<p>The existence of clearance is difficult to avoid in mechanical systems, so it is important to model the dynamics of multibody systems with clearance and study their dynamic behavior. Based on the multibody system transfer matrix method, this paper proposes a novel method for dynamic modeling of planar rigid multibody systems with revolute clearance joints, which has the advantages of the general modeling process, low matrix order, and ease of object-oriented programming. First, the normal and tangential contact forces within the revolute clearance joints are described by establishing a contact coordinate system. By combining the LCP with the continuous method, the contact forces are added to the system’s recurrence relations using Lagrange multipliers. On this basis, the low-dimensional linear complementarity problem formulation for the systems is constructed. Then, the dynamics solution method for the systems based on recurrence relations is presented. Finally, numerical simulations of planar pendulum and slider-crank mechanisms with revolute clearance joints are carried out. The simulation results not only verify the effectiveness of the method but also illustrate that the revolute clearance joints have a significant effect on the dynamic behavior of the system.</p>