Clutch adjustment behaving strangely

[blethermaskite]

Hi all, so I am out riding about on the 350mk3 again and it has developed a strange fault which has me a bit baffled.......(I have not taken anything apart yet), so when cold the clutch cable at the lever free play is 2ish mm (this is how I have always set it) when the engine gets up to full working temp this free play increases to about 5/6mm and is making gear selection tricky and neutral impossible, so when hot I have adjusted things back to 2mm free play (everything fine again) but when the engine gets cold again all free play is gone and in fact the clutch is slipping slightly when trying to kickstart, it takes quite a bit to adjust it back to 2mm free play..........and this strange process starts all over again next time out . The bike has done this the last 4/5 times I have had it out...........this is a new one on me.......any ideas?
Cheers,
George

[Bevel bob]

Have you made any changes to the clutch plates or to the oil spec you are using?.

[themoudie]

Mmmm! Very strange George!

Having the 450, with a standard length clutch accentuating arm, I need a good grip at the best of times and have similar amounts of free play at the handlebar clutch lever and its pivot as yourself when cold, 2-3mm.

You would have thought that heat would have expanded the clutch accentuating parts and closed that gap, rather than increasing it? So, it would appear that the clutch plates are shrinking when hot, or something in the lever, cable, lever, ball, push rod etc chain is shrinking?

My first instinct would be to check the adjuster on the face of the clutch pressure plate, to see if it is slack. Then check all the balls, rods etc from the sprocket side, before finally taking the left hand outer case off to expose the clutch and removing all the plates for examination; if nothing obvious has shown itself before.

I am afraid I would be at a bit of a loss if that didn't show up something amiss. I hope that you find the culprit without having to go too far with the disemboweling.

Good health, Bill

[Jordan]

Just a guess: Is the clutch cable tightly tied up to the frame tube at several places?

[graeme]

Clutch cable would be my guess too.

[graeme]

Warped clutch discs ?

[Bevel bob]

How about an unevenly worn ball bearing in the pushrod tunnel?.

[blethermaskite]

Thanks all so I had a real good forensic look at it last night,............. probably about 10 years ago I needed to replace the original clutch cable, I never really liked the way the cable ran with the clip on bars set up, at the time I was pretty heavily involved with Honda NSR 250 "stink wheels" and thought why not try an NSR clutch cable with the steel swaged entry and exit bends to ease the tight radius issue (and it worked a treat) my only problem was attaching a lever end nipple........the Honda cable has a stainless steel rope inner which I couldn't soft solder so I used a standard brass barrel nipple (at the hand lever end) enlarged the cable hole half way through to 5mm fitted over the stainless rope inner splayed the inner out and silver soldered a 'blob' end which I filed down to fit inside the enlarged bore of the barrel nipple.......has worked well for eight and a half years.
With moving house and building work etc the bike until a couple of weeks ago has been in storage for over a year and has just been back out now for a week or so......... now the clutch adjustment problem.........I took the Honda clutch cable off last and night for some reason the inner had become tight as hell( its a nylon lined cable?) but more interestingly the above mentioned silver soldered 'blob' had been fretting away at the inside of the barrel nipple in some peculiar screw fashion and I could actually screw the nipple on and off the 'blob' by about my mysterious loss or gain of 2mm adjustment.......so I had a self adjusting clutch cable!!!!!!
I made a new standard nylon lined cable last night before bedtime and will fit it today and report back (the hole scratched in my head with Ducati single problems had almost healed over )
Cheers,
George

[themoudie]

Congratulations George!

No need to get into the guts of the engine, YES! Just a "Piccolo diavolo italiano!"

I hope the new "standard nylon lined cable" behaves according to plan and that you are able to have a canter afore the next weather front rolls in for tomorrow.

Good health, Bill

[Bevel bob]

Some lined cables swell up if oiled. I use a thin silicon fluid ,but it needs to be done regularly as it seems to dry out or escape .