Clutch Arm Bearing Removal

motorm500 · Post by **motorm500** » February 9th, 2009, 8:54 pm

Can anyone tell me how to remove the two clutch arm bearings? This is the arm located near the flywheel. I have several manuals but none of them mention how to remove/replace the bearings.
I just picked up a 92 steelie and the clutch is way hard to pull. I haven't pulled the clutch arm out yet but it's definitely loose. I'm thinking the clutch arm and/or bearings must be shot. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

100hp honda · Post by **100hp honda** » February 9th, 2009, 9:33 pm

i did mine while back. heres some advice i can give you if you doing it your self. if you dont have bearing pullers then take it to qaulified shop, they will probly only charge $20 and maybe remove them while you wait. when i put my new ones in, i used sand paper on the inside of the bore to make the interference fit just a tiny bit less tight. i didnt have a bearing driver so i had to carefully use small hammer and other make shift tools. im not saying my way was good but i had to improvise and it turned out fine but it did take some patience. however you go about it just becareful because those small bearings will distort real easy if you go to beating on them and try to avoid getting them kinked sideways in the bore. actually if you dont have any of the proper tools i would almost recomend you have a good shop do the job, its about 10min process with the correct tools, or a nightmare if you fuck up the bearings putting them in wrong

motorm500 · Post by **motorm500** » February 10th, 2009, 6:45 am

Thanks. That's probably good advice. Getting those bearings out sure looks like a bitch. There must be a special puller for this.

97af · Post by **97af** » February 10th, 2009, 8:30 am

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say dont waste your time replacing the bearing.Your hard clutch pull isnt being caused by the clutch arm bearing.
Its always bathed in oil and is the least stressed bearing in the entire engine. Unless the engine has sat outside for the past 15 years full of water.,that bearing is fine..The seal on the other hand....

britincali · Post by **britincali** » February 10th, 2009, 8:33 am

Im gonna agree with 97af on this one, get a new cable and route it with no sharp bends and Ill bet your butter pull comes back.

100hp honda · Post by **100hp honda** » February 10th, 2009, 4:40 pm

definatly check the bearings before replacing them, if it aint broke then dont fix it. you asked how to get them out, so i assumed you knew they were worn out. im thinking the arm wears out more often than the bearings. maybe your seal is the only thing that needs replaced. the arm shouldnt have up/down movement but its seems like it does move slightly in/out. should be easy to tell what needs replaced

motorm500 · Post by **motorm500** » February 10th, 2009, 8:09 pm

Thanks for all the comments. Good information. I just pulled it apart and pulled out the clutch arm. The bearing actually look better than I thought they would. I feel a little play and I could tell it was leaking a little oil. I think I'm going to replace just the seal and leave the bearings and reuse the clutch arm. Thanks for the input! I appreciate it.

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » February 11th, 2009, 2:02 pm

I've done 4 motors and never replaced those bearings... its a bitch getting the glass bead out of there after blasting, but no reason to replace them. My gen-4 had a really shitty clutch pull and I just dealt with it. MFDB picked up a new clutch cable for me from work, a really nice looking grey motion pro and now its all better

100hp honda · Post by **100hp honda** » February 11th, 2009, 6:19 pm

if the cable gets kinked that causes excessive pull. also i spray wd40 or similiar down the cable and it seems to work good

100hp honda · Post by **100hp honda** » February 11th, 2009, 6:23 pm

motorm500 wrote:Thanks for all the comments. Good information. I just pulled it apart and pulled out the clutch arm. The bearing actually look better than I thought they would. I feel a little play and I could tell it was leaking a little oil. I think I'm going to replace just the seal and leave the bearings and reuse the clutch arm. Thanks for the input! I appreciate it.

seems like mine had very small amount of in/out play. if theres up/down play then the arm or bearings are in bad shape and new seal probly wont do much good

DOHCFOX · Post by **DOHCFOX** » February 11th, 2009, 6:42 pm

dannygraves wrote:I've done 4 motors and never replaced those bearings... its a bitch getting the glass bead out of there after blasting, but no reason to replace them.

I used a large amount of brake wash and compressed air to get those bearings clean and upon assembly, they worked very smooth. I saw no reason to replace them, even after being full of blasting media.

dannygraves · Post by **dannygraves** » February 11th, 2009, 9:21 pm

DOHCFOX wrote:
dannygraves wrote:I've done 4 motors and never replaced those bearings... its a bitch getting the glass bead out of there after blasting, but no reason to replace them.
I used a large amount of brake wash and compressed air to get those bearings clean and upon assembly, they worked very smooth. I saw no reason to replace them, even after being full of blasting media.

x2, actually, the bolt hole threads were harder to clean out. some pipe cleaners attached to a drill and brake cleaner worked great on those.

motorm500 · Post by **motorm500** » February 11th, 2009, 9:45 pm

I just ordered a new cable and arm seal. I'm going to try that first.

As far as the bearing removal goes: Now that I have the flywheel and stator removed, it looks like a bearing puller would actually fit. There's access thru the stator wire grommet opening. At first, I didn't think there was any way to get a puller in there.

Thanks !!

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Clutch Arm Bearing Removal

Clutch Arm Bearing Removal