Clutch Cable Replacement
- Thread starter glider.
- Start date
mike hansen rapid s.d.
New Member
tks very help full
cdn-bigfoot
Junior Member
Thanks for the tips. I tried to change my clutch cable to a stainless steel Barnett cable I bought on E-Bay. I couldn't get the clutch to fully engage no matter how much I adjusted the cable adjustment and even after correctly adjusting the clutch pack (shouldn't have been necessary). After removing the cable I compared the two cables. The new stainless had almost a full inch less travel than the stock cable. Obviously the wrong cable for my Dyna!
Best advice is to compare the length of the free travel with the adjustment collapsed on both cables before you install the new one. Every Time!
The total length of the sheathed cables is not an issue as long as the new one reaches. It's the length of the travel that is most important.
I'm putting my new Barnett Stainless Steel cable on this week. And this time I'm sure it's the right one.
Best advice is to compare the length of the free travel with the adjustment collapsed on both cables before you install the new one. Every Time!
The total length of the sheathed cables is not an issue as long as the new one reaches. It's the length of the travel that is most important.
I'm putting my new Barnett Stainless Steel cable on this week. And this time I'm sure it's the right one.
Keywords: Softail, Deluxe, 2007, clutch cable replacement, handlebar replacement, rerouting new cables.
After reading many tech tips/suggestions I stumbled onto this one, which provided the best information for my success; thank you.
My story: Replace stock handle bars with Chubby's 10" apes and replace stock cables with braided stainless cables. The kit my local HD ordered for me was the correct kit but in my opinion was a bit longer than I would have liked and thus was looking for a way to use up the excess 4" or so. I decided to route all of my cables through the risers for what I think is somewhat different than what you typically see. So for the clutch portion:
I had to purchase a few extra tools. I purchased the straight allen wrenches with the 3/8" socket drive and ball end. The ball end allows one to approach the bolts such as those on the transmission clutch release cover and the transmission oil dip-stick. However, to better access those bolts I actually loosened the exhaust heat shield bolts on the middle and forward heat shields and rotated the middle shield downward to give me a few more degrees of approach to the bolt.
Tip: Wrap shop rags around the upper and lower exhaust pipes to keep from scratching the cover up as you rotate and pull the cover outward away from the motorcycle.
I cleaned everything up and installed the cable onto the inner ramp and initially put the cover back on with a new gasket (gasket 1 of 3). After I routed the cable up through the riser housing and around I realized that I could not thread the cable into the transmission clutch release cover. Damn, now I have to remove the cover. A trip to the HD store for another gasket as I assume these are one time use gaskets. I remove the cover and pull it away from the motorcycle and rotate the cover onto the cable and once again reinstall gasket 2 of 3.
Another tip: The gasket has a rounded side and a concave side. The raised or rounded side goes on to the tranny side while the concave side faces the cover side.
Time for clutch adjustment: I install the cable onto the clutch lever and take up the slack in the cable. Damn if I didn't run out of adjustment. Did they make my cable too long? No, after reading a few more forum posts I learned that I most likely somehow did not seat the balls into the ramps and this would make sense since I was really jockying the cable around trying to route it up through the risers and my attempt at threading it into the clutch release cover. Urrrgh, at least I slept on it before trying this again. I went back down to the HD store for gasket number 3.
After pulling the cover again I noticed the inner cable had pulled the outer ramp all the to the fully released position which meant the balls had not seated properly. I also called LA Choppers who put the cable kit together (although these are Barnett Cables) to ask for any tips.
Key Tip!: Put a little bit of the grease that each cable comes with into the ball seats and the balls to hold them into place when installing the Transmission Clutch Release Cover due to the amount of movement required to get into place.
Also note: that I took out all of the adjustment in the cable; that is, I took out all of the extension in the cable housing by threading in the cable adjuster to the sleeve thereby shortening the overall cable length. Also, I did not have to disconnect the cable from the clutch lever this last time because of all the slack in the clutch and cable.
So, utilizing the above tip everything went back together as planned. I also followed the sage advice of other members here and made the clutch adjustment through the primary side. 4 complete turns to take up the slack and then I only had about 1/2" of cable adjustment that had to be made. Clutch works perfectly. I was also able to install my cool looking "Derby Cover" that I have been wanting to put on for a few years. Thanks to all who helped me out and I hope this will help others out as well. I will post my throttle cables and brake bleeding lessons learned as well. Also, please feel free to contact me with questions.
After reading many tech tips/suggestions I stumbled onto this one, which provided the best information for my success; thank you.
My story: Replace stock handle bars with Chubby's 10" apes and replace stock cables with braided stainless cables. The kit my local HD ordered for me was the correct kit but in my opinion was a bit longer than I would have liked and thus was looking for a way to use up the excess 4" or so. I decided to route all of my cables through the risers for what I think is somewhat different than what you typically see. So for the clutch portion:
I had to purchase a few extra tools. I purchased the straight allen wrenches with the 3/8" socket drive and ball end. The ball end allows one to approach the bolts such as those on the transmission clutch release cover and the transmission oil dip-stick. However, to better access those bolts I actually loosened the exhaust heat shield bolts on the middle and forward heat shields and rotated the middle shield downward to give me a few more degrees of approach to the bolt.
Tip: Wrap shop rags around the upper and lower exhaust pipes to keep from scratching the cover up as you rotate and pull the cover outward away from the motorcycle.
I cleaned everything up and installed the cable onto the inner ramp and initially put the cover back on with a new gasket (gasket 1 of 3). After I routed the cable up through the riser housing and around I realized that I could not thread the cable into the transmission clutch release cover. Damn, now I have to remove the cover. A trip to the HD store for another gasket as I assume these are one time use gaskets. I remove the cover and pull it away from the motorcycle and rotate the cover onto the cable and once again reinstall gasket 2 of 3.
Another tip: The gasket has a rounded side and a concave side. The raised or rounded side goes on to the tranny side while the concave side faces the cover side.
Time for clutch adjustment: I install the cable onto the clutch lever and take up the slack in the cable. Damn if I didn't run out of adjustment. Did they make my cable too long? No, after reading a few more forum posts I learned that I most likely somehow did not seat the balls into the ramps and this would make sense since I was really jockying the cable around trying to route it up through the risers and my attempt at threading it into the clutch release cover. Urrrgh, at least I slept on it before trying this again. I went back down to the HD store for gasket number 3.
After pulling the cover again I noticed the inner cable had pulled the outer ramp all the to the fully released position which meant the balls had not seated properly. I also called LA Choppers who put the cable kit together (although these are Barnett Cables) to ask for any tips.
Key Tip!: Put a little bit of the grease that each cable comes with into the ball seats and the balls to hold them into place when installing the Transmission Clutch Release Cover due to the amount of movement required to get into place.
Also note: that I took out all of the adjustment in the cable; that is, I took out all of the extension in the cable housing by threading in the cable adjuster to the sleeve thereby shortening the overall cable length. Also, I did not have to disconnect the cable from the clutch lever this last time because of all the slack in the clutch and cable.
So, utilizing the above tip everything went back together as planned. I also followed the sage advice of other members here and made the clutch adjustment through the primary side. 4 complete turns to take up the slack and then I only had about 1/2" of cable adjustment that had to be made. Clutch works perfectly. I was also able to install my cool looking "Derby Cover" that I have been wanting to put on for a few years. Thanks to all who helped me out and I hope this will help others out as well. I will post my throttle cables and brake bleeding lessons learned as well. Also, please feel free to contact me with questions.
charlie142
New Member
I installed new cables and have read all the posts but my clutch will not disengage. The moved the oil slinger and I think it's not properly seated. Any advice?