Well, nothing’s ever easy with this bike…

As described in the last post, I found 4 clutch springs instead of 3, explaining the heavy clutch. So I put it back together with 3 as it should be. The clutch now felt pretty normal, very much like the NC23 one. I refilled the oil and took it for a test ride.

Unrideable; the clutch now slips at half throttle once you get the revs up a bit. I guess that explains why whoever put in the 4 springs did so, but what in the world is going on?

While I had it apart, I measured the plates and the spring stack. The plates were all 2.9-3.0mm thick, and the service limit is 2.8mm — no problem there. The metal plates were 1.9-2.0mm, but the Haynes manual doesn’t give an expected thickness. The spring stack (of 3) was 5.7mm and the service limit is 5.4mm, so no problem there.

Someone at 400greybike.com pointed me to this page, which details the clutch parts on the different NC30 and NC35 models. It turns out the metal plates for an N-model NC30 should be 1.6mm thick. The NC35, on the other hand, has plates that are 2.0mm. So it appears I have NC35 plates in my clutch.

That page also says that while all the different parts fit in all bikes, the clutch won’t work right if the correct parts aren’t matched. So, the logical conclusion then is to replace all plates. If that doesn’t do it, then it’s gotta be either that the springs are actually too soft (despite having the correct height) or that the slightly uneven clutch basket is making the plates snag. I doubt it’s the latter, the basket was not that bad compared to other clutches I’ve seen that worked fine.

So I guess we’ll have to wait and see. That’s another $200 plowed down in making the ’30 right… at least the clutch plates were available in the U.S.