A quick question from Idiot Boy:

In the garage (this is already starting out bad, eh), I moved the bike a foot or so forward to get at the lawn mower not realizing I'd moved the kickstand to the unlocked position - you can guess the rest.

Two broken toes and a nasty cut on my leg, but amazingly very little damage to the bike - a scuffed clutch lever, damaged bracket that the clutch lever works within (see photo, already have the replacement part) and a nickle sized scuff on the bottom of the outer primary casing that I can live with (out of sight, out of mind).

I think I can fix this myself and save me half an hour of labor at the indi. So here's the question, the first comment in the shop manual is, "remove the tension on the clutch mechanism". Is this all done at the handle bar, like a bicycle or do I have to go into the clutch? If it's the former, I'll fix it this weekend, the later, next Spring at the indi.

Thanks for your expertise and park safely!

 

You'll need to put slack in the clutch cable at the clutch cable adjuster; if you've never adjusted your clutch and clutch cable freeplay before the cable adjuster is under the rubber boot on the cable, it normally takes a 9/16" and 1/2" open end wrench. Watch this video, he's lubricating the clutch cable but you can see how the clutch lever is removed:

 

When you need to adjust the clutch, the part that is loosened is near/at the left down tube. Just follow your clutch cable down from the handlebars and you will see a flexible boot covering up the adjustment part.

If you "Search" clutch adjustment, you will find a ton of info on adjusting the clutch.

 

thanks to both of you! I think I can do this myself. Will check out the, "adjusting the clutch" area - I'd only looked at the removing the lever section.

 

If you want to do a clutch pack adjustment which is easy to do and should be done as part of regular maintenance follow post #10 in this thread, it's right out of the service manual. http://harleytechtalk.org/htt/index.php?topic=41858.0 There are also videos on YouTube if you want to watch the procedure before you pull the derby cover.

To adjust the clutch pack I put a 3/8" piece of wood under the jiffy stand to set her up just enough to keep the fluid in the primary and an 11/16" offset wrench on the locknut to keep from skinning up the primary and nut To set the clutch cable freeplay I use a nickle between the end of cable ferrule and clutch lever bracket, pull out the cable and if a nickle just fits it's right...