How to change the Clutch on a Suzuki Intruder VS1400

When you get your clutch kit, the first thing you need to do is soak each of the clutch discs in a shallow bath of motor oil (the same as you’re running, or will be running in the engine) for 12-24 hours. You want the cork material on the clutch discs to be saturated before installing them. Also, make sure that you have the clutch gasket ready to be installed – it’s likely that it will have perished if it’s been a while since you took apart the clutch.

When you’re ready to install your clutch, take an 8mm spanner and remove the bolts in the exterior of the clutch casing, making sure you take note of where they came from as they are different lengths and you need to put them back in exactly the same places. There is a tab on either side of the casing which you can use to manoeuvre it free – If you have the stock gasket on, you may struggle to get the casing off easily and might need to give it a bit of leverage.

After this you need to remove the gasket – If you can get it off in one piece and it looks like it’s in good condition, fantastic. If it’s falling apart, and you can’t get it off easily, make sure you have a new one at hand to replace it.

Now we’re ready to look at the clutch itself. You’ll see a ring of bolts going around the clutch basket, and behind and around each of these is a clutch spring that gives the clutch it’s power. If these springs start to wear out, then your clutch is going to start slipping, or feel like it won’t bite. For this next part, you will need a torque wrench – if you don’t have a torque wrench, stop now and get hold of one. You have been warned. We need these so we can torque the bolts with the springs on to a particular setting so we don’t damage the engine.

Clutch bolt torque settings
If you are using OEM clutch springs, use the following torque setting. If you are using aftermarket clutch springs, refer to the manufacturer.

Before we can put any pressure on any of these bolts, we need to stop the basket from rotating:

• What I recommend – You can get a proper tool for doing this which sits between the teeth of the gears so that as you put pressure on and the basket rotates, it locks them together, to stop them spinning.
• What I do not recommend – I do not have one of these tools and I do not recommend doing what I did which is sticking a rubberised band between the gears. It’s soft enough so it shouldn’t damage the gears, and if it does perish, it will come apart in big chunks which will be easily retrievable.
• What you should never ever do – Do not try to jam the gears with anything metal, like a screwdriver. This is always a bad idea as you can warp the teeth and need a very expensive repair. This is a slappable offense.

Once the basket is secure, we can start undoing the bolts in a star rotation. We first want to crack them free. Then, once they are cracked free and loosened, we can start taking them out, but taking care to remember where each one goes as the springs and bolts are different lengths. There are four different components to each bolt; the bolt itself, the spring, the spacer and the washer. Once the bolts are removed, I drew a little arrow pointing to the top to help me remember which one was at the top and where the bolts go. Then you should be able to remove the entire clutch, replacing the bearing washer in the basket. Have a look inside and make sure you don’t have any other clutch plates left in there, and then you should have a coned spacer washer in there, right at the back, with another big washer behind it. Check these washers, and make sure it’s in good shape, then put them back in, big washer first, then the coned one with the convex side facing the back.

Once the clutch is out, you’ll notice that you’ve got steel plates which are your separator plates – You want to make sure that each of these goes between each clutch plate. Now you need to find the thinnest clutch plate (one will be about 3mm thinner than the rest), as this one goes in first.

Now we can install a steel separator, but make sure this goes in the correct way. If you look at one of the separators, you will see that one side is almost bevelled and the other is flat and quite sharp. We want to make sure that the bevelled edge faces the back and the flat side faces us.

Now we can install the next clutch plate. Have a look at the plate and see if there are any markings. If there are, these need to be facing outwards, towards us. Mine have an HF on them, so I’m going to make sure that that faces out. Now repeat this for all separators and clutch plates.

Once they are all in, we can replace the faceplate where our bolts sat, with the arrow we drew on earlier facing up. Now we can look through the holes and make sure they are all aligned with the holes at the back. Remembering where each of them goes, put the longer ones in the correct holes first as the shorter ones will require a bit of tension before they can reach their holes.

Once all the bolts are seated, we need to torque them down. Secure the basket again using the special tool which sits between the gears, but from the top, rather than the bottom, tighten them all up until they stop moving freely then we need to torque them in, in a star formation, using the settings we posted above, until you hear the torque wrench click.

Now we can install our new gasket, or an old one if it’s in good shape. The gasket will only go on in one orientation, then we can put the clutch case back on, putting the correct bolts in the correct places.

Watch On Youtube