Clutch travels too far in

A

andyKo

New Member
Hi all,
What a great forum. I'm just gonna dive in. Biking over the weekend the clutch seemed to not disengage. I re-adjusted the clutch cable, pushing in the arm and pulling cable slack out. Looks like the clutch arm is too far in before any clutch lever action. When clutch is pulled there still seems to be a bit of friction but I'm afraid to adjust any farther as the clutch arm may hit the other side.

I've taken apart the clutch cover, there is a ball and rod. The parts don't look too worn down.

What can I do to bring the clutch arm action back to normal working position? Is there any adjustments I can make? Is there anything in the clutch cover that can throw off the arm position?

Picture1 shows how far it sits. Picture2 shows when pulling on clutch lever.

thanks,
Andy
 

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The easiest way to remedy this would be to take the nut off the top of the arm, pull the arm off the shaft, and reposition it outward.
 
Denver Dave said:
The easiest way to remedy this would be to take the nut off the top of the arm, pull the arm off the shaft, and reposition it outward.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily if the arm is that far in than the pin is compressed and you will not get proper movement i say tighten the clutch up 1 turn and see how for out the arm is at. You can all ways undo the tightening if that does not help.
 
Well, this begs the question from Andy - in your second picture, is your clutch lever pulled all the way to the handlebar? If the answer is "yes" then you need to tighten the spring as reg pointed out. If you have some more room to pull then repositioning the arm would be faster and easier.

Also, is there any play in the lever before the arm engages? I know you said you removed slack but you can also adjust the barrel nuts on the lever side as well as where the cable attaches to the engine to fine tune the tension on the cable.
 
Thanks for the replies. You guys are too quick!

Reg454
thanks for the links.

Denver Dave
I'll try re-adjusting the nut on the clutch arm.
then if that doesn't do it I'll try tightening the inner spring on my lunch break.

Yes the second picture I have pulled the clutch handle right to the bikes handlebars.
With clutch on handle released the clutch arm is pushed in as far as I feel it stop before there is weight to it.


Andy

Andy
 
when clutch is disingaged the arm should be straight toward the back of bike.
when clutch is engaged the arm should look like pic #1.
 
My guess would be about 1200 miles and 2years old. A daily commuter in summer. Average speed 37mph

Extra details:
26"wheel mountain bike, 36t sprocket, chinese 80cc. average
 
Forgot to mention my city has the worst roads. Our winters leave uneven pavement and large potholes. Most of the time biking I am constantly trying to avoid them but there are those large lengths of broken pavement that I have to run through.
I wonder if the heavy jarring has possibly worn the main clutch rod as previously mentioned.

I sort of missed out to mention in my first post that while biking during my ride I totally lost all clutch action. Biking toward a stop I go for the clutch and th lever just falls into the handlebar.
 
1200 miles? Yeah, that probably would have been good to know. For some reason I assumed it was a fairly new engine.

Take the arm shaft out of the sprocket cover and have a look at the flat part that pushes on the rod.

Edited to add - just in case you didn't know, you have to turn the armature around to a specific position and it will slide right out.
 
Sorry to bump such an old post, but has anyone ever been able to figure out the solution to this issue?

My clutch lever is the exact same way, to a T! I tried it all, banging on the clutch side with a hammer, tightening/untightening the flower nut, tightening/untigethening the inner flower nut that controls clutch tension, replacing the stick that the lever squeezes and nothing does anything to the lever position. It's so deep in that there is no where for it to go anymore :(
 
jpowers said:
Sorry to bump such an old post, but has anyone ever been able to figure out the solution to this issue?

My clutch lever is the exact same way, to a T! I tried it all, banging on the clutch side with a hammer, tightening/untightening the flower nut, tightening/untigethening the inner flower nut that controls clutch tension, replacing the stick that the lever squeezes and nothing does anything to the lever position. It's so deep in that there is no where for it to go anymore :(
Click to expand...
If the clutch camshaft isn't worn, the bucking bar is probably worn or maybe the ball shattered.
 
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