1952 16M Clutch surprises

[John Leder]

Good Sunday afternoon.

Having finally ridden my 16M several times I'm trying to determine what other surprises it might have in store for me.
I noticed that when accelerating at about 50 MPH it appeared the clutch was slipping. I tried to adjust but was not happy with the results
so I installed a new cable. Well this appears to have made it worse. I split the primary and disassembled and to my surprise there were five friction plates and six steel plates. I was expecting four friction plates and five steel plates with one being thick and four being thin? So I'm thinking I have an 18 clutch?
Four of the steel plates are .060 in thickness one is .070 and one is .040 and they are all corroded and marked with wear.
The friction plates are also very worn.
And then came another surprise I removed the thrust rod and the first piece that came out was about 4 1/2 inches long with the indentation for the ball bearing on the inside end, next to come out was the ball bearing and then finally another piece of thrust rod about 6 inches long which was pressing against the thrust dowel. No wonder it didn't work well!

[Pharisee]

When I dismantled the clutch mechanism on my M18 that had "been restored by a previous owner", I found that the steel ball had been omitted and a longer pushrod substituted, to the detriment of the release mechanism.
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[ajscomboman]

When I dismantled the clutch mechanism on my M18 that had "been restored by a previous owner", I found that the steel ball had been omitted and a longer pushrod substituted, to the detriment of the release mechanism.
.

picture57.jpg

That is one clapped out centre plunger I don't think I've seen a worse one!

[John Leder]

Looks like the same person that worked on my bike worked on yours also!