Clutch Throwout maintenance, '14 V7

[Toecutter]

Quick question... parts required are:

Thrust bearing/needle roller  2A000376
rod   GU20085720
inner body bushing  GU14086000
and o-ring  GU90706170

...Correct?

Now... once the arm is off, do I simply remove the outer body and take the rod out, and slip the replacement back in? The parts fiche confuses me a bit... due to the spacer on nut on the far end of the rod.

[malik]

You can pull the outer body out, but the thrust bearing requires a magnet to slide it along the rod. Evidence of thrust bearing wear is the collar of the inner body no longer sitting flush with the gearbox cover. If it still is flush, it ain't broke & doesn't need fixing. I don't know about removing the rod, or more to the point, getting it back in safely - there's 2 O-rings and an oil seal (called a gasket in the SPM) in there. The only time I've removed the rod & replaced it was when I had the gearbox off.

[Toecutter]

Thank you.

So, your advice is to pull the outer body, and inspect needle bearing... And if all looks good... button it up?

[malik]

If the collar of the outer body is flush with the gearbox cover, you don't need to even do that. If it's flush, it's not worn. Do nothing but clean it. If it's recessed, the thrust bearings are worn - replace them. If it's proud, it's a symptom of another problem (I forget what, but I know where to look it up).

[SmithSwede]

I would leave this alone unless you have reason to think there is a problem.  If it is not recessed, and not making weird noises, and not leaking a ton of gear oil out the back, then at most clean up the road grime from that area, lubricate lightly and stop.

I was just in this area replacing a clutch.  At 66,000 miles, my original throw out bearing was indistinguishable from the new one I bought just in case.  It had plenty of oil, no contamination, and no discernible wear.

And now that I know what this mechanism looks like, I would highly recommend not trying to remove the clutch push rod.  The really important seal is 90400616 which fits inside the transmission input shaft and prevents gear oil from migrating along the push rod and into the clutch bell housing area.   If you extract the push rod from the back end, you risk pulling out that seal, or otherwise buggering things up.   Then you would have to tear the whole bike down to get into the gearbox to replace that seal.   

[malik]

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