I changed my clutch lever on the handle bars and was having a difficult time getting the freeplay adjusted on the lever. Adjustment at the clutch pack was easy enough but as I adjusted the cable to remove slack I couldn't get the freeplay out of the cable, had close to an inch of freeplay and the lever was stiff. After multiple attempts I removed the side cover on the transmission and confirmed what I suspected, the inner ramp was not seated at the 12 oclock position. It appears that the cable inner sheath is torn and was maybe getting hung up? I have a new cable coming and I hope to avoid this happening again. What did I do wrong to cause this problem?

I started the lever replacement by introducing slack in the cable, I collapsed the adjusted completely on the cable. Then I replaced the lever. Next I went into the derby cover and loosed the lock nut, found the resistance on the set screw and backed it off 1/2 turn before locking the nut. pulled the clutch lever a couple of times, but it was so slack it just collapsed against the bar. I then adjusted the cable to take up slack but it wouldn't take up enough slack.

I repeated the process 10 times trying to get this right but the clutch lever never worked as it did before I started.

This cable pictured is a drag specialties cable I got a couple of years ago when I replaced my bars with 10" wild peaks. I had adjusted the clutch only twice since installed and had not had any problem before.

 

Zooming in on that picture, several wire strands are broken.

That typically happens from curling a cable too tightly. Commonly an overly tight bend made while installing the cable on the bike, but sometimes an overly tight cooling for shipment.

there is also a chance of poor/inadequate metallurgy for the application. But since the broken ends are not pulled apart, I rather doubt this as the problem.

 

I seem to remember reading or hearing a caution about pulling the lever when the clutch pushrod is loose...something about the bearings jumping out of the ramps. I know from experience that doing this causes the exact symptoms you described...