Hi:

So, I'm driving around the other day and my clutch cable snaps and leaves me stranded. When I got home, I realized that my clutch lever, can be easily moved by hand and does not disengage the clutch. In fact, not I could do would disengage the clutch. So I took the clutch cover off and removed hte clutch plates--everything looked good. I also removed the inner clutch basket, and it too was fine. I then reassembled everything and the clutch will still not disengage.

At first, I thought it was the clutch lever and I bought a new one. That didn't help at all. It's almost like the clutch puller is a couple millimeters away from the clutch cover. It's strange. Everything is torqued to spec and there is no noticeable wear on any of the parts.

Does anyone know if there should be a taper on the clutch puller? What could cause this problem? I'd hate towing the car to the dealer and having them look at it, but I'm almost to that point. Any help is appreciated...

--Thanks, Chris

 

Well, strictly based on exactly what you said.

No where in the post did you indicate you bought a new cable and put it on. If the cable is broken, it needs a new one. Seems pretty simple, or did you leave that out of the post? If the cable is broken, the lever will move free as the air. And, of course, nothing will disengage!

 

Did you check the barrel adjustment on your clutch lever?
I had it rattle loose until I couldn't disengage my clutch. Took a few minutes on the side of the road to figure it out. If that ends up being the problem make sure you tighten the fixing nut.

 

Hi:

Thanks guys, but it's not that. I'm not even messing with the cable yet. Instead, I'm pressing the clutch lever with my hand to try to disengage it. I used to be able to do it, noe something is wrong.

--Thanks, Chris

 

I dont know man, if you broke a cable and you havent gotten to that part yet...........you should skip all the other stuff and go right to the problem. Maybe I am simply an idiot and dont get what the hell you're talking about? Sorry I couldnt be of more help, keep us posted on what actaully went wrong.

 

It's not the cable because I'm pressing on the actual lever on the engine. Lookie at this picture. I'm taking my thumb and pressing the clutch lever to the 11:30 position. When I used to do it, the clutch would disengage (yes, it was hard, but it could be done). Now, it doesn't release the clutch. I can start to feel the clutch springs try to disengage the clutch pressure plate, but it's like the clutch puller is too close to the clutch arm.

I'll disassemble the clutch basket tomorrow and see if the clutch pressure plate has odd wear around the puller bearing area. it's the only thing I can think of. Any ideas?

--Chris

 

Hey man not a mechanic or anything but I broke the pin, clutch lifter and I had to replace that. The clutch wouldn't disengage so I took her apart as I had some prior history with replacing my clutch. I couldn't believe that I broke that dang part when the part was about 20 bucks from the honda dealer and it ended up costing me about 90 bucks. when the oil is 5 bucks a quart for gn-4 honda oil, 15 for dang oil filter, 15 for the freaking gasket, 5 for gasket sealer, and 12 for thread-loc. But you say the pressure plate moves? If so this isn't the problem and I wasted your time and mine. Only trying to help you out though, Good Luck!

 

Ah, thanks for the pic. I did not realize what you were talking about. I assume "lever" and think "clutch lever at drivers end. Sorry man. I can only assume something is binding in there, however I dont know what it could be. Maybe a broken fiber plate? Let us know what you find in there.

 

Hi:

Thanks for the reply guys. It turns out, it is definately not the pin/clutch lifter. There also isn't any clutch fiber bits anywhere in there. What I think happened, and this is very odd is this...

First, I was stupid and sat at traffic lights with my foot on the clutch. I now know this is bad. Having pulled the clutch cover and NOW understanding how bike clutches work, it is never a good idea to keep the clutch disengaged for very long at all.

Anyway, doing this wore my innermost clutch fiber to the point where it jumped onto the jutter spring and binded everything up. I'm going to go look again, but it looks like that clutch friction plate is worn and the rest aren't. Plus, when I reassembled everything, I could not put it back together without binding everything up.

At least, I hope the above is all true. I'm going to buy a new innermost clutch friction from Honda tomorrow for $10. If this doesn't fix it, I don't know what does. I have the whole clutch basket out and everything looks perfect and withing spec. I even measured everything with my calipers. I can take pictures if anyone is interested. I have everyhting apart.

BTW, Changing clutches on these things is dead easy. I've essentially done it three times now trying to figure out what is wrong. Now I'm not dealing with plastics or anything, but it takes me about 20 minutes from start to finish. Absolutely no reason to pay someone to do this. If you can change oil, you can replace a bike clutch...

--Chris

 

Hey man paid around 165 for my whole barnett kevlar clutch with tax. Including all of the friction plates and steel plates with the 3 springs. That happened to me exactly but what happened was I was trying to do a burnout and flooring it with the clutch half on with throttle pulled. I let off and went nowhere. Pulled the cover off pulled every plate off until the last 2 or 3 and found the culprit-one friction plate had that kevlar/cardboard crap all burned off! Well needless to say I never did that again. First time I even did anything to the bike as far as repair goes and it was easy as could be. Bike shops wanted a 100 to open the bike up and tell me it was going to be 500 more. I spent about 200-220 with oil, filter, gasket, thread-loc, and gasket sealer doing it all myself. Best experience I ever had working on something! OH almost forgot the inner most plate and outer most plate are different than just regular plates in the middle of the clutch-just in-case you didn't know don't want you putting the wrong one in there (i'm pretty sure they were just the steel plates that were different though all of the friction plates are the same I think!)