So friends clutch has started to squeak on his 883 when you pull in the handle..and all of a sudden it won't disengage, cable feels broken. Remove cover, spring and nut thing fall out. There is a piece with a small slot in the middle..this whole assembly comes out, and we find a bearing cage that is missing allof the little balls. The inner race is missing one of the sides that used to hold the balls in. The outer race is intact, although evidence of metal to metal visible on the other side of where said bearing used to be. Me thinks it is the throwout bearing but don't know too much about harley transmissions to tell for sure. We are yanking the primary cover tuesday to look for carnage, as we could not find any of the bearing balls. Any idea what happened?

G'day Sprint

What year 883????

rimbender told me about some models having a smaller countershaft bearing tht can fail under extreme abuse.

Thanks for the replies, bike is a 94 sportster. It is whatever bearing is right behind the assembly the cable attaches to. Inner race is about 3/4 inch, outer race pretty big. Clutch was dragging for a long time before the failure. I am a bit worried about what we will find as far as how much damage those little bearing balls caused.

As I said, I believe the countershaft bearing failed. What happened is commonly known as a blown clutch basket. I don't know what you'll find inside. I hope it won't be serious. Repost when you find out. If rimbender comes online he may be able to shed some more light on the problem.

Took me a while to get past Stevo's new avatar. I had my 1993 sportster break some clutch parts in it last year also. The pieces were laying in the bottom and it began to slip. It would have the cable tension right and five minutes later it felt like it was trying to pull me through the intersection. I had mine repaired at a local indy and he replaced the broken parts clutch spring and other mangled stuff. About a month later my clutch began to slip and I got to change the plates as well. Make sure you change all the stuff out now. I got to pay for removeal twice not to count down time. Good luck. Now back to stevo's avatar

Thanks for theheads up, yeah, after we adjusted cable tension it would hold for a block or so..then start squeaking again..and the clutch would be dragging all over again. I will take some pictures of it with my digi as we take it apart.

One more question, while we have the clutch basket out, should we yank the transmission itself to make sure there are no pieces of metal and crap floating around there, or does it not circulate that way?

Bike is actually still under some sort of extended service plan..might not have to pay for a thing.

The cable tension the slipping clutch all sounds really familiar. If your friend has some sort of warranty I would take it in. This could get expensive. I spent about 500 before my clutch problems were worked out. I do have carbon fiber slutch plates though. Thats cool, I guesss?????

Update...friend is getting $$ worth out of the harley extended service contract...they got the engine and transmisisons apart as we speak...they said there were bearing parts and metal chunks all over the inside of the engine/transmission...thank goodness for warranties eh?

Good for you!! Glad to see someone get something out of the MoCo!!!!
:clap :clap :clap :clap


:D

Not me..him...I am thinking about getting that coverage for mine though...

I'm Just Glad Someone got something out of the MoCo!!! :D :D