Article [13] ST1300 - Clutch Slave Cylinder Replacement

Re: ST1300 Clutch Slave Cylinder Replacement

MaxPete said:
Thanks Supra - you`ve done so much for some many of us with your experience and advice (not to mention stockpiling STs for us all later) that I am happy to be able to return the favour.

One thing - I noted from your earlier post on this subject that you are planning to use a hoist for your CSC replacement.

I`d love to have a hoist myself and there are many jobs which it would make waaaayyyy easier - but replacing a CSC is not one of them IMO. The hoist would simply make access more difficult because you really need to get UNDER the middle of the bike. I had a mechanic`s back pad and a piece of carpet ready to put down on the garage floor but my agile young helper Craig was down there before I had a chance to lay them out. In fact, he had the old CSC off in about 5-10 minutes!
The real issue is having those flex ring ratchet wrenches - good long ones with fine motion pawls - and the vacuum bleeder. The ones sold by Snap-On tools are the way to go on this task, I would say.

Cheers,

Pete
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I have a MC lift, that will pick the bike up at the engine. I'm not sure if it will work or not yet. Also, the lift I'm looking to buy will have an area that is removable where I can get to the rear of the engine. Trying to roll around on the ground probably would be a really big pain for me, but we'll see. Right now I'm back on the 2012 due to the front tire on the 2010 is shot and I need to get to my tire machine, that my older son has at his house (he was gone to the desert this last weekend)!

And as Larry pointed out, there is a good chance that the springs in the clutch might be shot, which means I'll have to tear the front cover off too!
 
Thanks again everyone. I just went over the post this morning and added a couple of pointers to it.

Good luck all and if you need a hand - PM me and we can chat.

Cheers,

Pete
 
Pete,
I can't thank you enough for your help and these write ups!! I am new to trying to fix things on the bike myself. It started when I hit 25k miles and the dealer wanted around $1300 for a full service... which leads most people to look into doing things themselves. I was able to buy the parts and do it all myself for around $200 for the part; air filter, oil filter (K&N with the nut on the end for easy removal), oil, drive fluid, spark plugs and coolant... I think that covers it. This lead me to the clutch fluid. Being new the idea of draining this and then using a tool to bleed the fluid seemed like a big task for me. I had noticed that I was low on clutch fluid in the master cylinder before I started all of this work so I knew I needed to look into that. Turns out that I had clutch fluid leaking out of the CSC.
Long story short, after a number of calls to dealers who quoted me a 13 - 16 hr job... before parts, so around a $2000 job... I decided to do this myself. Once I saw Pete's write up I thought I would give it a try, with a buddy of mine who knows his way around cars/motorcycles.
I tried to order all the needed parts that Pete had listed with one big issue. As of last week there is not a CSC in the entire US that I could get. It is backordered and was supposed to be available as of 2/20. When I talked to the Honda dealers they all said that they could order it for me and I could pay for overnight delivery (this would put me at the front of the line once they were available) but that they could not tell me if this was going to be days, weeks or months away. One dealer felt that it would be at least a month away. With this I ordered as many of the parts as I could which was all of the parts you would get from a rebuild kit, minus the spring, no one has that either.
I know I probably should have just gone with the rebuild kit but I was short on time with they guy who had a small sliver of time to help me out on Saturday.
So, with all of these parts in hand we drained the clutch fluid, took off the oil filter.. followed Pete's directions down to removing the CSC. The one extra thing I had to do was to remove the gasket that was around the rod (sorry, don't have part numbers or exact names) which took a while. All of this work was done with the bike on its side stand. It was a bit of a pain to get to but was doable. Once we got that gasket out and the new one in and the CSC cleaned out and new gaskets around that, it was time to put it all back together. Parts back together, gear shift linkage lined up (great tip on marking that one!!!), oil filter back on and clutch fluid back in and bleeding done... it looks like my leak is GONE!!
I have had this looming over my head for about 3 months now and it has been killing me not being able to ride as I commute to work. Having this back up and going will easily take off an hour of my commute... each way. I do have to get used to where the clutch catches when letting it out, now that it is fixed. But that is a small price to pay for getting this all fixed up for a total of $45 in parts and the help of a good friend and about 3 1/2 hrs of work. The biggest part of that time was getting that blasted gasket out too, because we couldn't quite get to it and didn't have the exact right tool to get it out. Other than that it was SOOO good to know that it is now done and I didn't have to shell out what would have been close to $2000 to the dealer.
Thanks again Pete for the write up and to many others all over these forums! It is amazing to find a place where you can get so much information about working on these ST's. It is a huge help for someone like me who is new to all of this.
The great part about all of this is now that I have gone through all of this you will NOT find this guy taking his bike into the dealers again to get, what is now, a very simple oil change!!
Thanks again!
Rich
 
Excellent - thanks for the kind words Rich!

So glad it worked out for you - and as you said, whole it isn't exactly a fun job, it is quite doable for a careful, methodical person with a few tools. All of that, plus saving upwards of $2000 - and I'll take that deal any time.

