Well, I pulled the clutch casing off today and did a inspection..your right the stock basket was notched big time, to a point where I think that filing is beyond repair. Towards the front of each finger at least a 1/16 to 1/8" scratches and gouges along the sides. I haven't pulled the springs and plates out for inspection will do that tomorrow but I wanted to let you know how correct you where with your interpretation. I already went ahead and purchased a Hinson basket and received it today. Got a great deal on a slightly used maybe 20hrs on the Hinson basket for $113.00! Saved about 100 bucks! Looks brand new too. I'm going to go ahead and order the Vesrah springs and discs too. The kit doesn't include the plates but I believe those don't go bad to often so I'll take the chance on those. While I'm in the casing I'm going to go ahead too and add in the 89 clutch upgrade kit which includes the upgraded pushrod, needle bearing, lifter and pressure plate.
I wanted to ask you also is there anything else in there I should be aware of checking? The oil in the casing looked very good and clean with just a slight bit of residue (silverish looking) inside the inner casing.
Talk to ya later, Mark

 

You scored a great deal on that basket. I'm glad that I steered you in the right direction to solve your problem. I sure would have looked dumb if I was wrong! The 89 upgrade sounds like a good idea, too. Just check to see if any of the teeth on the gears are cracked, chipped, bent, or damaged in any way. Also check any of the shifting mechanisms that are visible. If the only problem was creeping in gear, I would imagine everything else would look good. The light silverish color in the oil is normal. If your steel plates still have the dimples visible on the face and they aren't blued from excessive heat or warped, they are still good. You'll know what I mean when you see the faces of the plates. There will be a lot of tiny dimples imprinted into them. If they aren't visible, you need new plates. Think of them like the wear bars on a car tire.

 

Well I'm still waiting on my parts to arrive from CalATV for the clutch. Only part I'm actually waiting on are the stock fiber plates so in the meantime I wanted go ahead and pull off the stock basket and inspect the steel plates like you told me to do. The steel plates look pretty good and flat but I DO NOT see the dimples in them like you mentioned. Do all steel plates have these or is it possible I have something different. So I bet I need new steel plates then huh?
I also inspected the center hub boss inside the stock basket and it needs replaced too! In between each spline or tooth there are notches where the clutch plates dug into them also the flat area where the plates sit against it has grooves in that too, so needless to say I ordered a new center hub but I just bought another stock one of those as I figure those dont wear that fast. I guess you have to remember this bike is over 20 years old so the parts in there are due for wear.
After all this is done the clutch should be awesome! Practically all new parts being used.
I scored another great deal on a 34mm PK oval slide carb! got one off a 87 TRX250r same exact carb used on 86 ATC250r, the guy said it was barely used and included a selection of different pilot and main jets..all for $71.00. I have nothing to loose on that deal I say. Still gonna keep the 36mm and try a 1 step smaller pilot and 2 or 3 steps down on the main just as an experiment.
1 Question I have on lubricants for the gear box oil. After reading the maxima articles they say go with a 100% hi Grade synthetic gear oil, now even though I drained out the 10w40 car oil out of there is there going to be a problem adding in the synthetic oil since there are traces of the other oil in there? Just thought I'd ask on this.

Take Care...
Mark

 

Now that I think about it, I'm not so sure that the stock 250R steel plates had dimples. A lot of aftermarket kits come with them that way. It's just a cheap way of increasing the surface area for the fiber plates to grab a hold of. Under spring tension, the fibers actually squeeze into the dimples slightly. If your plates are nice and flat and not too thin, I don't see a problem with re-using them. Measure the thickness of the friction surface. Use the thickness of the tabs that face the center of the plates for a reference. I don't know if the manual gives limits, but I would replace the plates if they are worn 20% or more. That sucks about the hub, but like you said, it's over twenty years old. Don't worry about the residual oil in the tranny. It won't hurt anything to have such a small amount in the new oil.

 

Well I finally got the trike clutch all together but I now have one other problem. Seems the bike is stuck in between gears and I dont know how that happened since i didnt touch anything that dealt with the gear shift mechanism. During the disassembly of the clutch basket remember I had to keep the bike from moving while loosening the main nut that holds on the clutch basket so I put the bike in gear and had a friend hold the brake on...ok, that worked great so I continued with the installation of all the clutch plates, put everything else back together and went to put the bike back into neutral and wont go (Engine not running). Gear shift moves up and down but I dont hear anything engaging even while moving the trike back and forth..wont engage at all. It feels like the bike is in one of the higher gears, not sure. I tried it with the clutch engaged and without (just rolling back and forth) I even tried to kick over the bike a few times without starting (Reason I cant start it is I have the gas tank off and I'm getting ready to repolish all the plastic)....Hmmm, very strange and sorta clueless what to do. I have not actually started up the trike, do you think the bike needs to be running to get back to neutral again?? I certainly dont want to have to tear it apart again as the transmission was perfect before the clutch fix, can you help me out on this? if you need anymore details on what I did please let me know, thanks for your help 69hemiGTX! I hope you figure out this one for me??


UPDATE: After reading a few articles over at 3WheelerWorld forums I think i found the problem unfortuately I will have to open the case up again if this is the problem...see what you think

Usually if the ratchet paws are messing up, the shifter will hang up in one direction (only when up shifting Or only when down shifting). If it binds up in all the up gears, then I can almost gaurentee ratchet paws. If it's only one gear, then you could have a shift fork thats bad or something with the shift drum. I would pull the clutch cover off & watch the ratchet mech before you tear everything apart. There is also a bearing on the outside of the shift drum, that could be hanging up (I kinda doubt that though), you just have to dig in & look close at whats happening. Take the chain off & have someone else spin the sprocket while shifting the shifter up & down, while you look at the shifting mech parts. The clutch cover holds the shifter shaft from poping off the ratchet mech, so be sure to pull out on the shifter side of the shaft while shifting it with the cover off. I would be praying that the ratchet paws are bad, cause other wise you will have to split the case. I have worked on alot of R's & have yet to see major internal shift fork problems on a 85-86. The 85-86 R trans is one tough unit. The older R's (air cooled) had alot of trans problems. I have found quite a few air cooled R's in michigan & when I went to check them out they almost always have one or two gears gone.