Clutch Woes, Continued

You might remember my clutch woes on Raven, which I've written about before.

I followed this groups advice and bled everything on the clutch, and am quite happy with the results. Particularly that little nugget about strapping the clutch lever to the grip and leaving it there for 48 hours -- that seemed to work like a charm. Now when I squeeze the lever the clutch actually works! So this is marked improvement.

I'm still not happy with overall clutch function, however. Again, using my wife's "identical make and model" V30 as a reference point, there is way too much slop in my clutch handle. I have about 1 inch of play, measured at the tip of the clutch lever, between fully released and the point at which the clutch M/C rod begins to push into the cylinder. On my wife's V30 by comparison there is less than 1/8 inch play.

I disassembled lever, bushing, rod and pivot and found considerable wear. Already have replacement MC rod and bushing in hand, so next time I get a break I'll replace those. If that doesn't work, the next step is the Clutch M/C rebuild, I think, based on the behavior I'm seeing.
I'll post photos of my old and new parts for reference once I've done the project.

Now I'm off to try to find a clutch M/C "kit". I thought I was buying a clutch m/c kit with replacement cylinder and seals from OldBikeBarn.com, but when it arrived it was just the MC push rod and bush. My fault for not reading the description carefully. Any thoughts on tracking down pure V30 unobtanium? Bike Bandit has it for $43 plus shipping.

Thanks in advance.

The Rat


1984 VF500C V30 Red "Katie" (hers)
1984 VF500C V30 Black "Raven" (mine)