xj600 clutch adjustment...

[andym]

More of a bug than a problem... when the clutch lever is adjusted to fit tight against the bar the biting point is almost at releasing the clutch. To bring it back to a normal usable position means there is almost a 1cm gap at the clutch lever.

I've tried adjusting the cable all over the place and nothing seems to work, to me it seems the clutch lever itself isn't being pulled back far enough by the spring on the clutch arm. A local bike mechanic said about looking in the haynes manual but that only says about adjusting the cable, but he also said about adjusting it inside the clutch assembly. After looking online I found a video about adjusting the clutch pack, is this the kind of thing I need to do to my bike?

If not how easy would it be to tighten things up?

[Frost]

I don't get what you mean by tight against the bar and the gap and such? Surely you do the major adjustment on the engine case, then fine tune it with the adjuster on the bars?
If in doubt undo everything, pull the cable as tight as you can by hand, that'll have it just past the biting point as you won't be strong enough to separate the plates by hand. Then you'll have a good idea of where the little arm on the engine case needs to be.

[andym]

from the engine up....

I've removed the clutch arm, adjusted the cable as tight as I could and put the arm back on, tightened everything up and the biting point was almost at the point where I fully release the clutch lever.

I tried adjusting the clutch cable again to tighten things up again and tried again, and the biting point was still at the end of the clutch lever travel, I managed to get the adjuster all the way out and the biting point is still at the end of the lever.

I've noticed that every time I adjust the cable the arm loses the 'slack' that the spring is supposed to put on it (I imagine it is like the clutch being ever so slightly engaged even though it isn't slipping), and the only way I've found to get the biting point back towards the handle bars is to adjust it from the handlebars, but it leaves a gap at the lever.... if that doesn't make any sense I'll get some pictures later