HOW TO INSTALL A HINSON SS CLUTCH IN THE HONDA CRF450

If you ride hard and put it away wet, odds are that Honda’s four-spring clutch will not be in good working order by the end of the moto.

Honda’s four-spring clutch is a thing of wonder—most Honda CRF450 owners wonder what Honda’s engineers were thinking. If you ride hard and put it away wet, odds are that Honda’s four-spring clutch will not be in good working order by the end of the moto. Most MXA test riders can get four hours out of the stock CRF450 clutch before it needs new plates (some get four minutes). That is too often to be forced to replace $80 worth of clutch plates. So, MXA decided to solve the problem by installing Hinson’s innovative Single Spring (SS) clutch. The most significant feature of the Hinson SS clutch is its single Belleville washer spring. The Hinson clutch fixes the inherent problems of the stock four-spring clutch.
Before you remove the clutch cover, stick a screwdriver in the swingarm pivot hole so that the handle of the screwdriver pushes the rear brake pedal down. This allows you to access all of the 8mm clutch cover bolts without having to remove the brake pedal.  

With the clutch cover removed, use an 8mm T-handle wrench to remove the four Honda CRF450 clutch bolts on the pressure plate and lift it off. Once you have the pressure plate off, carefully remove the needle bearing, clutch lifter top hat and washer from the center of the hub. Set them aside. Leave the clutch plates in the clutch for now.
Use a hammer and punch to flatten the lock washer that secures the inner hub clutch nut in place. You may need to get a new lock washer, but in most cases the stock washer can be reused.