Scarlett has a New Clutch and Swing Arm

During most of the past two days or so:

Well, it took way, way, way longer than I expected but Scarlett now has a new clutch pack and is once again drivable.

I'd received some time ago, a replacement swing arm from IMWA (Ural).  It had been sent to me after I reported that mine had broken apart while in Utah.  Link.

I'd taken such a long time to replace the swing arm since the welded version did work, though it was slightly misaligned.  It necessitated more work to change out the pusher wheel for instance, to allow for the misalignment but it was something I got used to.

Now, since I had to push the swing arm to the rear to remove Scarlett's gearbox to access the clutch, I thought I might as well change out the swing arm.  No, I didn't want to remove the engine from the frame to work on it.  Looking back, it probably would have been easier but since I had the replacement swing arm....

Things were taken apart without any major issues.  The swing arm took a bit of creative maneuvering but nothing too complicated.

I was presented with lots of clutch material in the form of black dust all over the clutch components and flywheel:

The flywheel, where the clutch disks reside,

prior to cleanup.

The clutch pad disk closest to engine.

Of the two clutch pad disks that comprise the Ural's clutch pack; the front one was basically destroyed.  As you can see above, it had broken apart.  I could lift the thin sheet of remaining material off the disk backing, easily.  The second disk, closer to gearbox, seemed in OK shape.  I'll be keeping that one but not the other metal plates/rings as they were heat damaged at the very least.

Here's the flywheel after I cleaned it up:

Took me a few tries at least to get the new clutch components lined up and screwed down.  Before I could even start, one trip to the hardware store was required to get two 60mm long M8 x 1.25 bolts and nuts to uncompress the old components and compress the new ones into place.  The ones I'd used before over the years?  Burnt up/lost during the fire that caused me the loss of Fiona, my BMW engine Ural.

After the second attempt, I had to take it all apart because I had placed the cover plate backwards!  Doh.

An old transmission input spline gear is used to line up the two new clutch plates center hub gears:

Next two pics show the clutch pack in place, and you can see the center hub gear teeth are aligned.  Note the square hole onto which the clutch actuating rod is inserted.

I used red Loctite on the six screws

The next day, I started work on re-assembling all the components.  Took me quite a bit of time and some calls to RichardM and Darrel S. to talk over ways to fit the clutch actuating rod through the rear of the mated to engine gear box, and onto the little square hole shown above.

There's at least three methods now known to me, but it was RichardM's method that ended up working for me after many attempts with forceps.  I didn't even try the small rubber tube method!  

It took me many attempts because the square hole in the new pressure plate was tight.  In frustration, I took the gearbox off the engine again and checked to make sure the rod would even go in!  In fact, the first attempt to do so directly failed!  The square was very tight.  I got the rod in and out several times until it was easier to slide the square end of the clutch actuating rod into the pressure plate!

Note: you can tell when you've successfully inserted the rod, the thrust washer assembly goes into the gearbox deeper than when the rod isn't in the right spot on the pressure plate in the clutch!  Trust me, I thought I had it in the right spot, twice, and after fiddling with clutch cable found it too tight both times.

I hung the gearbox on the two mounting screws coming out of the engine case, leaving enough of a gap to be able to see the rod as I once again tried to push it in through the gearbox.  Success!  

Following RichardM's advice, I used a thin flat tip screwdriver to hold/put tension on the rod visible between the clutch pack and the input spline on the gearbox to prevent it from moving backwards when I withdrew the small nut drive on a magnetic extension that I used per RichardM's suggestion.

Next major issue was installing the new swingarm.  Took me a bit of time to figure out the way to twist the sucker onto the frame.  Lost a lot of time trying to thread it through the wrong part of the frame mind you!  Sigh.

I had to enlist my next door neighbor's assistance to remount the two shock absorbers onto the new swing arm as one has to fight the shock's compressing springs, so that took a bit of time as well.

That joyful task done with, the rest of the components went on without too many tears and cursing on my part.

The new major issue was the rear wheel's brake calipers.  Though I wasn't replacing the pads, I couldn't put them back onto the caliper when mounting it to the rear disc!  The brake piston you see, I couldn't compress it to allow room for the old brake pads!

At least two joyful hours and extreme exhaustion on my part, I gave up and just hung the caliper out of the way for another day.

Finally got most everything installed and after some adjustment of the clutch cable to prevent Scarlett from creeping forward with clutch engaged, I went for a short test drive.

I'm happy to report the new clutch works fine!

Today, I rested and did other chores about the house.  In the late afternoon, I used a brake pad separator tool and damn if the piston didn't start moving inwards finally!  Of course, in my efforts previously, all brake fluid had been leaked out so I must get more DOT4 fluid to fill then bleed the brake caliper.  Perhaps Wednesday after I get the new speed bleeders for Scarlett's brake calipers to make thigs easier.

Yep, I'd installed speed bleeders before according to my maintenance spreadsheet but the one on the stubborn bake caliper sure seemed to be sucking air back in!

Such are the vicissitudes of a Uralista's life, that and I really shouldn't be allowed near tools some days.

Still, the job is done, soon Scarlett will be close to 100% and we can move on to other things.

Update: June 27 - Got the piston to retract using a different tool, remounted the caliper and oriented it so the bleed valve was pointing up and tried to bleed the air out of the system.  Over an hour of pumping later, realized something wasn't right.  A quick call to RichardM provided the answer, when one is refilling a caliper, the caliper itself must be the highest point from the brake cylinder!  Doh.

So I raised the pusher wheel above the cylinder, a few more pumps and no more bubbles!  Sigh and Yay.  Got Scarlett buttoned up, went for a successful test drive and cleaned her up.  Must rest.