Is it common for a clutch to shit itself suddenly .... was cruising along fine, even blasted up a cpl steep hills without a problem, then without warning the clutch started slipping badly, limped home on a fanny hair ova idle, any more rev's it would just slip .... set the adjustment umpteen times but no impovement ...... dead clutch ???

it might have a broken diaphram spring

or the clutch hub itself can crack another thing is the arm on the rhs in cover may have cracked or dropped the balls ect check the teeth in the hub as well they do shear off sometimes

 it could be the centre steel  in the middle of the clutch pack it has  small springs that are riveted together, it's too take-up the shock load  the rivets fall apart & go thru everything not too hard to fix, i always use the extra plate barnett clutch kit it does away  with the shock steel plate & give's 15 % extra surface area, 

Thanks guy's, question 2 : is it an easy job without a manual, any torque settings? do i just take out the circlip to get in there? it has a primary belt btw.

behind the adjuster (take it an plate it screws into out in one bit ) ya got a left hand threaded nut ...that should be the only one ya gotta tension down but depends on wat belt drive setup you got
cheers

Well, finally got hold of socket big enough to get that nut off, found the problem, the inner hub ( or whatever its called ) had all the teeth sheered off  + the bush is cactus because of it.

yup thatll do it as i said they sheer teeth of even if ya not a hard rider just a fault oops one of many on harleys lol 5speeds good boxes rather one them than a 6speed any day