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Barnett Scorpion Issues
Lengthy post….apologize in advance.
Had a Barnett Scorpion put in when I had cams and tune done. After almost 3,000 miles in less than 4 months, I had a failure inside the clutch that required me to have my bike towed.
After opening up the primary, pulling the springs and inspecting, what I discovered was that the throw out bearing pack inside the pressure plate had just been ripped apart. The clutch lifter arm had seperated from the “washer” portion of itself. Ball bearings easily fell out. What was left inside of the pressure plate was the outer ring of the bearing pack and the c-clip.
I had the medium and strong springs installed inside the clutch. Before this failure occurred, clutch pull was difficult and adjusting the clutch cable was an every other ride occurrence.
I do remember a handful of rides prior to this failure that I felt tension loosen when I pulled in the clutch lever that I hadn’t felt before. During the same ride, and maybe a few times before the failure, I heard a squeak as well when I pulled in the clutch lever. In hindsight, I am guessing that tension loosening and squeel was the bearing pack and clutch lifter arm starting to break apart.
If the end of the pinion shaft on the clutch arm is supposed to engage the clutch lifter arm by rolling it in and out when pulling the clutch lever, why would it have put stress on the bearing pack and eventually pull apart the flat disk end from the clutch lifter arm end that has the teeth on it?
I have since rebuilt the clutch with a new bearing pack and clutch lifter arm but installed the softest springs instead of the medium/hard springs, and all I get is slippage once my rpms start to climb towards 3k. I am now thinking I will rebuild it one last time with the medium springs only, as all I can think that caused this failure was the hard springs causing extreme tension, along with possibly not having my adjustment not dialed in perfectly. There doesn’t seem to be much room at all in the Barnett Scorpion clutch for adjustment.
Anyone else have similar experiences with this clutch? What tips can you give me (other than going back to OEM)?
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2 Replies
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I never, ever, ever recommend the Scorpion Clutch. It’s garbage. There is no saving it, it would go straight in the garbage at my shop. I hope whomever installed the Scorpion saved the stock parts because they’ll be needed to build the next clutch.
The $140 Barnett pressure plate/spring would have done more work than the entire Scorpion setup.
When you rebuild again be sure to use the Victory clutch fibers and plates as well.
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This is the consensus at Thevog.net Barnett really should stop selling that nightmare.