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HOW TO: 06-14 R6 Slipper Clutch Modification

54K views 84 replies 40 participants last post by  cjbenedict 
#1 · (Edited)
Well, when I set out to do my clutch mod there was only really one good thread that walked through it, but none of the pictures were working in that thread and it didn't really answer all of my questions. So I figured I would do my own how to as I did it myself. That being said, always refer to the manufactures service manual, that's how I did this whole job the first time! The whole job took about 2-3 hours, the longest part being the cutting and smoothing out the cuts, and reinstalling the clutch cover. We will start with the tools required:

- Ratchet
- Set of allen keys
- Set of metric sockets and wrenches
- 36mm socket
- Torque wrench (0-90 ft/lbs)
- Motion pro clutch holding tool (not required but makes the job easy)
- Fine metal file
- Course sand paper (100 grit)
- Fine sand paper (1500 grit)
- Nice to have some clean shop towels to lay the clutch components on and some latex gloves.

First off you are going to want to remove your clutch cable from the clutch cover. There are two 12mm nuts that you must adjust to give it enough play to be removed from the bracket it sits on. Then you have to bend up the tab where the cable is inserted, and remove it.

Now we will move onto the clutch cover. I assume if you are looking at this thread you know how to turn a wrench and loosen bolts, so I will just say you need to remove all of the clutch cover bolts. Some people said you have to remove the coolant hose that goes to the water pump, but I just removed it from its bracket and pushed it out of the way. I will say clutch cover reinstall could be a little easier if you were to remove the hose. You will also have to remove the dipstick. Once those bolts are removed, the coolant hose is out of the way, and you removed your dipstick, you can pull the clutch cover off. You must first pull the side of the cover closest to the front of the bike out, then the back side of the cover has enough room to come out. It may be stuck on there pretty good, so you can open the oil filler cap and stick your finger in there for more leverage.

Once your cover has been removed, you will see this:



The next step is to remove the pressure plate bolts and springs. They are not on very tight, so they come loose rather easy. once all of the springs/bolts are out, you can remove the pressure plate. It sits in there nice and snug, so what I did was pulled the pull rod (the rod with teeth on it) and it will come out easily. Make sure you do not loose the little washers that sit underneath the springs in the pressure plate, they look like this:



Once you remove the pressure plate, you can easily remove the clutch friction plates, and you will be left with this:



You do not have to remove the clutch plates at all to do this whole mod, however; in order to use the motion pro clutch holding tool, you have to remove them, so I did. So... If you have the motion pro clutch holding tool, remove the clutch plates, and insert the tool like this:



I used a jack stand to hold the clutch holding tool while I cranked away. I also had to have my knee on the foot rest since that boss nut is on there really good, I was lifting the whole bike when trying to break it loose. Some of you may have to bend the tabs ever so slightly back on the the special lock nut design (like on the front sprocket), but I did not have to.

Once you get the boss nut off, you will have access to the y springs everybody keeps talking about. Take note of how the tabs on each are oriented. They look like this:



Now you can dry them off and make your measurements. Make sure to make very accurate measurements. I did the best I could with what I had! Thats right, a wooden ruler in MM and a Sharpie! I did 12MM off the last spring to go in, 6MM off the 2nd to last spring, and left the first one in stock. There are other variations, such as cutting all of the arms off of two of the three y springs and leaving the middle one stock while the first and last ones act as washers essentially. And plenty of variations when it comes to the amount of material you want to remove from the springs. I did the 12, 6, and 0 because it came highly recommended from Anthony at Bauce Racing and I saw that people were having issues breaking springs with only the one full spring in.



After making your measurements it is time to cut. There are multiple things you can cut with, a grinding wheel, a cut off wheel, a hacksaw, etc... For this particular job, I used a cut off wheel. It is better to cut off too little than too much!



Now you can use your fine metal file to smooth out the cut, and make any minor corrections you need to. Once you are done with the file, use the coarse grit sand paper to further smooth it out and round the edge so that you do not have a straight edge resting on the spring beneath it. After the coarse grit, use the fine grit sand paper to make it ultra smooth. A easy way to tell if you are done is when the metal becomes shiny.



Here is what the end result should look like if you did the same cuts as me:




When reinstalling the springs, I figured I would put the tiniest bit of high temperature grease on the newly cut surfaces so that they did not dig into the springs that they were sitting on, as I had seen in other threads. This will also help seat them in there new resting positions.

