In Daytona for Bike Week 2014, I thought I lost my clutch when I shifted hard into second gear entering the interstate. I have 82K on my 05 Heritage. I limped back to the Speedway at 40 mph, which was all I could get without slippage. Long story short, the clutch still had 5 thousandths wear left on the plates. What did happen, and they see it about once a year, is I stripped out the splines on the clutch hub. It had to be a failure in progress because it was filings not chunks laying on the frame beneath it. I would think you could check for play by wiggling the drive belt from side to side. The real indicator was that when you let the clutch out, the odometer went up but the bike didn't move, indicating the transmission was turning. I got a free clutch from Harley without a fuss due to their miss-diagnosis.

 

wanted to ask about the adjust on the primary, have a lot of miles on it and the stud for adjustment I think is right up to the nut. getting on time for a new chain and shoe? also the clutch keeps loosing its adjustment, like every hundred miles or so, I replaced the spring that holds the retainer, but the retainer keeps popping out of its place. the cable seems to snag on something then adjust it again by the book and its fine again till next time.
oh also I found last fall that the sprocket that drives the back wheel was loose and need to be tightened? I came across that putting in new oil lines.
thanks for your time...

 

Hogdoctor
In post #27 you said . When you're dealing with the finger/lever release and older style clutch, all the rules change. Could you explain?. I have an 86 flhtc that I'm having trouble with. Put in a new rod, rod bearing and adjuster end and New cable, new release finger. If I adjust like the the by the book way the only way to get the clutch to disengage is to take all the free play out of the cable and then some. I'm concerned that this is loading the bearing. I should also mention that the previous owner put a heavy duty Barnett diaphragm spring in it. I read in another post that someone else had the same problem and it was caused by an after market spring. Your thoughts ?

 

Anyone?

 

Hogdoctor,
I posted this question last night. I have now 'felt' where the set screw seats and backed of etc...
I also installed a new cable.
When I took of the right side cover, everything looked correct. However, you can pull the throw out bearing out by hand and another rod follows it. I haven't taken a magnet to get it out yet. Also, with the new cable in and the ***** in the ramps, the throw out bearing is out so far that I can't put the cover back on. I've figured out that I didn't have the opening of the snap ring in line with the correct notch. Otherwise I'm stuck. Also, there were some fine metal shavings on my drain plug and the fluid that came out was red. Not clear or dark. Any ideas?
Last nights question-
Quote:
Originally Posted by muttboy
Ok...
1st bike, 1st Harley.
Not 1st day with a wrench in my hand. My knuckles have bled consistently for 20 years.
So, I've had the bike for a week. I noticed that it 'clunked' in to 1st on my first ride. But it shifted and drove great and it's my 1st bike, so it could have done anything short of exploding underneath me and I would have been happy.
Here is where the trouble started:
After I moved my mini apes forward some and adjusted handlebar controls up for my little sausage fingers, I noticed that the clutch cable seemed tight. I decide to route it to the front side of the bars to relieve some of the tension. I got in a hurry, didn't do any research, and instead of moving the cable adjuster to remove the lever, I used a screwdriver to pry the cable out of the lever housing, rerouted it and forced it back in. Success. Or, so I thought.
I went to check everything out and had trouble getting in to 1st and then it hit first REAL hard twice. Then it just 'clunked' in to gear a few times and I called it a night.
After all of this, I have read through the forum to learn to properly adjust the clutch and watched a bunch of videos dozens of times.
Today, I adjusted in the primary just as everyone has instructed. The only thing I may have missed is pulling the lever 3-4 times while adjusting the set screw and setting and backing off the set screw 3-4 times before buttoning up.
I plan to try that tomorrow. Here is my question:
When I first adjusted the set screw it backed out a very long way before it felt free to tighten back up (like 1/4" +). If I turn until what I feel as resistance, back it out a 1/2 turn, tighten locknut, button up and adjust cable to 1/16 - 1/8, I am now stuck in neutral. I can put it in any gear. But the bike still rolls free like neutral. What gives?
Am I supposed to feel NO resistance at all then when I feel a little it's at the bottom. There was some tension on the set screw as I moved it to the bottom. It seems like I'm pulling the clutch (at the primary) pretty far, just watching it move, like I may be locking the clutch in place. And when I pull the loose lever while the cover is off, the clutch does not move.
What am I missing here? Have I stretched the cable or broken the mechanism in the cover on the transmission where it attaches. Help a fella out. I really enjoy riding this thing and I just spent all my money on parts to get rid of the HD Skull theme the bike is sporting now. :/

 

Forgot to say thanks'

 

Removed the darby cover for maintenence and noticed that the clutch adjustment screw was protruding 3/4+ inches out beyond the lock nut. This seems excessive to me is this normal? All the bikes I`ve owned or worked on had screws protruding about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch max. beyond the lock nut?"

 

how often should we put a new plate kit in.

 

Just put a new oem clutch, pressure plate and spring in. Having trouble adjusting the clutch. I have done it quite a few times using the easy way on here and with the Clymer manual way. The results have been the clutch not disengaging all the way to release right off of the bar and when I got the release point on the lever where I wanted and took for a test ride the clutch was slipping. The bike is a '00 FLHRCI.
The clutch worked fine before, but I have over 120k miles on it and was replacing the drive belt, since I was in there thought I might as well replace the clutch, stator and starter. Everything's good except this adjustment. Thanks for any help

 

I've had my Ultra Classic for a month now...I had a older goldwing for 3 years. My question is, is it hard on the clutch to start the bike in gear with clutch pulled in?? Or should only be started in neutral??