CBR600FY, two different types of clutch plate?

[stinkwheel]

Servicing the clutch on Mrs stinkwheels CBR600FY (The "Goldilocks" first of the alloy frames, last of the carbs model).

The workshop manual and parts list show the two outside friction plates as being somehow different to the middle five. The manual takes pains to tell you not to get them out of order, and they have different part numbers on the parts list.

The ones in it are OEM Honda plates but they all look and measure identical with one exception. That being the outside plate which has a green colour on the end of one of the tangs and has KA3 10 7 stamped on the tang, all the others have KA3 10 8 and no green. It is in all other respects identical as far as I can see/measure and all the others are identical.

I'll add, I doubt the clutch cover has ever been removed and if it has, they did so very carefully and were expert at putting hondabond on the mating surfaces.

So the question, anybody know the difference between the two outer and five middle friction plates?

I stripped it because it has a slightly vague bite point when slow riding, a touch on the grabby side. The plates all measure up well within spec, the springs are at the lower end of acceptable free length so they're getting replaced. Everything I read says there should be two different sorts of plate in there and perhaps this is the problem?

It's supposed to have two of these: https://www.cmsnl.com/en-gb/products/diskclutch-frict-nas_22201mae000/ and five of these: https://www.cmsnl.com/en-gb/honda-cbr600f-hurricane-2000-y-england_model2383/disk-clutch-frict-nas_22201mase00/

Parts list for clutch: https://www.cmsnl.com/en-gb/honda-cbr600f-hurricane-2000-y-england_model2383/partslist/E__0600.html
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[to v or not to v]

manual said similar about my Thunderace.
when i ordered new friction plates from Yamaha they were all identical.
the plates had be revised on later models and were backwards compatible.
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current bike Yamaha Thunderace.
Moto Guzzi V7.

[stinkwheel]

Ok. I now have both sorts of OEM plate in front of me. The friction pads on the two end plates are 0.5mm wider than the ones on the 5 middle ones. Same number of pads.

Seems like a very small difference but thinking about it in terms of surface area over 48 pads on two plates (4 sides) that makes 1142mm^2 more friction material surface area.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[blurredman]

Honda CX has the same.
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CBT: 12/06/10, Theory: 22/09/10, Module 1: 09/11/10, Module 2: 19/01/11
Past: 1991 Honda CG125BR-J, 1992 (1980) Honda XL125S, 1996 Kawasaki GPZ500S, 1979 MZ TS150.
Current: 1973 MZ ES250/2 - 18k, 1979 Suzuki TS185ER - 10k, 1981 Honda CX500B - 91k, 1987 MZ ETZ250 (295cc) - 40k, 1989 MZ ETZ251 - 51k.