Replacing clutch springs on the VTX 1800

Preface
This is a basic walk-through for changing the clutch springs on the VTX 1800. I did this to swap to the stiffer Barnett MT114-6 springs to stop my clutch from slipping. This is a pretty simple job which requires a few basic tools and a torque wrench. As always undertake this project at your own risk, but with a little common sense this isn't very hard to do. I hope this helps.

Preparation/supplies

Barnett MT 114-6 clutch springs available from HDL

2 new exhaust gaskets

Black RTV or "Hondabond" liquid gasket maker

Torque wrench capable of 9 ft/lbs or 108 in/lbs

8mm and 10mm socket

5mm allen socket

Roughly 14" long piece of wooden dowel rod

Hammer

Gasket scraper or razor blade

If you're not changing your oil at the same time then you'll need some 2x lumber, bricks, etc to rest the bike on

Process
Remove your exhaust, this is different from type to type so I'll just say remove it - remove the old exhaust gaskets too! Once your exhaust is off decide if you're changing your oil now or not. If you're changing your oil then drain the crankcase and leave it empty until afterwards. If you're not changing the oil then put the front and rear tire on a 2x board or other roughly 2 inch block. I did mine by putting just the rear tire on 2 2x6's but it's up to you. With the bike on these blocks rest it on it's sidestand, trust me it'll be fine.
Now looking at the bike from the right side remove the 7 5mm allen bolts holding the clutch cover on and the 5 5mm allen bolts holding the timing cover on.

Then remove the big rubber dampener from over the clutch cover.

Be careful when you remove the clutch cover, there are 10 little rubber "thingy's" that act as vibration dampeners for the cover. Sometimes they stick to the crankcase cover so you have to remove them and reinstall them where they go.

This is what they look like:

This is where they go:

Anyways, back on track... With the covers off it's time to remove the right crankcase cover itself. This consists of 15 8mm bolts which you can see here:

Now keep in mind, there are 3 different sized case bolts here, so to make this a little less complicated on reassembly I HIGHLY suggest a little something like this for the case bolts:

This idea works great on anything with a lot of different sized bolts/screws where you need to remember exactly where they go. You can see the holes in mine, but many of the bolts were reinstalled already when the pic was snapped.
With all the bolts removed take your hammer and wooden dowel rod, come from the left side of the bike behind the rear cylinder and slide the rod through until it touches this tab on the right side case:

The pic is from the top of the engine looking down at the case where the timing and clutch "circles" meet the "flat" area on top the case. With the dowel against that tab a couple of light pops with the hammer should break the cover loose. Something else to keep in mind once the case is open is that the edges can be fairly sharp and I've heard of a couple of guys actually slicing themselves pretty good on them, so be careful! (Big thanks to Bill Lage aka Wyandotte Kid for this pointer!)
With the cover off here's what you will see:

Now at this point, the manual will tell you to remove all the springs and reinstall them in a criss-cross pattern (like putting lug nuts on a car tire) but I didn't do it this way because I figured it'd be easier and put less strain on the bolts (which are notorious for breaking) if we just swap one at a time. Using a 10mm socket remove one bolt and spring and then reinstall one new spring with the same bolt. Torque the bolt down to 9 ft/lbs or 108 in/lbs and BE CAREFUL many folks have reported breaking these bolts, but using an "old school" deflector style torque wrench I have never had any problems here (I've done multiple sets).

Once all 6 are changed and torqued properly we can begin the reassembly process. Begin by cleaning off both the case surfaces using a gasket scraper (available at auto parts stores for a few bucks and WELL worth it IMO) or if you don't have one a razor blade will suffice. Scrape all the old gasket off and make sure they are clean.

With both surfaces thoroughly cleaned apply a small bead of black RTV or "Hondabond" liquid gasket material to the case cover that is removed.

I use my finger afterwards to make sure it's spread evenly and completely over all the edges. if you look closely at the cover you'll see that it's not necessary to do the "outer circles" around the timing and clutch covers where it is double-walled as there are small slots there anyway. With the liquid gasket in place you can slide the cover back onto the case and begin reinstalling all 15 of the 8mm cover bolts again.

I used to recommend these be torqued to 20 ft/lbs as the manual vaguely hints around this value for the right crankcase cover, but after swapping many sets and talking about this with some others (a big thanks especially to Big Al aka TxVTX) I am changing this value to 9 ft/lbs. I have come too close to snapping bolts with my torque wrench set at 15 ft/lbs rather than 20, and Al convinced me that the 9 ft/lbs should be more than adequate.
Bottom line - torque these to 9 ft/lbs!
With the cover back on and torqued down wipe up any gasket maker you may have squeezed out during reinstall.

Now you can reinstall the rubber dampener (pic above), the clutch cover and it's 7 5mm bolts and the timing cover and it's 5 5mm bolts. These only require a few ft/lbs of torque each so just be careful snugging these down normally and don't wrench on them too hard.
That's it, you're done! now just reinstall your exhaust system per whichever set of directions you need to follow, making sure to use new exhaust gaskets:

Torque the exhaust bolts to 17 ft/lbs. Go back over them several times as some will "loosen" a bit as you snug the others down. Make sure to retorque these again after a couple of rides as the heat/cold cycle of riding will tend to loosen things up a little bit as well. If you drained your oil don't get over-excited and forget to put BOTH your drain plugs back properly (22 ft/lbs), install a new filter, and add 3.9 quarts of your favorite oil.

Afterthoughts
This is a GREAT mod to fix the slippage that is inherent in the 1800 clutch, and it's cheap (a little over $30 with springs and exhaust gaskets). With a friend around to help remove and reinstall the exhaust this isn't a hard job for even the most unskilled wrench to do. I figure maybe an hour tops total job time NOT including the exhaust removal and reinstall (some exhausts are a little tricky to get on/off).