GL1000 clutch: Damper plate or no damper plate?

[Sidecar Bob]

I am finally putting the new clutch in. I was inspecting the old plates (all in spec except the one with the wide tabs, which is completely bare) when I remembered that I had removed the damper plate a few years ago http://www.ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 22#p436622

The same plate that fell apart in 2012 has done the same thing again (starting in 2013 so I guess it wasn't really fixed then) but this time with no damper plate and a plain plate next to it. The plain plate is scored where the bad friction plate was rubbing against it too.

I have the perfect looking damper plate that I removed in 2012. It is the "improved" type that Fogey mentioned in his addendum to the first post in that thread, but so was the one that fell apart. I also have several more plain plates in good condition.

My new EBC friction plates have been soaking for a couple of weeks while I dealt with life (or it dealt with me).

I'm thinking I should just re-assemble it with the new friction plates & no damper plate and replace the plain plate that was damaged by the friction plate that came apart. What do you guys think?

[robin1731]

No damper plate. Assured of no further failures that way.

[Old Fogey]

Whooooaaaa.!!!!!!!!

First I've heard of the 'double tooth plate' damper breaking up, but it looks like I need to rewrite the advice on that post and on the website.

[Sidecar Bob]

OK, having thought about this overnight, I think that the damper plate that failed was the type that had teeth on both plates, but I couldn't swear to it. My engine is a '79 but when I got it the clutch slipped so I put the working clutch with 1 year old friction plates into it from the '77 engine that it was replacing. That was over 20 years ago and after all that time I can't remember for sure but I think we just swapped everything from one to the other, so the plate that failed was likely to have been from the '77 engine and the one I replaced it with about 10 years later (& in a different bike) was the one original to the '79 engine.

Are we confused yet?

Anyway, I am putting it together with 2 plain plates in place of the damper plate. I think I figured out what might have caused the failure this time too: http://www.ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 34#p632334

[Sidecar Bob]

And after all that the new clutch won't go in anyway. http://ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=57605