| Author | Message | ||
     Mluds0379 |
On a ride today, half hour from home, at a stop sign, pull in the clutch...pop, no more clutch. The cable end snapped right off. Thank goodness I was only two blocks from an old co-workers house and pushed the bike there. Going to replace Sat or Sun. I bought a new cable. $37 Any pointers or tricks to installing a new one. I am going to follow the service Manual. Mike | ||
| Froggy |
Mine snapped in my driveway coming home last night. | ||
| Schwab |
I replaced mine without the manual. Just take your time and do the reverse when you put it back together. | ||
| Carbide |
Be suuuuuuuper careful installing the cable housing into the primary cover. I broke mine on install last year by over tightening. Very common for this part to break if tightened beyond just having the oring slightly compressed. Just bottom it out and snug about an 1/8th of a turn. I was not happy at all when I saw oil leaking from my housing the first ride after I installed it. Very poor design. | ||
| Darthane |
I just replaced my Firebolt's clutch cable. It was quite straightforward. Follow the manual and you'll be fine. Pay particular attention to Carbide's note re: overtightening the mount to the primary case. | ||
| Bueller83 |
I just did the same thing last week broke it off in the hole due to over tightening had to reorder and now the cable is on back order is what "THEY" tell me (Message edited by bueller83 on June 05, 2009) | ||
| Froggy |
I just ordered a Lightning clutch cable and got it 2 days later, only reason it wasn't in stock was because a bike was in for service and took their last one. | ||
| Ducbsa |
Since the male fitting at the clutch end doesn't swivel with the cable, I find it easier to have the cable pulled out straight towards the front and then route it up to the lever after finishing screwing it into the pri cover. | ||
| Hughlysses |
+2 to the be VERY careful when you're tightening it into the primary cover. The threaded end of the cable is made of aluminum and will break off VERY easily. I suspect it's made that way on purpose so that in the event you dump the bike, the cable end breaks rather than breaking a hole in the primary cover. BARELY tighten it with an open-end wrench and it'll be fine. One trick- find someplace you can lean the bike to the right while you work on it. Otherwise you have to drain the primary oil while you change the cable or it'll run all over when the old cable is removed. | ||
| Icunh |
Why are the cables so damn expensive? | ||
| Froggy |
In the middle of installing the new cable right now, took a quick break to double check notes on here. Simple procedure so far, just a little confusing as I never done it before, I hope I don't overtighten anything, but I doubt I will. Also, I put my bike up on pit bulls and it did not piss out any fluid. $35 for a clutch cable is expensive? Seemed like a fair price for me, at least they are made in Japan not China. | ||
| Darthane |
We replaced the clutch cable in my friend's Katana at the same time as mine. His cost $17...of course, it's probably the same cable used today (15 years later). | ||
| Froggy |
All done, it was easy once I figured it all out. Now I hope I didn't over tighten it. Ok his clutch cable is $7 cheaper, find out how much it costs to replaced a fork. Been there done that with my Suzuki GS500F, almost cost me more than what I paid for the bike. Oh, and the fact that one part of the fairing costs more than an entire bodywork set for a Firebolt... | ||
| Ochoa0042 |
do you ever get a warning of it about to break? I had an odd clunk from the lever just the other day, maybe mine is too falling apart.... | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
do you ever get a warning of it about to break? +1 I may not have as many miles as the daily commuters here, but because I am usually in traffic, I bet my clutch/cable has been through more abuse. | ||
| Postban |
[ but because I am usually in traffic, I bet my clutch/cable has been through more abuse. ] Mine just broke yesterday. 13.5k miles. Lots of city and construction traffic riding, so similar to ^. No warning. Rode out to a gun range, shot for a while, started out again. Cruising in 3rd about 50 noticed the clutch lever back against my left glove. Flopping loose. Limped it to American Harley/Buell in Ann Arbor, they did not have a cable, gotta order one, had to leave the bike. | ||
