Hey, Working on my Zeal recently and have discovered why my clutch lever is slack. The clutch arm isnt retracting enough to pull the cable taught. I can push it with my hand to the right, and the cable and lever will go taught, but it wont spring that far by its self. Obviously the arm and spring are rusty. I want to remove the spring so i can either de-rust it or replace it, but i dont know how to get it apart. Can that arm come out without having to take half the bike apart? Am i even on the right track that its that spring that should make the arm retract back that far? I have tried lubricating thoroughly with no change.
Doesn't look the best, but the first thing to do is adjust the cable on the engine side, then on the lever end.
Will check both tomorrow and report back. Sorry for the dumb question, this is my attempt at jumping head first into both motorcycle ownership and restoration!
Does sound like it need's the clutch cable adjusted at the lower adjuster so it take's up the freeplay at the arm ( loosen lock nut, then unscrew the adjuster to make it longer, then do up the lock nut) it need's to be done with the top cable adjuster at the lever backed off (screwed into the clutch perch) Then just make sure there is a couple of mm movement at the lever before you feel resistance pulling the clutch lever in
Many thanks, I can confirm that the cable was badly out of adjustment on the engine end. It was hard up against the stop at its longest length. I set it so im in the middle of the adjuster on the bars, no more excessive slack, and the clutch seems to be working OK. Its not springing back as far as i can push it by hand, but maybe it doesnt matter.
There is another clutch adjustment point on the actual clutch on the other side on the engine Adjusting it there will move that arm in your picture either forward or backward's depending on which way you adjust it. On the FZR250 engine, that little arrow on the arm point's to the centre of the 10mm headed bolt at the back side of the tower My FZR had hardly any travel in the clutch lever with the cable adjusted properly, so i needed to adjust it on the actual clutch so i could adjust the lever correctly
The clutch seems to work OK now, but as the bike is on the stand i dont know if it will slip etc. The whole bike it getting torn down next to deal with the frame rust, so wont be taking it off the stand to ride. That other clutch adjustment point, would i need to remove the clutch cover to access it?
I believe the adjustment is the screw that's barely visible in your photo, below the clutch tower. If it's stuck you might need an impact driver to get it moving again
@Linkin , i'm pretty sure that screw in the bottom of the pic in the first post just hold's the arm to the engine case The adjustment screw i was talking about is the one in the middle below with the locknut on the clutch (disregard the red circle, i borrowed the pic) When you loosen that screw and turn it in, the arm where the clutch cable connect's will rotate clockwise or anticlockwise I had to adjust that screw/lock nut to get my clutch so it started to grab when i let the clutch lever at the bar's half way out.
