Newbie Clutch Question

So I'm new the forums and new to my XJ.

This started last fall and I had to table the project for school related reasons, but my clutch seemed to suddenly stop working. The bike still goes into neutral and shifts through the gears the clutch just will not disengage the engine.

I checked the cable and went down and manually pulled the clutch to activate it but still nothing. Then I drained the oil and pulled the cover to see if anything appeared obviously wrong. Nothing struck me but I also don't really know what I am looking for. Just curious if anyone has any ideas or experience with this.

Thanks

 

did problem start after bike sat for awhile week,month,longer?or was bike being ridden when problem started?how many miles on bike?

 

It seemed to come on kind of suddenly. I think the bike had been sitting for perhaps a month. Prior to that it was not an issue.

Has about 10K on it.

Just did an oil change and that didn't help.

Basically if I put it in gear and pull the clutch or activate it manually the bike stays in gear.

 

when you pull clutch lever does it feel normal, if so my guess is clutch plates are stuck together,thats not many miles so clutch basket shouldnt have deep notches warn into it..
it does usually take more time then that for clutch to stick however some bikes will stick in a short time

 

It does feel normal, so if the clutch is stuck any suggestion on how to free it? Do I need to replace the plates?

 

I'm confused. Mine will not hit neutral to save my life if the clutch isn't disengaged.

Are you saying that if you have it in gear and stop the motorcycle with the clutch lever pulled it stalls? Or is it just pulling a bit?

Some pulling is normal, especially cold. If it's pulling hot tighten up the cable adjuster.

 

Well basically I can shift though the gears sans clutch, which is good because basically nothing happens when I pull the clutch. I believe I eliminated the cable as the problem as I started using pliers to manually clutch and still nothing.

So I have the bike up on a center stand, put it in first wheel starts spinning, clutch, wheel keeps spinning (with similar/same amount of force) clutch does nothing.

 

I had a similar problem with a Honda I recently got running- - clutch would not dis-engage. (GL 500 left for dead)
Rode it for about 4 miles, in the dirt, first gear full throttle blasts and it finally gave in. Cluthes sometimes stick. Now it works fine.

 

bingo we have a winner,you will have better luck in a higher gear going up a fairly steep hill,just crank throttle on and off while holding cluch lever pulled, our rt 100 always sticks when it sits a couple weeks,i'm sure the basket on it is groved but i always get it unstuck in a couple hundred yards or less so no biggy

 

I'd be draining the oil and going inside to have a look at the mechanism.
The Throw-out Release Pinion might be loose or the Push Rod might have slipped out of the center of the Pressure Plate.

This is one of those cases where you need to be "Safe; than sorry!"

You can pull the cover off the chutch side in a half-hour after draining the oil.
With the Cover off you can do a visual of the whole throw-out mechanism.

At the bottom of the Rod extending down to the middle of the Cover, there is a Pinion Gear which matches-up to the Push Rod.

From what you have described so far, I would be remiss if I didn't recommend that you pull the Clutch Cover and do a visual and a movement check.

You can make a gasket for the Clutch Case if you tear it taking it off.
If you don't ... and it comes off clean ... you can add a smear of sealant to it and re-use it.

You have to get to the bottom of this problem one way or another.
The easiest way to find-out for sure is to go-in and find out.

If the Bike sat for two Leap Years ... I'd say the Plates were sticking.
Since its a running Bike ... the problem of your Clutches NOT disengaging is not one to be taken lightly!

It's serious.
It's dangerous.
It's life threatening to you and others on the road.

Get the oil drained and pop that Clutch Cover off the side of that bike and find out why you got no throwout.

If this was an aircraft ...
It would be grounded until the situation was resolved and tested for "good to go."

Oh, did I fail to mention that you are damaging the shift dogs on your transmission gears making all those clutch-less shifts.

Time to Cowboy-Up and go find out what the hell is going on.
I regret not having the authority to ground you and your Bike until the matter is solved.

Since I can't ...
I'll just say ... Don't ride it. Don't get hurt. And don't hurt somebody else!

 

Here's how to free it up.

Put the front wheel up against something solid (tree, brick wall, etc.)

With bike in neutral and clutch pulled in, rev to 4 or 5 thousand rpm

shift firmly up into 2nd.

Note: there's a slight chance that this won't work - be prepared to kill the engine. That's why there's something solid in front of you.

Note 2: this would actually work better if you could do it in an even higher gear. If your bike has a "false neutral" between 4th and 5th, that would be better.

Let me know if it works or not.

 

I wouldn't recommend doing that.
That seems like a recipe for a situation that could result in somebody getting hurt!

