Hi All: I've been around a lot in the last year or so as I've attempted to bring back a long neglected barn find I bought. To cut to the chase, in the last week or so, I got the bike running and the carb dialed in and took a few trial runs where the bike ran perfectly. Well, actually, the engine ran perfectly. After one ten minute shake down run I pulled back in to the driveway at home and noticed the clutch cable had a bunch of slack that hadn't been there a few minutes before. I now think it progressively got looser on my ride. Puzzled, I checked the clutch cable and saw it was frayed a bit at each end but appeared to still be functional. I adjusted the clutch to take up the slack, per the owner's manual, and the cable slack was better but the bike still stalled every time I tried to drop it in to first. I could FEEL the clutch handle wasn't pulling the clutch arm thingy enough.

Thinking the cable was just beyond help, I ordered a new one online and when it arrived, I took off the battery box, oil tank, and all miscellaneous stuff so I could install the new one without dealing with hard to reach areas. The swap out went well, the clutch arm thingy was adjusted via the derby cover, per the owner's manual, and I tried it a few times before putting everything back on and the clutch pulled and released just the way you'd expect it to now.

Once everything was back on board, I fired up the bike, pulled the clutch, dropped it in to first and pulled smoothly away. For a few brief minutes I enjoyed a nice ride. Hooray, right? Nope. Ten minutes later I'm pulling back in to the driveway with a saggy clutch cable and manually wrestling the bike in to neutral. In my humble opinion, something somewhere is not holding its position. I think I'm doing everything correctly but wonder if maybe the adjusting screw or nut (inside derby cover), isn't loosening due to vibration and producing slack.

With that being said, does anyone have any ideas what could be happening? I'm starting to think that rolling the whole damn thing into the river might bring some satisfaction but I'm open to other more technical ideas first.

 

Very recently someone posted with the same problem.
Good you replaced the fraying cable.
The most likely problem with your clutch is the throw out bearing is failing.
It is inside the right side cover of the transmission.
Flush out the old trans oil to get whatever pieces of it may have gotten into the gear box.

 

Thanks, Megawatt. Can you advise if the attached is the type of thing you're talking about? There seems to be some different variations on the throw out bearing for Shovelheads. The good news is this will give me an excuse to change the tranny fluid.

 

Before you pull the transmission cover off, have you checked the clutch cable adjustment? you have two adjustments, under the derby cover and the cable itself. If the lock nut on the cable is loose, you may have the symptoms noted. Just something easy to check first. Good luck.

 

I had the same issue, what i found was the mounting bracket 62576-65A (the end of the clutch cable threads into this bracket, behind the primary) was loose where it attaches to the frame post (the seat post tube).

 

I am all in on the throw out bearing as well - just pull the kicker cover and have a look nothing does what you have but the tob

 

I had the same problem with a throwout bearing.

As far as which one to use, I was told that the later miniature wafer one won't last as long as the older 'bell' one. But it requires a new pushrod as well.

 

Thanks, Joe, but I’m not sure what the older ‘bell’ one is. I’ll have to read up on throw out bearings and figure out which one I need for a ‘76 FXE Superglide.

 

I ordered the throw out bearing and will install it later this week or this weekend and then post the results. Fingers crossed. Thx everyone for the input.

 

Just to add... there is No "older Bell type" anymore... those new "old Style" are generally made ..... Where????? No... if I cannot access the real Thing...an OE Disk/Wafer stye is just fine.... ask why there are still OE ones runnin around 30 plus years later???

and remember the pushrod Must match the throwout style..