Welding up a worn 250R Clutch Arm

[wonderboy]

Today I hit a pretty pricey snag on my brother's 250R project. The clutch arm is worn out. The clutch pushrod has completely worn into the clutch arm face and basically the arm moves through half of its travel before even starting to disengage the clutch.

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I'd like to avoid the ebay prices for a good one of these ($60+) and repair this one. Is there any change I can weld this and machine it somehow to repair it? The welding part, I could probably tackle. The machining part is the part I don't think I could do. Is there any chance of chucking up an endmill in the drill press and putting a nice machined flat on the welded surface?

I'll probably have to find someplace to do this officially but thought I'd ask here for advice first to see if there is a less labor intensive way to fix this. Anyone on the board that's done this and wants to tackle another (for payment of course)?

[shortline10]

I’ve had to do a few when the parts were obsolete , not sure on the 250r though , definitely doable .

[El Camexican]

If it was mine I would preheat the part, and weld the void with 7018 rod and then carefully grind it to shape with a Dremel.

You could MIG weld it, it’s just that the 7018 rod is very hard and would last longer.

I just wanna add that after seeing similar damage on a couple of Yamaha arms I have I’m starting to think that the reason for this damage is badly dimpled clutch hub fingers and/or the use of heavy duty clutch springs. I find it hard to believe these arms would wear out like this if everything else was stock and in good working condition.

[wonderboy]

The machine was a pretty cobbled together turd when my brother bought it. There were so many bad, missing, and worn parts... the one surprise though was that it appears to have an aftermarket clutch basket that doesn't have any notches. However, is is clear that this thing saw some rough miles before that new basket was put in there.

I did buy the clutch upgrade kit for this machine to replace the other parts (pressure plate, rod, bearing, etc). The upgrade kit puts a needle thrust bearing at the pressure plate to hopefully help minimize any spinning of the clutch rod when the clutch is pulled in. Hopefully, this helps take some wear off of the clutch arm. I think I'll give this a shot.