Clutch cable adjustment and best place to buy cable

[birdog4549]

Today was my first ride on my '81 Special II. Bought it a week ago. The clutch doesn't seem to pull in enough and makes finding neutral difficult. The clutch seems slightly engaged when lever is fully in and bike "creeps" just a little. Adjuster is all the way out with minimal threads holding the adjuster to the lever assembly. Where is the best place to buy a new cable as my first theory is the cable is worn or stretched. I also need a speedo cable. Otherwise the bike is in great shape.

 

[5twins]

Get an original Yamaha clutch cable or one from Motion Pro. Don't get the one from MikesXS, it's junk. All their other cables are OK so you could get the speedo cable there.

There's a factory shop manual on-line here .....

http://www.biker.net/

It will explain all the maintenance and adjustments. Your clutch cable has 2 adjusters, the one at the bars and one in the left side cover. You should do the majority of your adjusting with that one in the left side cover, using the bar adjuster for final fine tuning.

 

[aldo5468]

650 Central EZ Pull cable - much better than stock one.

 

[birdog4549]

Thank you gentlemen. Your help is greatly appreciated. It's too bad I didn't know the value of good advice 40 years ago when I was sure I knew everything. Could have made far fewer mistakes!

 

[xjwmx]

It's too bad I didn't know the value of good advice 40 years ago when I was sure I knew everything. Could have made far fewer mistakes!

Here's some more advice then; the only motorcycle part that's worthy of making you reflective is the mirror. Pun intended.

Anyway, I got a motion pro cable for my '81. It's done fine for about 6 mos. The inner cable is very thick and almost but not quite too short. 1/4" shorter would be too short. Lube it before installing. Lots of info here about doing that.

 

[cros36]

mikes now sells motion pro throttle cables, hopefully clutch cables wont be far off.

 

[scabber]

The E-Z pull cable better my opinion no metal elbow going into the case a cause of cable binding.

 

[Grinder]

Watch those Motion Pro throttle cables. I ordered one for a 77 and it had the wrong elbow on it. They sent me the correct one N/C and didn't want the wrong one back. The bottom one in the pic is the stock cable. The cable was good quality though and I also use their clutch cable.

 

[XSLeo]

The metal elbow can be straightens out some. just be carefull. Use a vise with padded jaws and watch the ends so you don't break it.
Leo

 

[Grinder]

Mine needed to be bent more, up to 90 degrees as the original was. I didn't think it could be bent without kinking and Motion Pro was real good about taking care of the problem n/c.