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Broken clutch fin

8K views 32 replies 13 participants last post by  wkeggenhoff 
#1 ·
Long story short I had my local shop fix my primary clutch today. While working on it, they broke a cooling fin on the back (pic attached). Do y'all think this is going to affect the balance and be a problem? Seeing as how this thing has holes drilled in it for balancing, I think it will, but I'm no expert. I'm also asking polaris. Thanks for the input.


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#7 ·
Haven't balanced many have you?

How affected is the balance when the clutch is rebuilt and new parts installed? Ever built a clutch out of parts from several old ones? Haven't been at this too long have you?

If I was the shop owner and you had purchased the vehicle from me, I would have installed a new clutch and kept the old one to install on a used machine or one of my own. Or, I would have just installed the cover and you would have never known.

To each his own, but I want you to ride one of my machines and tell me which one has a broken (or multiple broken) fan blade. Here's the perfect solution - trim the broken fin, measure it and cut off the same amount of fin on the opposite side and it will be in balance again.
 
#8 ·
I have rebuilt plenty of of clutches, lots of snowmobile clutches, less atv clutches, new parts are always weighed out on a scale, adjusted if necessary. As far a balancing goes, I send that out to a local shop, they start with the inner sheave, they balance that part first, then assemble the rest, final adjustments are made on the outer cover. Any machine I have that turns over 7500 RPMs I pull the pull the clutch and have it balanced.

The Op could send his clutch in to the shop I use for balancing, but they would say no way on that clutch.
 
#12 ·
I didn't pay any attention to what the forum was - I found the post under new posts and I'm used to posters describing the vehicle they own regardless of the section - guys with Rangers post on here and I can't for the life of me find the Ranger section. More irritating is those who post the same question in more than one section. These things are for recreation - not for racing or high performance and a broken fin will not affect balance sufficiently to to warrant concern. If it causes a vibration, then by all means have it replaced or re-balanced.
 
#15 ·
I'd say they're in good hands then latebird.
I was actually talking about the Honda ATV forums. In all fairness, they've got a few pretty good contributors. I haven't been on there in a while but any time I've needed a little Honda help there just wasn't much useful info. I just checked the TRXforums and bookmarked it. Thanks latebird.
 
#17 ·
It's a 2017 sportsman 1k. The belt exploded during a race and the cord wrapped around the 2way bearing, breaking the plastic washers. I took the clutch in to the shop so they could replace the washers. Based on the fact there are holes drilled in to certain areas of the sheaves, I figured balance was very important, especially when it's spinning at 7500+ rpm. I ride very hard most of the time so I wanted to make sure my initial thoughts were right. As far as the suggestion to take off the same amount of the fin opposite, there are an odd number of fins so there isn't an exact opposite fin. As much as I don't want to spend the money, looks like I'll be buying the stm. At least then I can replace parts if they break in the future. Cost of playing hard I guess....at least that's what I told the wife. Tha is fir the input.

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#18 ·
You are making the right decision on replacing that clutch, I didn't want to get in to it with the rest of the experts here that its a 9 blade clutch and there is no opposite fin to grind on.
I would suggest you get your own clutch tools so you can service your clutch without taking to people that obviously don't have the right tools for this type of clutch.
Here a picture of the holding fixture I use for the ATV clutch, it works on the straight fin clutches and the curved ones.


137154
 
#24 ·
Here is my very expensive tailgate wall clock. The trailer coupler wasn't closed when I loaded one of my quads. The tongue went skyward and hit the end of the safety chains, then it moved forward into my tailgate. The dent is right under the clock. Worked perfect having that clock cover it.

My truck was less than a year old when I did that. First time I screamed in anger.


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#25 ·
AS for the qustion for the broken fan blade, you may not notice any VIB. now, but it is happening on the shaft the clutch fan is on. The shaft will have an unnoticable VIB. that will cause other part to wear , first will be the oil seal for the shaft. Get the people who worked on you machine to replace the the fan, they broke it. Or you can but a new fan yourself. But bottom line is it will hurt other parts later down the line.
 
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