ridethroughlife
xs650 rookie
I just about had a heart attack when my recently-acquired bike started acting up!
The clutch would grab like no tomorrow, and then some- to the point where no matter how much gas I gave it, it would almost bog down and die.
But first, let me set the scene: I have an aftermarket tank which has an aftermarket petcock, all of which is in front of a [weirdly-braced] seat and all of that is directly next to my ignition wires, throttle cable, clutch cable and miscellaneous other wires. Picture for reference to tank and seat. http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1725/0623010947.jpg
I looked up and down on this, and probably every single other XS site out there about clutch adjustments, cable problems, bearings, friction plates, oil and ghosts being the number one issue with my throttle.
And just by pure chance I figured it out!
And it was [admittedly] ridiculous on my part.
The PO had installed this gas tank in a fairly "that'll do pig" way. A single hole was drilled all the way through the frame tube and a single bolt drives through braces on the lower part of the tank, through the frame, another bracing and with a nut, secures the whole mess together. Well the nut came off at some point, or it was never there. I have no idea.
I went to the local auto parts store and got a little box of them. I screwed them on, tightened like no tomorrow [because this thing was rattling worse than your grand-mamma on lotto night] and the tank stopped jiggling!
Now for some reason it never dawned on me to connect the two events- sporadic engine issues and re-bolting a tank on, but in the end that was my issue!!!
Now when I went to size the nuts to fit onto the bolt for that gas tank bracket I took it out of the frame and brought it into the store. Measured- worked great. But when I put the whole thing together, I failed to notice that I had pinched the clutch cable between the gas tank bracket and the frame. And when I tightened the ever-living out of it, it must have had some adverse repercussions on the ability of the cable to slide. The only reason I even found that problem was because I read that several people had issues with the bent metal part of the clutch cable assembly where it meets the case- It will rub and create too much friction and decrease cable ease. So I wobbled the cable to see if it was loose, broken or bound up and that's when I noticed there wasn't enough play in the cable itself next to the bike [or at least as much as you'd expect], and tracing it up to the frame I SOLVED MY PROBLEM! 
In the end I pulled the cable free, shimmied it around so it wouldn't bind on my [neat-o] aftermarket petcock or get jammed in with the throttle cable and went for the first stress-free ride in about a week!
I highly doubt this post will benefit anyone other than myself because it is such a specific case, but maybe someone will get a laugh out of it. I'd love to hear about other people having seemingly normal symptoms turning out to need random fixes!
The clutch would grab like no tomorrow, and then some- to the point where no matter how much gas I gave it, it would almost bog down and die.
But first, let me set the scene: I have an aftermarket tank which has an aftermarket petcock, all of which is in front of a [weirdly-braced] seat and all of that is directly next to my ignition wires, throttle cable, clutch cable and miscellaneous other wires. Picture for reference to tank and seat. http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1725/0623010947.jpg
I looked up and down on this, and probably every single other XS site out there about clutch adjustments, cable problems, bearings, friction plates, oil and ghosts being the number one issue with my throttle.
And just by pure chance I figured it out! And it was [admittedly] ridiculous on my part. The PO had installed this gas tank in a fairly "that'll do pig" way. A single hole was drilled all the way through the frame tube and a single bolt drives through braces on the lower part of the tank, through the frame, another bracing and with a nut, secures the whole mess together. Well the nut came off at some point, or it was never there. I have no idea.
I went to the local auto parts store and got a little box of them. I screwed them on, tightened like no tomorrow [because this thing was rattling worse than your grand-mamma on lotto night] and the tank stopped jiggling! Now for some reason it never dawned on me to connect the two events- sporadic engine issues and re-bolting a tank on, but in the end that was my issue!!!
Now when I went to size the nuts to fit onto the bolt for that gas tank bracket I took it out of the frame and brought it into the store. Measured- worked great. But when I put the whole thing together, I failed to notice that I had pinched the clutch cable between the gas tank bracket and the frame. And when I tightened the ever-living
out of it, it must have had some adverse repercussions on the ability of the cable to slide. The only reason I even found that problem was because I read that several people had issues with the bent metal part of the clutch cable assembly where it meets the case- It will rub and create too much friction and decrease cable ease. So I wobbled the cable to see if it was loose, broken or bound up and that's when I noticed there wasn't enough play in the cable itself next to the bike [or at least as much as you'd expect], and tracing it up to the frame I SOLVED MY PROBLEM! In the end I pulled the cable free, shimmied it around so it wouldn't bind on my [neat-o] aftermarket petcock or get jammed in with the throttle cable and went for the first stress-free ride in about a week!I highly doubt this post will benefit anyone other than myself because it is such a specific case, but maybe someone will get a laugh out of it. I'd love to hear about other people having seemingly normal symptoms turning out to need random fixes!
