Clutch basket wobbles side to side

[SmokinFast]

When I took the clutch cover off to change the clutch plates I noticed that the entire clutch basket wobbles and makes a bit of a clanking noise with the engine running. And when the engine is not running, I can manually move the clutch basket from side to side about 1-2 mm. Is this normal, or if not what do I need to replace?

[Munkey]

The basket sits on a sleeve and a bearing on the primary shaft, parts #17 and #3 in the diagram. If you have spares from another engine, you might replace them and see if that helps.

[Munkey]

I have a complete spare primary shaft and gears assembly out of the engine. I checked it for play and the basket does have a small amount of play in it. Maybe about an eight of an inch total movment back and forth. Can you tell if the play in your's is in the bearing or in the clutch basket itself? If it's in the bearing, I can send you the spare I have and see if that helps.

[Munkey]

Some of the springs are loose in mine too.

I had a really loud clanking in mine when I first rebuilt it after the valve/piston meeting. A piece of metal had gotten pressed between the gears on the clutch basket causing too much play in the mesh with the crank gear. Might look at that just to be sure you didn't somehow get the same thing when that primary shaft bearing got chewed up.

[Munkey]

That's a tough one. Maybe try that same thing but without all the clutch plates and springs and see what it sounds like. At least that would either rule in or out the other clutch parts.