Here we go again! The other day when Owen took his bike out on the lawn we could tell there was something not right, so we tore into it to diagnose the problem. With the engine removed and the outer cover removed we could see that the clutch would need to be pulled from the crank. We also found out later that this particular clutch is an aftermarket "Dominator" clutch. I made a puller from some thick plate, a few metric machine screws to thread into the clutch and a nut and bolt for the center. With the puller installed I just had to tighten the center bolt until the clutch came free.
With the clutch removed it was obvious that this friction disk was toast. It also became obvious that there wasn't much oil left and therefore was probably leaking out of the crank bearing seal just like on my CR. The bearings and crank look ok, so at this point it's looking like a fairly easy fix of a new crank seal and clutch friction disk for a dominator clutch.
Now I had to figure out a way to pull off the gear in order to get to the seal. I knew I needed something to thread onto the gear in order to pull it off, so I started looking through things that were close so I could go to the store and buy a nut to weld onto to make a puller. Don't ask me how, but this brass water valve threaded right on. Problem solved!
Go ahead and laugh, but this actually worked! This was an old used valve I had, so I drilled a hole in the end, threaded it on, and used a universal puller to pull the gear off!
Since I don't think I will be pulling the case apart, I just wanted to remove the seal to be replaced and look at the bearing. An easy way to remove the seal is drill two small holes into the seal and use some snap ring pliers or something to pull the seal out. The bearings look ok, so they and the crank will stay in for now.
Next time we will be installing the new seal and clutch disc. Click HERE to go to part 2.
