struggling to get clutch cover off tt600

[colin1]

the tt600 has a dipstick rther than a sight glass and the oil seemed to be too low to show on the dipstick

in an attempt to see how low the oil was, i dipped a cable tie in

unfortunately i dropped the cable tie so now i need to get the clutch cover thing off

this kind of thing was easy with my rs125 as i had a pdf workshop manual but if i want a workshop manual for the tt600 its £50

i have undone all the bolts i can see on the clutch cover but it still wont come off

i am tempted to thin fuck it, the cable tie will melt i'll just top up the oil and run it but i know that would be a bad thing to do
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[veeeffarr]

[finpos]

Don't know if there's something special about your bike, but standard operating procedure here would be to pull the clutch lever and give the clutch housing a couple of gentle sideways whacks with a soft mallet

oh and make SURE all the bolts are out

finpos.

[colin1]

thnx i'll give that a go
i dont have a mallet tho so i'll use a block of wood and a hammer,

all the bolts i can see are out but i will have another good look
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[tatters]

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[RobB]

[finpos]

That's gentle whacks - if you don't have a mallet just thump the casing with the handle end of the hammer. You might get lucky and the casing will pop off as soon as you pull the clutch.

By the way, good chance you'll now tear the paper gasket for the clutch cover, so that cable tie has just cost you a fiver. Yay bike shops!

finpos.

[Rookie]

Colin you nutter.

It would have been easier just to top up the oil!

Workshop manuals can be had for next to nothing on eBay, especially the 'electronic' ones.

[finpos]

But of course, the most important lesson here is always to use the very big cable ties in all circumstances.

finpos.

[BFG]

Might the cable tie come out (or near) the sump plug hole if you drain the oil?

Worth a shot

[colin1]

thanks guys particularly finpos

mostly i just needed the confidence to have a go without be scared of breaking anything

i gave it a few taps with the wood and hammer and then it occurred to me to use the claw of the hammer to lever it off which worked

so i have now removed the cable tie and topped up the oil and also fitted the new new oil pressure switch so it wont leak oil again

unfortunately it wont start but im assuming its just a flat battery as ive been saving it for the mechanics for so long

i'll put it on charge and hopefully it will work tomorrow

thnx and yes longer cable ties are the answer

tt600 manuals are like gold dust and even a user manual went for £26 on ebay recently

i know kickstart has one but i havnt persuaded him to scan in it into electronic form
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[colin1]

ive just notice that finpos mentioned the clutch cover paper gasket. it may be sensible to replace it but i cant justify spending £5 on paper at the moment so i hope its gonna be ok. i'll keep checking the oil regularly just in case there are leaks
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Nath]

If it does start leaking, you should be able to make a replacement out of cereal packet cardboard. When you know the correct techniques for making gaskets, it is actually quite easy.

The base gasket (that goes between cylinder block and crankcase) on my 550 is homemade, and there are no signs of any oil leakage so far.
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Hard livin', hard luck.

[colin1]

good idea thanks
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Ichy]

You can usually get gasket paper for less than a pound, I usually pay 50p, from proper car shops.

[MarJay]

First off, the clutch cover is held on by two or three metal dowels as well as the bolts that you have removed, and the stickiness of the gasket. You WILL need to replace the gasket unless you can remove it in one piece. Which is hard.

Second off, use the sight glass, that is what it is there for.

Third off, if you can't afford a fiver for a gasket, can you afford oil?

Petrol?

Brake pads?

Tis a tad worrying that people seem to want to run 150mph vehicles on buttons really...
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Phoenix]

Hitting the clutch case with a hammer is probably a bit silly, because most are, as marjay said, held in place by locating dowels, which are small hollow metal tubes, and easy to bend and squash.

Why dip a cable tie inside the filler cap hole? Even if some oil appeared on it, you'd have no idea if the level was right (unless you had a special TT600 cable tie with Hi and Lo marked on it...). If it's not showing in the sightglass when the bike is UPRIGHT, not on the sidestand, then it needs topping up.

