# Pri- Maroon Sec- Almond



## lohnes650i (Jan 29, 2013)

I'm set up my clutch with maroon and almond, but I'm running 25" BH. Bike is gutless. Do I need taller tires to get power out of the springs? Cause this is doing me no good.

I do plan on putting 28" soon.


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

It is a little overkill for 25s but I run the pink and almond with 26s and find it a perfect combo giving me a lot more low end over the stock springs...but then I do have a 750..but with 25s it would be too low of a ratio and would feel like its always in too low of a gear. 

How is yours acting ?


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

Yeah something is wrong. It should be launching like a rocket.

Did you check belt deflection?


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## lohnes650i (Jan 29, 2013)

It's got NO haul, it is acting like low gear. Belt deflection is between 25-27mm. All the forms I read say that combo should make the bike work awesome.


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

Put the stock primary back in and get the deflection down to 22-23....and make sure the weights are free. If you can't spin the pins with your fingers, they are binding.


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## lohnes650i (Jan 29, 2013)

Okay, I'll give that a shot. Thanks


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## lohnes650i (Jan 29, 2013)

If I where to keep the almond in and replace my maroon with the stock primary spring will that work and give me long range torque throughout my power band? It seems after I made the clutch changes the power decreased drastically. It's almost like you said, running in too low of a gear.


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

The primary won't affect low end. That's the secondary's job. 

The springs you have in are not the problem. It should have torque like no body's business with those color springs and 25" tires. You have a problem somewhere else. Stuck weights, lose belt (improper deflection), limp mode, something...

Matter of fact, you should pop the cover and make sure the belt switch is flipped to the correct side. I'd bet a dollar it got flipped when you were working on it. And your bike is in limp mode.


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

With 25s all you really needed was just something a hair stouter in the secondary to offset the weight of the aftermarket tires. The almond is actually best used for tires over 27" - 28" but there just isn't a spring that is between the stock and almond ( I think anyway) so you have no choice. defiantly don't need any extra resistance of a stouter primary. Tuning your clutches is as important as tuning the engine....and even trickier sometimes because of what we need it to do. Take me for example. I have no mud to ride in but..I ride between 5400 feet and 12,000 feet. I already start off with a 22% loss of power over you guys below 1,000 feet that I have to deal with. I ride desert trails and sand and hill climb sand and other stuff and need to do that in high range to make it, then I ride in the mountains where there are tight trails and rocks, fallen trees, rocky stream beds and very thin air. I settled with 26" tires on 14x8" wheels and after much testing and trying different things, I ended up with the Almond secondary, the Pink Primary, and a special balanced weight setup that has 2-58gram weights and 2-54 gram weights. I also make sure my belt is always between 22 and 24mms in deflection. And I completely service and clean both my clutches and belt every 500-700 miles.

Kind of a PITA but I get great performance out of it everywhere I go and its never left me walking....which is good because sometimes we may be a hundred miles from camp or the trucks.

Anyway the point I was making is that it will take time to find your..."sweet spot".. First let's make sure everything is doing what its supposed to. It almost sounds like you have some spring-binding somewhere or some part of the clutch isn't moving like it should. It should still run pretty good even with the 25s so lets dig in and see what's up.


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

^ Black. It's basically just like stock secondary only a tiny bit different.


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

Polaris425 said:


> ^ Black. It's basically just like stock secondary only a tiny bit different.


Oh yeah...forgot about the black. Its a little stronger on low end but weaker on top end so it will allow faster shiftout after say...15-20 mph. Not sure I would want that. Might hurt mid range.


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## lohnes650i (Jan 29, 2013)

Polaris425 said:


> The primary won't affect low end. That's the secondary's job.
> 
> The springs you have in are not the problem. It should have torque like no body's business with those color springs and 25" tires. You have a problem somewhere else. Stuck weights, lose belt (improper deflection), limp mode, something...
> 
> Matter of fact, you should pop the cover and make sure the belt switch is flipped to the correct side. I'd bet a dollar it got flipped when you were working on it. And your bike is in limp mode.


