Hello everyone,
Glad to have found this active community with lots of interesting discussions.
I create this post since I am having an issue with my clutch. Since a few days, it has been almost impossible for me to find neutral when when stopped at trafic lights. The foot lever is way too stiff. The only way I can find neutral is with the motorcycle still at 7-8km/h before stopping of when switching the engine off.
I began documenting on the internet and understood that this is a symptom of clutch drag and a possible solution to the problem could be clutch adjustment.
I tried to decrease the amount of free play thanks too the adjuster next to the hand lever but this did not solve my problem - even with no free play at all I cannot find neutral.
Here comes my first question :
1) there is clearly a change on free play when adjusting the clutch. However, the "freeplay zone" is quite stiff (and I am pretty sure it has always been). Is it normal ?
I also noticed (this could be an older problem that I haven't noticed before - I am totally new to mechanics
) that when cold, my bike tends to pull forward in 1st even though my clutch lever is totally pulled. This problem however disappears after a few minutes.
Apart from that, my gear box is smooth when riding.
Before taking it to a Ducati specialist I am planning to change oil since I read that bad oil can be a cause for clutch problems.
Current oil has been changed 6 months ago for the annual service and I have driven for 3000kms since then with a 2 month break.
I have checked the kind of oil that the mechanic put and its Yamalube 4T FS 15W50. According to what I found on the internet, this oil does not satisfy the minimum recommandation since it is API SG instead of SM (the mechanic however is an official Ducati retailer
)
So here comes my second question :
2) Is there any chance that my problems can be solved by using a better oil ? What could be the effect of having API SG instead of SM ? Could this oil really damage my engine and clutch ?
Thank you in advance for reading this (long) message !
Glad to have found this active community with lots of interesting discussions.
I create this post since I am having an issue with my clutch. Since a few days, it has been almost impossible for me to find neutral when when stopped at trafic lights. The foot lever is way too stiff. The only way I can find neutral is with the motorcycle still at 7-8km/h before stopping of when switching the engine off.
I began documenting on the internet and understood that this is a symptom of clutch drag and a possible solution to the problem could be clutch adjustment.
I tried to decrease the amount of free play thanks too the adjuster next to the hand lever but this did not solve my problem - even with no free play at all I cannot find neutral.
Here comes my first question :
1) there is clearly a change on free play when adjusting the clutch. However, the "freeplay zone" is quite stiff (and I am pretty sure it has always been). Is it normal ?
I also noticed (this could be an older problem that I haven't noticed before - I am totally new to mechanics
Apart from that, my gear box is smooth when riding.
Before taking it to a Ducati specialist I am planning to change oil since I read that bad oil can be a cause for clutch problems.
Current oil has been changed 6 months ago for the annual service and I have driven for 3000kms since then with a 2 month break.
I have checked the kind of oil that the mechanic put and its Yamalube 4T FS 15W50. According to what I found on the internet, this oil does not satisfy the minimum recommandation since it is API SG instead of SM (the mechanic however is an official Ducati retailer
So here comes my second question :
2) Is there any chance that my problems can be solved by using a better oil ? What could be the effect of having API SG instead of SM ? Could this oil really damage my engine and clutch ?
Thank you in advance for reading this (long) message !