Not really groundbreaking news, but many people want to know an easy way to remove/install the clutch hub nut as well as the ever so fun alternator rotor nut. If you have your motor out of the bike then the task can be interesting to say the least. Common practice for me has been using an impact on the clutch for both removal and installation. Later I went the route of getting clutch holding pliers before they became commonplace. The pliers work ok, but you really need to have something to jam them against...especially when you are re-torquing. And oh what fun that is if your motor is sitting on a bench and you are trying to hold the pliers with one hand and torque the nut with the other while keeping the motor from flopping around. Then I progressed to putting the engine in a stand so it was stable enough to remove the bits I needed...still using the pliers only to have them slipping off what ever edge I could find.
Now I use this small plastic (Delrin) tool to hold the hub and basket and it makes removing AND re-torquing the alternator rotor nut and the clutch hub nut and basket bolts a breeze. Sure there are many variations of this tool. But, the others are usually made of steel, which is fine for holding steel.. but no so much for your expensive aluminum lightweight pieces. And yes, you can make your own by grafting some old clutch plates together and making some sort of handle or mount, but I didn't want to f*ck around with that. I have tested this tool (holder). It is plenty rigid to deal with the torque required to break loose the alt rotor nut. So, no more impact on the clutch for me... everything is torqued by the book. $40 bucks for a little piece of plastic? Yeah, it'll see plenty of use with my bikes.
Here are some pics including the pliers I used to use and a link for the
tool. The guy listed it just for clutch removal, but I told him he should also list for alt rotor nut as that is why I bought it.
Robert