I don't think it's limp mode, I can still reach 95km. But it's got no grunt what so ever. I was expecting a whole new bike with this set up. I noticed installing my almond that when compressing it wanted to fold, but I figured that was normal. My belt deflection is quite a lot, I'm gonna have to take that almond out, remove a shim, double check my limp switch. When installing this I also removed my KEBC. But I don't think that would effect anything. 

The bike feels like my fathers Foreman haha


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

/Brute650i/ said:


> When installing this I also removed my KEBC. But I don't think that would effect anything.


 How did you do this? Is there any flashing lights...like the 2/4wd? 

The spring should not have "Folded" but some do tend to not want to compress straight. After looking at the black spring's compression pressures I am not sure its the one either. While you are in there make sure all the secondary "dogs" are in place and work smoothly in the slides. The deflection is very important and must be set correctly. No guessing here. 22-24mm is the target.


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## lohnes650i (Jan 29, 2013)

NMKawierider said:


> How did you do this? Is there any flashing lights...like the 2/4wd?
> 
> The spring should not have "Folded" but some do tend to not want to compress straight. After looking at the black spring's compression pressures I am not sure its the one either. While you are in there make sure all the secondary "dogs" are in place and work smoothly in the slides. The deflection is very important and must be set correctly. No guessing here. 22-24mm is the target.


I removed the fork, the actuator is still in place. My deflection is by far over 22-24mm. Probably more like 27-30mm. I removed and greased my dogs when I changed the vfj#2 with the almond. At this time was the same time I swapped my dalton blue with the maroon. After theses changed is when I noticed the drastic decrease in power. It feels like im limited power but I still reach 90km just take a long time to get there.


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

Yeah. Belt deflection is almost garunteed to be your problem then. 


Posted via TapaTalk for iPhone5


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## lohnes650i (Jan 29, 2013)

We just got another 50cm of snow, so I'll probably put the bike away for now. But I'll change that deflection, hopefully it fixes the issue. Another concern was that my rear brake froze up.

---------- Post added at 11:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 AM ----------



Polaris425 said:


> Yeah. Belt deflection is almost garunteed to be your problem then.
> 
> 
> Posted via TapaTalk for iPhone5


My concern is that I never changed my deflection when using the blue dalton primary/ stock seconday. Since I changed to maroon and almond it dropped right off. I have a hard time wheelieing and my top end drops off at 40km/h. It has to be the belt deflection. Just confused why it never gave me that feeling before..


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

Because springs are different. Short explanation. 


Posted via TapaTalk for iPhone5


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## NMKawierider (Apr 11, 2009)

Where did this Dalton blue primary come from? You do know we have a spring chart that shows all the rates...right? It's 60psi at mid-range which is going to be murder on low-end shiftout as is with stock weights...add the Almond secondary to that and it may not until after 5K. Deflection..22-24mm. No more.

MudInMyBlood Forums Kawasaki Clutch Spring Chart


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## lohnes650i (Jan 29, 2013)

My previous clutching was dalton blue/ stock. I swapped it out for maroon and almond expecting all this torque from what everyone was saying on the clutching forms and it has totally kill my performer both bottom and top end. And my question is why? Because everyone else running those springs says they have awesome bottom end (what I want).


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## Polaris425 (Dec 16, 2004)

It's. Your. Belt. :34:



I'm not saying it again. I think we've covered it. Go fix your belt deflection ride it and come back and let us know if it runs like a scalded dog. Otherwise I'm done trying to help.


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## bruteryder (Feb 12, 2014)

another problem that it could be is the same problem I had last spring, I was riding my snowmobile all winter then when it came time to put it away and get the ol brute out it felt like it was gutless. I spent 700 bucks on several different things such as clutch springs and weights, spark plugs, new piston rings ect. trying to get it to work better, in the end I realized I was trying to get it to be as peppy as the sled which wasn't going to happen lol. do you have a sled?if so what kind? and have you been driving it this winter?:bigok:


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