lemur

No you're right I never cooked a wet clutch in 60 years. I do have a set of brand new 4RT corks and papers in my toolbox that I never needed.

Keep in mind ATF is considered to be less slippery (has a higher coefficient of friction) compared to industrial machine oil lubricants. What ATF does contain is detergents, friction modifiers, anti-foaming agents and a slew of special chemical additives in ~80% thin machine oil, perfect for a hydraulic torque converter that a 4RT transmission does not have 🤔 If the shifting does get stiff switch to 100% oil. Steel plates should last a lifetime if you never cook the oil in the frictions.

I don't experience clutch drag on cold startup. 4RT won't start at all if the engine oil is below 0C but the transmission will work just fine at ~-7C right up to as hot as you can stand to be riding it. I do know this, if the clutch makes noise it's time to change the oil and if the old oil comes out opaque or milky, you have lots of water in it. Water swells the cork or paper fibre material in clutch plates.

Thankfully nobody is recommending a thin light gear oil in your 4RT transmission 🤔 for any rider. UDT is ISO 46 viscosity same as the HTX biggest difference it is half the cost 🤓 so you can change it twice as often. Replace every 15 hours operation <- that's the factory recommendation how close have you kept to that? ... and if you use power washers on your motorcycle stop doing that.

Kubota UDT or similar farm tractor and excavator hydraulic oil 👍 at about 10 bucks per litre works out to ~5 bucks per oil change. Extensively tested for over 2 decades and 5 Cota' ... your transmission does not require multiple-grade engine oil, it has far more in common with a farm tractor transmission that contains hydraulics, gears and wet brakes and wet clutches. If you think your motorcycles transmission oil is under higher stress then a farm tractor or excavator would experience you would be wrong.

From a site that sells that expensive lubricant: "ELF HTX 740 is a monograde ultra fluid transmission lubricant specially developed for dry clutch gearboxes coupled to 2-stroke engines. " I would try something cheaper that you can change out every time you get water in it, nothing will make your wet clutch act up and make noise as bad as having water in the oil. It's not the steels that are causing a problem it's your cork and/or paper friction plates.

Highly recommend you have it looked at by somebody that understands and can troubleshoot the electrics.

It's also possible to re-lace the wheel with the correct type of rim 🤓 I give that solution about 100% more likely to work.

Add another rim lock right where the tire pops off the rim bead, if the rim actually has a bead. Guessing it is a steel rim with no bead, guessing you are running a tubed type tire on it. In my experience there is only one adhesive to safely use in tire applications and that is Fish glue. The up side of Fish glue is it's non-flammable and water soluble and re usable, the down side of Fish glue for your application is that it's water soluble. Fish glue is a fast drying, cold set, highly flexible adhesive largely used in woodworking.

I'd be testing the bottom end seals.

Yes to it depends on the rules set out by the organizer, the alternative to no-stop is to time limit the section. You're lucky my wife is not checking, she watches the front wheel and if it rotates backwards even a little you just 5'd.

That would be affordable if you are the guy doing the machine work and you have all the equipment already.

The lower fork legs wear oval in the bore after years of use depending on how often the oil was changed, measure the bore in the lower legs for true to round before investing in a weld repair. Very few will have the tech to weld that material efficiently.

It's always half way up the emulsion tube because that is the part most sensitive to the correct fuel level.

I must be the only one in the world that checks a float needle and seat by removing the float bowl and lifting the float with my finger to see if it shuts off the fuel flow at the right height or not at all 🤔