Throttle cable replacement: splitter question

Ok, I give up and can't find this by doing a search, so must be simpler than I'm making it. My upper throttle cable broke, with the little lead ball breaking off in the twist grip. Got a new cable from Old Brits and installed it easily enough in the twist grip since it's like most motorcycles.

But I cannot figure out how to get the old one out from at the splitter end. When I unscrewed the plastic halves I can see where the old cable goes into the splitter and can see the ends of the short cables coming up from the carbs. But I see no slots or further disassemble-able pieces to get the old cable end unseated. Same looking back the other way from the twin short cables but those are still fine. I thought perhaps the flat plastic they seat in was a removeable disc, such that perhaps removing one or both of the short twin cables would allow that to drop out, but that doesn't seem to be the case. What am I missing??

IIRC
1. dismantle both carb tops and remove cables from slides, mark which side they come from.
2. remove upper cable from throttle (already done)
3a. unscrew splitter cap,
3b. remove cables mark right and left lowers... note which side of spliter they came from/use upper slot as reference
3c. Highly recommend baggie oil drip through lube (highly recommend once each season)
3d. reassemble 3 cables back into splitter
4. reassemble to respective devices.
5. should not need any carb or lower cable adjustment unless you change lower cables (or mix up parts/shame on U)

Thanks for the fast reply. So is this essentially removing the 2 lower cables to give the end of the new cable somewhere to go? Or is that part in the middle of the splitter a removable disc rather than molded as part of the splitter, and this procedure allows it to pop out?

That disk is in fact the key and is removable. Right now it's being held fast under spring pressure from the carb slides. you'll need to release the cables from the slides to gain the slack you need to get that disk out of the splitter.

oops, sorry. Re-answered a question that was already answered.

Biscuit said:

That disk is in fact the key and is removable. Right now it's being held fast under spring pressure from the carb slides. you'll need to release the cables from the slides to gain the slack you need to get that disk out of the splitter.

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Thanks, that makes sense!

The housing of my plastic splitter is a bit beat up and the earlier searches I did had many complaints of this being a poor design. I see on the Old Brits site they offer a Barnett aluminum one. If that is a big improvement I supposed now would be the time to make it, so appreciate any feedback on this as well.

In over 24 years of running commando's and atlas' I never felt the cheap little plastic ones were in any way deficient.

Butchers and hacks will always find fault with a simple, cost effective design. :roll:
I may actually have one of the aluminum ones in a box somewhere but never felt the need to study if the free length of the cables would require altering and messing up the lengths to accommodate their use.
I tend to stick with a lazy attitude, if it ain't broke don't fix it..... :mrgreen:

rather than "disc", I'd call it a coupler CYLINDER where the 3 cable couple....

'In over 24 years of running commando's and atlas' I never felt the cheap little plastic ones were in any way deficient'

You were lucky, mine lasted 3 weeks & then one of the carb cables pulled through as I came off the ferry in Santander (leaving me with a 200 kilo 400cc single ) Took me most of the next day to at the rally find & fix it, then f*cker did it again when leaving for the 2nd days ride. I took the splitter off the chokes & used that (Amal chokes are a particularly perverse design, but that's my opinion & another topic) - to be fair the swapped splitter is still working!

I have very cool aluminium & stainless Magura splitter complete with rubber boot, bought on my return, it's still in the spares box - if it aint broke etc (it will also need custom cable lengths, there's already enough clutter in & round the heads teddy). Funnily enough I discussed this particular piece of kit with Mick Hemmings when I collected my head back in May, he was of the opinion that the plastic Amal ones were better than the aluminium ones (and a whole lot cheaper )

Mike

MK III Commando

Mike Sullivan said:

Funnily enough I discussed this particular piece of kit with Mick Hemmings when I collected my head back in May, he was of the opinion that the plastic Amal ones were better than the aluminium ones (and a whole lot cheaper )

Click to expand...

Interesting, guessing you have a really nice aluminum one since on Old Brits a new stock plastic one is $21.77 while the Barnett aluminum one is $8.81.

The splitter is something I have thought about getting rid of altogether and running two one piece cables all the way from the throttle to the carbs down each side of the spine. Got to be a lot better than that junction and tight squeeze through the frame for the splitter. Any thoughts Dave.

I had a 2 cable throttlebefore my current situation evolved.
Each cable with its adjuster up near the throttle is very handy. Getting rid of the adjuster on top of the carb is a bonus. So much easier sync'ing the cable adjusters.

I haven't had any trouble with either of my commandos in this area. After riding for 6 hours in the rain one time, the oil got washed out of my throttle cables and became bloody tight. it became a nightmare riding from Tairua through to Waihi beach at night. [ thats also when I got really pissed of with my headlight as well, but that's another story I have dealt with on this forum very recently ]. A good friend suggested I tape up the cable and hand grip up so no water could ever get in again. Now every time I take the tank off, I unscrew that splitter and feed 90 oil into it. keeps it well lubed.
If it aint broken, don't fix it.n

Drop the airbox and lift the slides with one finger per carb. Takes tension of cables in splitter. Hook disc out and place screwdriver between two cables to stop the disc from rentering the housing.
Fit top cable to splitter disc then reassemble.
Lastly, pull twist grip apart, fit top eye of cable onto track, reassemble.
Slight adjustment may be required to top cable length
Done