Clutch goes away after 15 minutes or so

Customer brought his bike in, a 2006 Kawasaki Vulcan 1600.

Complaint was that when he rode on the highway, after 15 minutes or so, the clutch would "go away".

Oh, and the engine was making a strange noise.

I rode the bike, heard the sound, a clicking when slowing.

Clutch is hydraulic, and the fluid looked new up top.

When bled, it looked brown and in need of a flush.

And it had air in the system.

Further diagnostics lead to a small oil leak - coming from the front pinion gear cover. Popped it off for a look - and found the pinion bearing was going out.

What it looks like was happening is that the bearing would heat up and cause the clutch slave cylinder, which is located right there by it, to overheat, causing the clutch issues.

If that bearing had totally failed, the rear wheel could of easily locked up. Along with dumping a lot of metal into the system.

We're tearing it down soon, we'll see what we find.

I've hired a new technician who knocked this job out in under a day, very impressive to say the least.

There is a VERY bright light at the end on the tunnel!

hacksaw wrote:

under a day? whats the labor rate at your shop? even half a day could mean $400 bucks plus parts to fix a leaky hydraulic clutch?

more bikes should come cable ready!!!

The motorcycle is a shaft drive bike.

Out of the engine there is a gear set to the drive shaft.

The bearing is a part of the gear set, and according to the manual, required removal of the engine to replace.

It was far more than just a simple repair to the hydraulic brake system.

Posted rate for warranty purposes is $80.00 per hour.

Hourly shop rates do not matter anymore, we quote by the job, not by how long it takes.

When I worked for another dealership, we had a small "Mom & Pop" shop that had a labor rate half of what our was.

And it took them three times longer to make the repairs than we took at the time -

Which was the better deal?