chuck chuck chuck chuck chuck" sound that persists until I drop it back into Neutral. The automatic clutch doesn't seem to be engaging well - if I start it up and put it in 1st on the center stand, the back wheel gets some good speed up. If I put the back brake on, the bike stalls out.

Between these two things, my guess is that I've got some pretty decent air in the clutch system and will need to do a full bleed-out on it. The Mit-y-vac isn't pulling a whole lot of anything out of the bleed port on the left side, so that doesn't seem as effective as it should be, compared to how well it sucks on the brake system.

Could somebody send me a summary of the service manual walkthrough for bleeding the clutch system?

 

[mcatrophy]

...Could somebody send me a summary of the service manual walkthrough for bleeding the clutch system?

Links to the manual pages can be found here. Never done it myself, sounds very involved.

 

[PhilMills]

...Could somebody send me a summary of the service manual walkthrough for bleeding the clutch system?

Links to the manual pages can be found here. Never done it myself, sounds very involved.

You, sir, are my hero. Should you ever find yourself in Colorado, you are entitled to many beers at my expense.

 

[mcatrophy]

...Could somebody send me a summary of the service manual walkthrough for bleeding the clutch system?

Links to the manual pages can be found here. Never done it myself, sounds very involved.

You, sir, are my hero. Should you ever find yourself in Colorado, you are entitled to many beers at my expense.

Hope it helps. Let us know how hard it really is.

Not sure if/when I'll next be on your side of the pond, but I'll hold you to perhaps one beer if I do get there

.

 

[RadioHowie]

...Could somebody send me a summary of the service manual walkthrough for bleeding the clutch system?

Links to the manual pages can be found here. Never done it myself, sounds very involved.

You, sir, are my hero. Should you ever find yourself in Colorado, you are entitled to many beers at my expense.

Hope it helps. Let us know how hard it really is.

Not sure if/when I'll next be on your side of the pond, but I'll hold you to perhaps one beer if I do get there

.

'specially if it's a Newcastle Brown Ale!

 

[PhilMills]

Final outcome: The shop bled the system and I've got a functional motorcycle again.

After seeing the nasty work necessary to remove the swingarm for the book process and realizing I really had to start packing to leave the country for nine days instead of wasting more time on the motorcycle, I called the shop and got them to quote bleeding the clutch - $100, but they'd "probably come in under that".

I had them pick it up for the grounding recall and told them to do the clutch at the same time. Their shop manager learned an important lesson about looking up the book rate before blind-quoting a price that he was going to stick to. The book says that's a 4.5 hour job. To their credit, they did stick with the $100 max that they first quoted.

Apparently my shop cheats and did the bleed in just under two hours with a power vacuum bleeder and ignored the h*&l out of the manual actuation bolt and interfering swingarm.

As the bike is back to a happily starting and shifting unit, I'm not going to harp on them too much for cheating on the process. I'm still left wondering how I introduced that much air into the system just by removing the clutch pack, though.