Sudden loss of clutch : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

bajaman52 · 10-01-2008, 03:25 PM

OK Fellas heres one for you all,

I was riding my 86 FXR and all was fine. Poof grabed my clutch lever to down shift and suddenly my lever came all the way back to the handlebar. Pulled over and had to adjust my clutch all the way out(take up slack at the adjuster) to get hte clutch to disengage so I could shift. Got home took off cable looks fine. Adjusted the clutch rod on the basket, and re installed the cable. It seemed to be fine. I adjusted the adjuster to take up the slack at the handle and all worked fine. OK, then I headed out to test drive. Perfect.
Took off out to the country on Sunday and got about 35 miles from home and when I had to down shift due to a slower moving truck in front of me, poof no clutch again. Lever comes all the way back to the handlebar. Had to adjust all the way out again to take up the slack and got my clutch back. Made it home with no problem but now I am afraid to take it out and don't know what could be causing the problem.. The cable looks good and does not seem to be broken or stretched. Got any insight or possible reasons for this mystery.
Thanks

cat5752 · 10-01-2008, 11:42 PM

This is weird, but here is a suggestion (in my opinion). When it is working, measure how much the "arm" on top of your trans moves from engaged to disengaged. When it goes limp, see what it measures at. In my little pea brain that would help you figure out where the issue is...(internal or cable external) Hopefully someone will come along and shed some light on this. On all the bikes I have ever had it either worked or it broke. Hope this maybe helps. Take it out and be your own "test pilot". Be sure to post back here when you get it figured out.
Andy

springer- · 10-01-2008, 11:59 PM

Basic clutch operation on your bike....

Pull clutch lever pulls the cable and moves the clutch arm, arm pivots in clutch cover moving clutch fingers in the cover. The fingers push on a bearing that is attached to a short rod in the center of the mainshaft. That rod pushed an intermediate rod that pushes an adjuster attached to the pressure plate that disengages the clutch.

Your problem could be in any of several places. The fingers break, the hardness of the rods wear, the adjuster breaks and the throwout bearing goes. That's just the problems between the lever and the clutch plates. There are other possibilities.

If I had to guess, I would start in the cover where the throwout bearing and fingers are. Go from there.

bajaman52 · 10-02-2008, 04:34 PM

OK fellas I will take the outer end cove off the trans and see whats up inside. I will definitely post back as I make progress. Hopefully this may help someone else in the future.
Bajaman52

bajaman52 · 10-02-2008, 07:23 PM

OK, I took off the end cover that has the lever on top. Inside I found what looks like was a needle bearing all chewed up and laying in the bottom of the cover. Needle bearings were also in the bottom. My manual does not show anything inside the cover. The little fork attatched to the cable arm was also very scarred and looks as if it overheated. There are two washers that maybe had a bearing in between them on the mainshaft, but my manual does not show this. Any body familiar with this set up?
thanks

bajaman52 · 10-02-2008, 07:38 PM

Hey fellas, i just talked to San Diego Harley and the parts guy was pretty knowledgeable. He said what I lost was the waffle bearing on the end of the main shaft. Then the shaft spins and backs off the clutch shaft and you lose your clutch. As soon as I get the parts and install them I will let everybody know how it turns out.

springer- · 10-02-2008, 07:47 PM

The waffer bearing is the throwout bearing. When you open it up and find the bearing is in pieces it will be handy to know it has 9 rollers (if I remember correctly). You will need to find ALL of those rollers. When you open it up becareful you don't lose any ... not that you will be reusing them but you will want to make sure you find the all and that none of them made it into the transmission case where the gears are.