| Ducxl |
I've ridden home twice now clutchless.Once with a broken cable,once with a broken primary lip seal.THere's a cool procedure for when encountering a stop/stop light. snick neutral,get off bike,when light turns green,run along side the bike(engine running of course)jump on and jam first   In a pinch,i'm never afraid to ride clutchless. Replacing cables is easy. | ||
| Aptbldr |
Barrel end of cable within lever is meant to be freely moving, so it rotates slightly when lever moves. When barrel cannot rotate within lever: clutch cable gets "bent" at its join to binding barrel. Repeat bending action and clutch cable strands begin failing there. | ||
| Froggy |
About a week ago my clutch was starting to drag and would stall occasionally at lights, I figured it needed an adjustment, and thats when I looked at the lever end, 80% of the wires were frayed. It kept getting worse and worse till it snapped in the middle of my driveway which is uphill, in pouring rain. Couldn't pop into neutral to even try and push it. | ||
| Hughlysses |
From what I've seen here, the cables always seem to break at the clutch lever end. Seems like we all just need to make a habit of visually inspecting that end of the cable. I suspect we'd see wires fraying long before the cable actually breaks. Here's a good idea for protecting the clutch end of the cable from dirt which should make it last a lot longer: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/cgibin/discus/show .cgi?tpc=142838&post=1197295#POST1197295 | ||
| Mr2shim |
Wish I could afford that nice hydraulic conversion on American Sportbike. Yea, be super extra careful when threading into the primary. I just barley torqued it down and it snapped. | ||
| Mrbill1 |
Shim, I was thinking the same thing. Sooo, the last time I was window shopping at the local Buell dealer, I took a good look around at the other bike, I saw the 1125 has a hydraulic clutch setup. The handlebars look like the same diameter and the reservoir is cut away on the bottom for bend clearance. It would fit no problem, and all the switch gear etc is factory Buell. Now if someone knows of a suitable slave cylinder, this should be a slam dunk. Bill. | ||
| Darthane |
Heh...Froggy, I think you've got no one but youreself to blame for that stranding - with a week's notice.  | ||
| Froggy |
Yea the damn thing left me stranded and made me walk 100ft up my driveway. POS Japanese made crap clutch cable that I first saw some fraying last fall when I switched handlebars.... | ||
| Mluds0379 |
Finally stopped raining. Changed the Clutch cable. Simple!! Only took about an hour and a half. Thank god I read the shop manual on how to do it like 4 times over the past few days waiting for the rain to stop...I for got it at home. No oil leaked out, I just used a 2X4 under the kick stand to make the bike not lean. Thanks all!! MIke | ||
| Gunut75 |
FYI: My service receipt said the dealer lubed MY clutch cable when the last service was performed. Well, I checked and the cable was bone dry. I don't think it was ever lubed in its life. I now lube it regularly myself. The difference in pull pressure is night and day. KEEP IT LUBED!!!!!! | ||
| Ochoa0042 |
there was a vaccume? huh, cool | ||
| Froggy |
Whats involved with lubing the cable? | ||
| Fahren |
1.Cable lube 2.a cable lube tool  The straw on cable lube spray goes into it, forces lube into cable. When it comes out other end, cable is lubed. Do throttle cables, too. | ||
| Doubled |
My lube tool is too small to fit around the cable ends so I just take the lever off (or throttle tube), hold the cable upright and very slowly spray into the sleeve. Work the cable back and forth a couple times and repeat as necessary. Another thing I do when I have the lever off is spray some white lithium grease on all of the bearing surfaces of the lever; i.e. the pivot, the hole where the clutch button attaches, and where the lever rubs on the perch. | ||
| Biffdotorg |
For any Clutch Cables, call Al at American Sportbike. I would have to say they seemed extra sensitive to me when I said I needed a clutch cable quick. That thing came across country like lightning and they were fair priced. Give Al a call for sure. I think most on here would agree with the plug. |