And you can reseal the cover with Hermatite Insta-Gasket or similar if you remove all traces of paper gasket, but it's not quite as reliable to seal.

Lastly, the cable tie wouldn't have come out of the sump hole, just wouldn't come out. Running it with the cabletie in would probably make a nice mess, unsure exactly what sort of problem it could really cause in the oil routing, because I don't think anyones been stupid enough to do it yet.

[colin1]

i didnt hit the clutch cover with a hammer, i put a piece of wood against it and gave it a couple of light taps, and then i leavered it open with the claw on the claw hammer

i am not paying £5 for a paper gasket
marki's 50p gasket paper sounds like a much better idea

sometimes doing it the expensive way is only slightly better than doing it the cheap way

marjay, i didnt think it had a sight glass as i hadnt noticed it but i'll have another look. the oil filler cap has a dipstick thing on it and the level seemed to be below that but i wasnt sure how low

i know it was silly to drop the cable tie but it wasnt silly to try to see how low the oil was.

I agree that the cable tie wouldnt have come out of the sump hole.

I dont mind paying £25 for oil but £5 for a paper gasket seems a bit steep.

as for running a bike on buttons, when bikes are new, their owners spend lots of money on them, and then sell them to someone else who has less money and so wont spend so much money on them. I may well make little economies here and there but thats not necessarilly a bad thing. There is another thread on bcf in which some respected bcf members claim there is nothing wrong with running bikes on bog standard car oil.

However I am not going to economise that much so I bought bike oil from Hein Gerick. This may be foolish and a waste of money, or maybe someone else buys better oil than me so they think im a cheapskate for not buying the very best oil.

Anyway its on charge overnight so hopefully it will be ok in the morning
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[tatters]

[colin1]

i wasnt using much force so i didnt damage the clutch cover. its hard to explain but its not like i stuck the claw between the two pieces. there are sort of finger hold bits on the clutch cover and i just pushed outwards on one of those with the hammer acting as a lever

im sure some people wd have just been able to pull it off as i didnt use much force

however i think you may be right about it being a good idea for me to leave it people who know what they are doing tho

this was my original plan, but i am gonna be broke for a bit longer than i hoped so i thought i might have a go myself

unfortunately even after charging, its not starting so i think there maybe something wrong that will have to be looked at by a mechanic when i have the cash

or it could just be ive flooded it trying to start it, i really dont know
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Nath]

[colin1]

its definitely not flat battery as optimate says its now fine
and it doesnt sound slow and tired when i try to start it

my current guess is its either not sparking, or its flooded, or there is some internal damage that i dont want to think about

maybe I should poke and prod a bit but as pointed out, i could make it worse if i dont really know what im doing.

if i get too impatient, then next week i may have a go getting the spark plugs out and wiping them in case they are wet or something

but i dont really know if that makes sense or what else i could try

there is no way I want to take the engine apart to see if there is any internal damage from it running with low oil due to the oil leak or whatever when i dropped it at xmas

it could be its nothing, it oculd be there is something serious but I havnt got the cash for a mechanic to look at it at the moment.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Nath]

Hook it up to a car battery, and spend about five or ten minutes trying to start it. Maybe try some fresh petrol if you haven't done so already. If it hasn't run for three months then it's not that surprising that it doesn't want to start.
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Hard livin', hard luck.

[colin1]

fresh petrol is a good idea and i cant do much damage
thnx i'll give that a go

i'll also try starting it for longer, a good 5 minutes, i can always charge the battery up if necessary
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[Nath]

If it goes flat before the bike starts, do not despair.

After coming back from Spain I didn't ride my bike for a month due to being skint. When I tried to get it going, I flattened both the bike battery, and an (admittedly slightly dodgy) car battery. It took another few minutes of solid cranking to get it going with it hooked up to a running car. Your bike is a lot newer though, but you can see that it is not unusual for the bike to be troublesome after being left for ages (there is nothing wrong with my bike, and it normally starts up first press of the button).
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Hard livin', hard luck.