Reinstall the boss nut. Make sure that you place the y spring tabs in the locating holes, which are the half ovals to the right of the tabs in the picture below. The boss nut needs to be torqued down to 85 ft/lbs. Very simple if you have the clutch holding tool using the same set up as before, only set for tightening. The tool is like 20-30 bucks... Don't be cheap...




If you removed your friction plates, or if you got new plates, you must reinstall/install those now. Coat them with a fresh coat of oil if you insist (must do if you are installing new plates). The manual says to use engine oil, so use whatever engine oil you use. If you mixed up the order of your clutch plates, basically the thinnest one is the furthest back and it should have a purple tab on top. The middle plates will be black, and the last plate to go on should be about the same thickness as the black tabs, with a brown tab. If yours are like mine, the purple and the brown tabs wore off, so the only way you can tell the front from the back is the thickness. All of my middle plates still had their black tabs. After each friction plate, you add a metal plate. There is no metal plate behind the very first friction plate, or in front of the very last friction plate. You must also make sure that one of the fingers on the outer most clutch plate matches with the indent on the clutch basket, (as shown in the next picture the left most pink tab). Now you are left with this:



The next step is to reinstall the pressure plate. Ensure that you have inserted the pull rod behind the pressure plate before seating it. Once again make sure all of the washers that go under the springs are in place. You must align the pressure plate arrow and indent with one of the three indents on the inner clutch basket. The pressure plate bolts are torqued to 5.8 ft/lbs. They need to be tightened in a star pattern, like putting a wheel on a car.

Now re-install the clutch cover. Easier said than done... First, clean off all the old gasket material from both mating surfaces. Next install a new gasket. You may want to apply a tiny bit of gasket maker to the back of the gasket so that it stays on the case and it doesnt fall off every three seconds. Also, if your dowels fell out or you removed them, make sure you reinstall those as well. Now when re installing the cover, you must insert the back in first, like parallel parking. There really is no easy way to reinstall the cover. I found it best to either wrap the pull rod in safety wire and work with it through the oil filler cap when you guide the cover on, or use a magnet stick. I used safety wire, then removed it once I got the rod in the correct hole with the cover on loosely. It will help to have a light shining up from the bottom too, through the cracks. Important, *DO NOT TORQUE ANYTHING DOWN UNTIL YOU HAVE CHECKED THE CLUTCH/LEVER FUNCTION*

Once you have finally guided the pull rod into the female clutch cable hole with the gears, you have to adjust the pully for the clutch cable till the arrow on the cover points to (or close to) the dot on the clutch cable pully. To adjust the pully, you can either do it with no bolts holding the case cover on and just your hand pushing on the cover for back pressure, or one bolt on the very top loosely holding it on so that the pesky pull rod doesn't fall out of its hole again. Once the cover has some room, you simply rotate the pully counter clockwise, or towards the rear of the bike. You'll hear a loud "thunk" when the pull rod pops off the current gear to the next, aka adjusting the pully to the right spot. Basically you want to have all of the resistance right before the point where you pull the clutch lever in.

Finally, after you have checked clutch function, torque all the clutch cover bolts down to 8.9 ft/lbs. Reinstall your oil filler cap, dipstick, and coolant hose (if removed), and ride that sucker!



Most people dont mention how much of a PITA the cover is to re-install, so I thought it couldnt be that bad going into it. But yes, it was pretty bad!! Easily the worst part of this job, not to discourage any one :S

Over all it was a simple job, and well worth it from what I can tell after my tiny test throughout the neighborhood! Once I do some track tests I will report back my findings!

Let me know if this helped you!
 
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#46 ·
Quoting what was mentioned on an earlier page in this post since it was an apt description of the benefit of this mod:

"It softens up the slipper clutch action in both directions. Makes it not so abrupt as you downshift. Also, from what I understand after talking to Thermosman, it softens up the engagement as you get on the gas exiting. It reduces chases input and should make the bike feel more stable with less drastic weight transfer from front to rear. "
 
#77 ·
I'm talking about modification of the slipper clutch springs in a 2017..
 
#79 ·
"systems are similar." Then you mention decel injection tuning. Clearly you don't understand if my slipper is the identical components in the 2006-2014. Or maybe mine is already changed from Yamaha so the mod won't apply. Conjecture is not what I asked about.
 
#80 ·
Reread post #74... you can eliminate all the back torque springs if you desire but there is only so much you can do on the mechanical side of things with the stock components. If you want more mechanical slip... pony up the $800 for an aftermarket unit.

And yes I took the time to review both assemblies and they are identical as Yamaha tends to stick with a design that works. But what do I know... Ive only seen the inside of maybe 50 different R6 clutches.
 
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