Cheers,

Pete
 
First of all, a HUGE thanx to Pete for a great write up on the changing of the CSC. Very much appreciated! Sir, YOU ROCK!!!
Called my dealership (he is very fair) and asked him about it. He did not have to replace one yet, so of course he says no problem. Should be easy. After looking at his computer (14 hours of labor) he started laughing. Pretty much calling Honda every name in the book for designing the bike this way. It was pretty funny. He told me to bring it in and he can look at it. I told him i can not move the bike and that i will try to do it.
Following Pete's write up, it was a breeze. A little more difficult than that, but it's done! 3 hours of work. Tools, parts, bleeder-total cost $160. Probably saved me a good $1500.
THANK YOU !!!
 
2xthefun said:
First of all, a HUGE thanx to Pete for a great write up on the changing of the CSC. Very much appreciated! Sir, YOU ROCK!!!
Called my dealership (he is very fair) and asked him about it. He did not have to replace one yet, so of course he says no problem. Should be easy. After looking at his computer (14 hours of labor) he started laughing. Pretty much calling Honda every name in the book for designing the bike this way. It was pretty funny. He told me to bring it in and he can look at it. I told him i can not move the bike and that i will try to do it.
Following Pete's write up, it was a breeze. A little more difficult than that, but it's done! 3 hours of work. Tools, parts, bleeder-total cost $160. Probably saved me a good $1500.
THANK YOU !!!
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Thanks very much 2x - kind words indeed. Glad it worked out for you and yes, theee hours is about what I found as well as the other folks who did it before me. As you said, not quite a breeze - but entirely doable by an average shade tree mechanic especially if you have the right tools.

You know, it's funny. Before I did mine, I was not able to find very much at all on what seemed like quite a rare problem - but since then, all sorts of folks from all over the world seem to have issues with the CSC.

Cheers,

Pete
 
Thanks for the write up Pete! Mine started leaking last summer. I've topped the master cylinder off twice now. I was paranoid about this job, but your write up gives me the confidence to DIY it. I have all the parts (except the crush washers), and I already had the tools. I will be doing this job in the next few days.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
carldavis65 said:
Thanks for the write up Pete! Mine started leaking last summer. I've topped the master cylinder off twice now. I was paranoid about this job, but your write up gives me the confidence to DIY it. I have all the parts (except the crush washers), and I already had the tools. I will be doing this job in the next few days.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
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Excellent Carl - good for you! Don't forget to grab those crush washers and the vaseline (extremely handy) - and then have at it.

Are you going to be at the Der Dutchman RTE this weekend?

Pete
 
MaxPete said:
Excellent Carl - good for you! Don't forget to grab those crush washers and the vaseline (extremely handy) - and then have at it.

Are you going to be at the Der Dutchman RTE this weekend?

Pete
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I'm planning on it! I've been trying to make it to an event for a while! Looking forward to meeting some people.

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carldavis65 said:
Ha. Not yet. It might be a few weeks before I get to it.

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OK - well, I'm sure that you will find it quite manageable but not a great deal of fun. Fortunately, there is not much disassembly of the bike required, not many special tools and nothing too heavy to lift/align or wrestle with.

Cheers,

Pete
 
Hi Pete,
THANK YOU for your article. I just finished doing this to my 2006 and with the help of your wisdom it went very well. I have 2 things that I'll add here...(both for what they're worth of course.)
First, by far the hardest part of this is getting the old gasket off. Definitely took me the most time. If I had it to do again I'd leave the old one in place as it doesn't seal anything anyway. Second, I agree with the person who said to remove the speed sensor (I think)...having it out of the way made the job easier for me.

Thanks again Pete! I owe you one!

Mark
 
Great points Mark - I'll edit the article.

The only wrinkle about leaving gasket on would be if it was "lumpy" and would not allow the CSC to sit nice and flat on the engine case.

As long it comes off fairly even and smooth I agree that it would be OK to leave the gasket on because as you say, it really does not actually "seal" anything.

Anyhow glad it worked out for you. It is certainly better than the $1300+ Honda factory method.

Pete
 
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Great write up Pete ! Question is what took more time the write up or the actual job !!! Usually let dealer tackle my issues but the amount of description in your write up makes me think I could actually do this with Ray supervising of course. :bow1:
 
Well, spent about 2.5 hours today stretched out beside the 2005 doing this job. Overall it went well. I agree, one of the worse parts was scraping off the old gasket!
 
There ya go sah48 - glad it worked out.

FWIW - we used a brass brush to get the gasket off and that seemed effective and didn't damage the engine cases.
 
I followed post and everything worked out great!!
Only thing I did different was a full oil change and replaced
the dot4 in the brake system while I was at it.
 
Excellent Ph8 - glad it worked out.

I think about 8-12 people have now done this job which is a collective saving of around $15-20,000 in labour over the Honda method.

Of course, that estimate is in Canadian dollars - but $20K CDN is still more than $39.40 US at the current rate of exchange....:D;)
 
Thank you Max Pete for collaborating with each of the other ST-Owners members and detailing this whole process. The whole problem still breaks my heart though. I am now know this is my problem on my 2003 ST 1300. But I am no longer physically able to do this work, and don't have the money, nor even a Honda dealer capable of this within 150 miles of me. I love my ST, I only get to ride a few days a year because of my health, but my ST is my motivation to keep fighting. I am so thankful to Mellow and all of the members of ST-Owners for the many years of fellowship and knowledge sharing and good eats I have been blessed with.

Thank you so much, as a true patriot and disabled vet, it really warms my heart to see so many great people from all walks of life, generously helping each other. Just Awesome.
 
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