shoot that is crazy!

 

wonder if excessive heat would cause this to weaken under pressure and bend? Seems not, but what then?

 

I don't believe so. The amount of heat it would take to soften that steel part would greatly exceed the temps required to melt aluminum parts of the motor. Now that is just an experienced WAG.. I could do the research to disprove or prove that WAG.. but I'm pretty confident heat was not the issue... Unless...... that is an extremely thin wall tube?????????? Nothing else on the SH is built with crazy extreme weight savings in mind,,, lets face it the VTR is a porker

 

Too strong clutchsprings?

 

Last time I saw something like that it was a a case of the tube being off center and then the mount bolts for the mechanism being torqued down on top if it.

Betcha. . .

 

bending using compression is the hardest way to do it, and it would be done with the 3 little slave cylinder bolts.

tim

 

what can happen, will happen

 

I agree with pushrod that was my initial thought too. It doesn't take as much as you might think if a pushrod ends up having a sideways load on it before it bends. Tons of linear strength not much side to side strength. All just theories of course.

Now you need to put the whole bike back together because your opinion of it will have changed Tim .

 

I've never been into the clutch but is it possible that a broken spring would cause an uneven condition that would in turn cause the rod to be operating at such an angle to encourage bending?

If it is just a weak rod problem, maybe Viagra is all that is needed.haha Seriously, are there any symptoms or is this something that you will never know until you get into the clutch. Seems that a shortened/bent rod would result in clutch slippage or at least some marital discord.