I've been gettin' the SG ready for ridin' the last couple of days, so I had the LH sidecover off checking everything over. I also had the clutch cable out to lube and possibly find a better routing... so doing a little moddin' just seemed like natural mission creep. 
Clutch pull wasn't bad to begin with... about 12-14 lbs to full release, but I'd like better. Having worked as a mechanic for the better part of 50 yrs, the arthritis in my hands was bad enough some days last year that I passed on some good riding days. If I can make a substantial drop in clutch force... well, ridin' on those days will be more enjoyable.
First thing I did was re-read @TwoManyXS1Bs excellent article on the worm actuator mods. That gave me a good north bearing to start. I'm using the XS400 1L9 actuator with a lever length of 35mm. Other than that (and a Motion Pro cable) the clutch is box stock 1980 vintage... 2 piece pushrod and all.
I decided to start with extending it to 50mm but... I didn't want to weld or modify the 1L9 arm in any way that I couldn't return back to original, so I could try sumpin' else.
So here's how I did it. Made an outline of the existing arm on a piece of cardboard and added a hole at 50mm. The math says this is a 30% increase in length.
Drew an outline to pick up the new 50mm hole and cut it out.
Transferred that to a piece of scrap metal the correct thickness.....
... and drilled the holes and cut it out.
Painted it for corrosion protection and put it together.
The screw is a 1/4" NAS countersunk. I did have to make one mod to the original arm. I ruined the cotter pin used to hold the clevis pin in place so I drilled it out to fit the cotters I had on hand. Other than that, it can easily be returned to stock form.
All back together and I'm amazed at the difference. I'm still playing around with the cable routing... but right now the worm starts pushing on the clutch at around 4-4.5 lbs and is fully disengaged at somewhere around 8-9 lbs.
I've still got a handful of spring wake-up items to finish, but I should have some hard numbers and riding impressions up here by the end of the week.
Clutch pull wasn't bad to begin with... about 12-14 lbs to full release, but I'd like better. Having worked as a mechanic for the better part of 50 yrs, the arthritis in my hands was bad enough some days last year that I passed on some good riding days. If I can make a substantial drop in clutch force... well, ridin' on those days will be more enjoyable.
First thing I did was re-read @TwoManyXS1Bs excellent article on the worm actuator mods. That gave me a good north bearing to start. I'm using the XS400 1L9 actuator with a lever length of 35mm. Other than that (and a Motion Pro cable) the clutch is box stock 1980 vintage... 2 piece pushrod and all.
I decided to start with extending it to 50mm but... I didn't want to weld or modify the 1L9 arm in any way that I couldn't return back to original, so I could try sumpin' else.
So here's how I did it. Made an outline of the existing arm on a piece of cardboard and added a hole at 50mm. The math says this is a 30% increase in length.
Drew an outline to pick up the new 50mm hole and cut it out.
Transferred that to a piece of scrap metal the correct thickness.....
... and drilled the holes and cut it out.
Painted it for corrosion protection and put it together.
The screw is a 1/4" NAS countersunk. I did have to make one mod to the original arm. I ruined the cotter pin used to hold the clevis pin in place so I drilled it out to fit the cotters I had on hand. Other than that, it can easily be returned to stock form.
All back together and I'm amazed at the difference. I'm still playing around with the cable routing... but right now the worm starts pushing on the clutch at around 4-4.5 lbs and is fully disengaged at somewhere around 8-9 lbs.
I've still got a handful of spring wake-up items to finish, but I should have some hard numbers and riding impressions up here by the end of the week.
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