TOPIC:

I received a comment on my video of the Z1300 Clutch Play. I am interested in what you all think about the synopsis that was put forward in this comment. I've included the link again so you can read the comment first hand. Don't forget to scroll down to read the comment.

Z1300 clutch Play

My diagnosis agrees with Kawboy. Most of the play seems to be in the gear dogs. Some of the play might be slack in the secondary chain. Hard to tell from the video. If I could look at it in person, the cause of the play could be identified.

One has to understand the fits and tolerances built into a transmission. The clearances between the gear dogs and gears is fairly loose to allow the sliding dogs an opportunity to engage the spinning gears when the gears and the dogs are rotating at different speeds. You see a lot of "movement " in the video. Some of it is relevant some is not. When your transmission is engaged in a gear, the power is transmitted from the secondary shaft through a gear dog, then into the engaged gear which is engaged to the final drive shaft. There will always be "other dogs" and gear freely rotating on both the final drive shaft and the secondary shaft which are irrelevant until they are specifically selected.

The only time I get concerned with gears and gear dogs is when the transmission becomes disengaged under hard acceleration. This happens when the sides of the gear dogs wear and become tapered causing the forces on the dog to force the dogs out of the gear they're engaged in. This is why racing engines get their gear dogs "undercut" This machining process cuts the sides of the dogs on an angle which causes the forces applied on the dog to pull the dog harder into the engaged gear.