Uprated Lambretta Clutch...

[J1MS]

Having spent the best part of £250 on a new clutch.... to replace my Taffspeed five plate setup which has always had a habit of dragging when warm....Never slipped, but if two up in heavy traffic with lots of clutch use it would drag....

So I bought a Foxhat spider, six plate clutch (Green plates), five steels, a top pressure plate, clutch springs, clutch bell and retaining spring clip...All supplied by the Foxhat brothers ( Thanx !!! )....Then I bought a lightened 46 Tooth Clutch sprocket off MB to go with it..... with postage and VAT nearly £85 all good quality and I am very happy with the fit and working of this setup....couldnt have been easier to fit and all works fine no drag and no slip, with a light action...

But is there a cheaper way of achiving this sort of quality clutch.....As a mate of mine has 4 Carbon Fibre plates and a standard clutch sprocket with a center spring... up to now hes had no problems at all but the clutch on his is too stiff for me to pull in without straining my hand.... the carbon plates were £10 each plus the spring... alot cheaper than mine... What would you reccommend as a cheap alternative..?

[shocky]

in 28 yrs of riding lambrettas i have only ever used 4 plates and that includes a gp4 and gp6 race bike in the mid to late 80,s my tsl runs a LI 150 gearbox with standard sprockets 4 INDIAN clutch plates(£4) and vespa springs along side my standard lammy ones never had a problem altho i have only weighed 13 st at my max weight ive done 3000 miles with this set up ,the crown wheel is a lightened scootrs one (so not very light)
i am very carefull when building an engine the crownwheel has 0.1mm clearance and i have 2mm seperation on the plates ,i use innocenti spider and clutch center modified to fit GP side case and yamaha DT175 lever nylon lined cable
the plates i use have 18 seperate corks each side and the grooves are diaginal as opposed to 90 deg to the plates if that makes sence they look like "race" plates i get them from FANATIC SCOOTERS (you need to ask )

[AndyS]

Cam Lam sell their new red plate clutch kit, for around £175. That dosn't include the spider though. That claims to be a light action very effective kit.

[DaveInPortland]

I recently installed a full MBD 6-plate system--the older style with the extended crownwheel rather than their lightened version. It went in my Special, which has an SIL GP200 lump outfitted with a Rapido225 and more. Previously, I had tried a few different clutch pack alternatives (including a 5-plate CamLam set and modified crownwheel) but always ended up burning it out within 1,000 miles (once within 200! ). I'm very satisfied with the MBD system, although that chaincase spacer makes maintenance a bit more of a hassle.

IMO, all of the pieces of your clutch system--crownwheel, spider, pressure plate, cork & steel plates, springs--need to be made to go together as a set. Matching components on a piecemeal basis is what gets one on trouble. And proper tolerances MUST be adhered to!

[chris2470]

I too need to get another clutch fitted to me Rapido race. When I had the engine rebuilt by a well know sprinter who regularly gets low 13's his recommendation was always 4 Indian plates with competition springs as this was the only set up that gave him consistent results. I now need to get this replaced as the springs are going coil bound so I'm very interested in Shocky suggestion.
Are these plates made by MK or SIL do you know or do they look like these:

[shocky]

thats the one
one set is in a clear packet the other is in a pack with MK on it i suspect that fanatic put the first plates in there own packaging if you ring dave he knows which plates these are im not saying these plates are the best but they have worked for me the plates in my TS1 were out of my old classic rapido which i built 3 yrs ago i dont do loads of miles but prob 4000 by now on the 2 engines with the same plates

[drunkmunkey6969]

......the plates i use have 18 seperate corks each side and the grooves are diaginal as opposed to 90 deg to the plates if that makes sence they look like "race" plates i get them from FANATIC SCOOTERS (you need to ask )

These look good, how did you stumble accross them?

Apart from the diagonal lines are there any other differences to Surflex-B (compund etc)

What thickness are they?

The beauty of a FOXHAT or similar spider is that you dont need to use heavy duty sprinsg that make your clutch arm like popeye.....are these plates any good, or any different to Surflex-B when used with just GT springs?

For someone already running a 6 plate clutch, how many of these plates would squeeze in?

Questions, questions!!

[soulsurfer]

......the plates i use have 18 seperate corks each side and the grooves are diaginal as opposed to 90 deg to the plates if that makes sence they look like "race" plates i get them from FANATIC SCOOTERS (you need to ask )

These look good, how did you stumble accross them?

Apart from the diagonal lines are there any other differences to Surflex-B (compund etc)

What thickness are they?

The beauty of a FOXHAT or similar spider is that you dont need to use heavy duty sprinsg that make your clutch arm like popeye.....are these plates any good, or any different to Surflex-B when used with just GT springs?

For someone already running a 6 plate clutch, how many of these plates would squeeze in?

Questions, questions!!

They're 3.3-3.4mm each

I have Foxhat with AF GT spring and it's lighter than standard but a mate fitted the Readspeed one, supplied as a complete kit, which is as stiff as f**K, I can't see any need to have springs that stiff with a six plate set-up

[shocky]

......the plates i use have 18 seperate corks each side and the grooves are diaginal as opposed to 90 deg to the plates if that makes sence they look like "race" plates i get them from FANATIC SCOOTERS (you need to ask )

These look good, how did you stumble accross them?

Apart from the diagonal lines are there any other differences to Surflex-B (compund etc)

What thickness are they?

The beauty of a FOXHAT or similar spider is that you dont need to use heavy duty sprinsg that make your clutch arm like popeye.....are these plates any good, or any different to Surflex-B when used with just GT springs?

For someone already running a 6 plate clutch, how many of these plates would squeeze in?

Questions, questions!!

i went to the shop about 3 yrs ago as im often in bristol i was lookin for some plates for a standard 200 i was building dave said we have these if you wanna try them so i bought 2 sets one set stayed in the scooter (which i sold after building it up from scratch) the other set went into the spare engine i had with the classic rapido as stated above the topend and crank were changed to a ts1 and i thought fcuk it ill leave the clutch in for a laugh that was about 2800 miles ago the springs all10 were from an engine i stripped for parts so i have no idea of there origin only that the standard lammy spring has these other smaller springs inside ,is that how others have there vespa springs thicknes wise all 4 of the spare set i have ar 14mm i have 2 spare sets bought about 1 year ago in antisipation of have ing to replace some soon ...... still waiting ive no dobt some heavy handed neandathol could couse them to slip but thats prob the case with any clutch

[J1MS]

I have Foxhat with AF GT spring and it's lighter than standard but a mate fitted the Readspeed one, supplied as a complete kit, which is as stiff as f**K, I can't see any need to have springs that stiff with a six plate set-up

I also have a Readspeed six plate clutch to fit which is going in my quicker engine.... No race bike but fairly quick.... My problem has never been clutch slip since fitting the Taffspeed... Its more been a case of Eliminating clutch drag... and getting the lightest clutch that dosnt slip.... Which I have to admit the Clutch parts supplied By Alan Dixon combined with the MB sprocket (which Alan reccommended I use) is the best setup Ive had upto now... A very light action with no slip and no drag at all... I know Ive only done 100 or so miles but it was all down back roads on my way to Leek last Sunday so it would have shown up...

The Readspeed six plate clutch is going to be fitted soon, so I can directly compair the two... but I expect a similar result... My original quest with post was to find a cheap alternative.... So I will be picking out the best sugestions listed here then trying them in my GP... and then give some feed back ... Thanx... to all that reply..