Late clutch engagement issue on 600 LE

[Shawn Behrens]

Well I finally got annoyed enough to swap out the clutch in my new 600 LE. I like many others have been having very late clutch engagement issues with the 600 LE machine. Upon replacing the clutch with another new align clutch (HN6028T) the issue was evident. The round area of the clutch where the material is removed to allow for clutch engagement was very different between the LE clutch and the replacement (HN6028T) one. It appears as though align was attempting to fix the premature wear/snapping of clutches by not removing as much material on the LE clutches. Unfortunately they removed too little this time, causing an extremely late clutch engagement (my le clutch would not engage until around 40% throttle). The LE clutch gap in the area I mentioned is 2.43 mm the replacement clutch measures only 2.04 mm. Seems to me like 2.2 would be a good gap guestimate for a clutch that would engage at a reasonable rpm and not snap prematurely. I think if you are using the LE clutch you might get away with just using a thicker clutch liner to allow for an earlier clutch engagement and be able to keep the beefed up LE clutch. Either way this really has to make you wonder if changes like this are done why are they not tested thouroughly prior to release. Don't get me wrong I really like align machines but sometimes little simple things like this can be a little off putting.
shawn

[pril250]

Can't fault your analysis nor your conclusions especially the producers corner cutting practices. Probably if one was a mechanical engineer and had the correct equipment then the 0.23mm could be shaved off the inner diameter to acheive your 2.2mm thickness ie the ideal clutch.

I guess, if I was building an LE kit and in view of yours and others experience here, it would have been easier to stick to the LE item and use a thicker lining. The gain would be two fold the first being a stronger part and the second a slower wearing lining acheiving longer service terms for the clutch.