You might even bend the forks slightly and wind-up needing to spend money you don't need to spend right now.

What are you trying to accomplish?
Seeing if the Clutches will loosen up!

Do this right and rebuild the whole shebang from opening the Case and inspecting the whole mechanism.

The last thing I want to happen from someone getting advice on this forum is GETTING HURT!
The second last thing is: Doing something that could cause harm to the bike doing an ill-advised experiment!

The site does not recommend you try the brick wall and revving it up and slamming it into gear.
We recommend you going about finding-out whats wrong with your clutch by disassembling it!

 

I'm with Rick Co on this one! Sounds like a YouTube video.
Dorri732, have you done this? would you do it again?

edited because he was actually serious. You could break something.

 

I'll chime in. I've not seen this done nor heard of it. While we encourage knowledge from every corner, my "danger" flag is up.
I would be curious to know if this has been performed successfully or not. From the sounds of it, Dorri732 may have been witness to this process. We will see.
And though I'm hearing of similar fixes, I'm the sort to try to fix a problem by repairing the issue, not trying to mask the symptoms.
I'd advise taking the safe road, pull the clutch cover and make sure you don't have something wedged already. It would be a sad thing to take a possibly easy fix and make it worse.

 

When I was in the Navy, every time I came back from a 3 month deployment, my 77 Honda CB750 clutch wouldn't disengage. That's how I fixed it every time. Never hurt me or the bike, but if you don't think it's safe, don't do it. You shouldn't have to have someone else tell you that.

 

Dorri, I'd be curious to know how you determined that it didn't hurt the bike? Did you pull the clutch apart by chance? While I can appreciate your experience, I'd be concerned about bending things or hammering the friction disk engaging tabs against the clutch basket (made of aluminum for those of you that don't know).
I know of a few folks that did the whole deployment thing and I don't recall a single one having to perform this process.
But you may be the singular lucky guy or one of many. I just haven't heard enough from more than one source or seen the end result to be able to feel good suggesting this in anything but the most extreme of circumstances. I'll leave it at that until I've seen enough trend evidence to put the fears to rest. Of course, I hope that you do not have to do such things this day in age, oil packaging has come along quite a bit in the last decade or two. That assumes that your service (Thank you for your service, I appreciate it) wasn't a recent thing.

 

I'm not going to endorse that "Procedure"
It flat goes against everything I know about the Clutch and Drive mechanisms on these XJ-Bikes.

Something is going to take the brunt of what I see it as, "Abuse".
Somethings got to give.
Forces are a Vector.
When the transmission gets "Slammed into gear" the cogs on the Clutch Boss Plate are going to move the whole imobilized bike.
Youu either damage gear teeth, break a reduction gear and regret ever starting the bike to conduct the experiment.

What needs to be done is a complete overhaul of the Clutch and inspection of the Basket and Cage.

I think the problem is solved shortly after taking the Clutch Cover off and likely finding the Pinion Gear is stripped or otherwise not engaging the teeth of the Sliding Pressure Plate Rod.

I can't see risking gears and transmission parts to loosen a clutch that isnt going to loosen because there is a fault with the throwout.

Drain the Oil
Spin wrenches
Take-off the Clutch Cover and inspect the whole workings of the Clutch.
Don't do something you'll regret immediately and ruin Summer because you can afort to fix what you broke trying to break the Clutch loose.

You have NO throw-out?
If you HAD throw-out and the Clutches were not disengaging it would require doing the same work you need to do to get to the bottom of the NO throw-out situation.

I recommend dismantling the whole Clutch if necessary to find the fault.
I strongly suspect you will find the fault after pulling the clutch cover alone.

I don't endorse anything involving the revving of the engine and attempting to engage the transmission.

That's the quickest shortcut to a transmission breakdown!

 

Hi Gents,

I'm putting my bike back together after completely stripping it down. The clutch went together fine, but I can't move the clutch lever once I put the cover back on (note I'm trying to move the lever attached to the crankcase cover, not the clutch handle on the handlebars). I've pulled it apart again and confirmed that it all looks fine and is correctly lined up.

Is there someway I can test the clutch once I have put the plates in and torqued the clutch screws down?

Am I missing something? The lever is literally stuck solid like the clutch will not move.

Cheers,
oby

 

You won't have enough force to move the throwout lever without pulling it with the cable, even with a pair of pliers. My experience is with the 550's and yours is probably stronger yet. You can't test it with the cover off. With the cover on, as long as the lever will pivot the WRONG way, and then come up to what feels like a dead stop as you turn it clockwise (viewed from above) you got it right. Hook up the cable and see.