Clutch adjustment woes

I had my primary cover off recently to install my new Sparx alternator. I noticed that the clutch circlip was coming off; about half a round of it had come clear from the clutch basket, and the whole thing looked like it had the potential to come off under pressure from the clutch. I have replaced it with a new one. I did not totally disassemble the clutch; just took the diaphram spring out with the old circlip and put it back with the new circlip.

Now I can't adjust the clutch to work effectively. It will not fully disengage - by which I mean that it will not fully act like it is in neutral. I've checked to ensure that the clutch operating lever is in the correct position and it is. So far as I am aware the clutch plates are in reasonable condition; but I did not check them; all was working well before I put in the new circlip.

I have aways considered that the inner cable for the clutch is slightly too long for the outer cable; I have to have the handlebar adjuster at its maximum extension.

Any thoughts? I am hoping that the issues is a failure of competance rather than of equipment.

If the new circlip is thicker or thinner than the old one could that have affected the operation of the clutch? Or exposed another issue such as the clutch plates being worn out - but there was no clutch slippage before this - or a worn pushrod?

Try bringing your clutch adjuster locknut in a little bit closer to the pushrod end,as in less gap. Any time my clutch is exposed it gets all plates separated and cleaned and the center inspected for notching. Sounds like the cable is stretched to the max as well ,handlebar adjuster should be fully backed off before main adjuster setup.

Yes, try the rod adjuster screw. I find mine will only take about 1/4 turn or less after contact to make the diaphragm break over right. Do you have clearance between the stack height and the circlip? You can reduce that with a kit from Old Britts, that will help too. I'll agree that the inner cable seems long on mine too, I have the adjuster nearly most of the way out at the lever. I was thinking about shortening it, or doing the shim kit from Old Britts too.

Dave
69S

Thanks for your input guys. Yesterday I managed to get the clutch adjuster screw and pushrod out without having to remove the primary cover - which I had put on and sealed with gasket stuff the week before and filled with oil. I checked the rod to see if it was obviously worn and "soft" as described in the manual; I couldn't see anything particularly wrong with it but both ends had slight indentations - presumably where it has been put up against the clutch operating lever, and neither end was absolutely square so it may have worn a little. I also noticed that the handlebar lever for my clutch had less adjustment than the handbrake lever; one of them is not stock; so I swapped them to give the clutch lever more adjustment.

I put it all back together; this time putting grease on the end of the clutch adjuster screw which I hadn't done previously; and went through the adjustment process again and touch wood it seems to have worked.

It's funny how these things happen; I don't see what I did this time that was different from before, and the whole point of the adjuster screw is that it allows for differences in tolerances in the cable and the combined thickness of the clutch plates, so logically all that I did should not have made any difference to the adjustment process. Maybe one of the plates was sticking and just freed up. No time for test run yet; was raining and late; so hopefully next weekend I will be able to see if that, and my new alternator - and all of the wiring that I have done for the alternator and rectifier - work properly.