Dellortoman
Hero member
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia
There's the solution John. You need to put butcher's paper between the plates. 
I'm familiar with the issue Vince is referring to with flat surfaces being hard to separate. It's a fluid mechanics affect. If there's a thin layer of liquid between the plates, surface tension will tend to hold them together. Sheets of corrugated roofing iron are a bastard to separate if the stack has been left out in the rain and water has wicked in between the sheets. But it also happens to a lesser extent when dry because air has surface tension too, although the effect is less than with liquids.
I'm not sure that hydraulic surface tension effect is what's going on with clutch plates though. Otherwise every clutch would stick every time. Anyway, the plates have grooves in them to eliminate hydraulic adhesion.
My uneducated guess is that the sticking is actually some kind of chemical adhesion, perhaps due to chemical changes in the plate material when it gets hot from friction. Maybe microscopic particles detach from the friction material and react with the oil to form some kind of sticky muck. All I know is that a set of new plates can eliminate the problem. But I've not heard of anyone fixing it with a change of oil.
I can recommend Red's Kevlar plates from personal experience. They never stick and they have high friction so the clutch is less likely to slip.
I'm familiar with the issue Vince is referring to with flat surfaces being hard to separate. It's a fluid mechanics affect. If there's a thin layer of liquid between the plates, surface tension will tend to hold them together. Sheets of corrugated roofing iron are a bastard to separate if the stack has been left out in the rain and water has wicked in between the sheets. But it also happens to a lesser extent when dry because air has surface tension too, although the effect is less than with liquids.
I'm not sure that hydraulic surface tension effect is what's going on with clutch plates though. Otherwise every clutch would stick every time. Anyway, the plates have grooves in them to eliminate hydraulic adhesion.
My uneducated guess is that the sticking is actually some kind of chemical adhesion, perhaps due to chemical changes in the plate material when it gets hot from friction. Maybe microscopic particles detach from the friction material and react with the oil to form some kind of sticky muck. All I know is that a set of new plates can eliminate the problem. But I've not heard of anyone fixing it with a change of oil.
I can recommend Red's Kevlar plates from personal experience. They never stick and they have high friction so the clutch is less likely to slip.
