**UPDATE** My son's 2007 SV650S was suffering clutch drag issues, especially when then bike was warm. It would refuse to go into neutral with the engine running and rear wheel on the ground. If it was on a paddock stand with the engine running the back wheel would rotate with the bike in gear.....even if the clutch lever was pulled all the way back to the bar grip.
I removed the clutch release actuator, located at the end of the cable, to strip and clean it, as it had a little play/wear, and found that 2 ball bearings were missing from the cage. Once cleaned, I packed it with new grease and re-fitted it. I also adjusted it using a protractor for the correct degree angle. Result - it had made no difference at all and it still would not go into neutral with the engine running.
As a huge number of posts on here suggest the release actuator is nearly always to blame for clutch drag I bit the bullet and bought a new actuator/release arm from Suzuki at £63 delivered, even though I wasn't completely convinced it was the issue.
Fitted, and once again adjusted correctly using a protractor. I also changed the engine oil for fresh 10w40 Motorcycle specific Semi Synthetic and filled it to just above the minimum level on the sight glass - as too much oil can also cause clutch issues, apparently.
Result.....no difference whatsoever as the bike still refused to select neutral. Frustrated?? Absolutely!!
Next, I removed the clutch basket assembly. Friction plates looked ok, Steel plates looked ok, springs looked ok. However, the clutch basket had very slight wear grooves on it where the plates sit and move back and forth with the operation of the clutch. Well, I say 'grooves' but they were so minimal that they looked more like dirty marks, but you could just about feel them with your finger nail or small screwdriver.
I therefore bought a complete second hand clutch basket from a bike breakers on ebay for a very reasonable £38 delivered - as I thought for that price its worth a try.
Clutch basket arrived and on inspection it had very similar 'grooves' to my original basket but perhaps not quite as bad. I dressed the grooves with a small needle file until they could no longer be felt with your finger nail. I then fitted the replacement clutch basket and test rode it.
Result.....FIXED! Got the bike nice and warm and kept stopping on the journey to check it would select neutral - and it did, every single time.
In fact, I was so confident that I'd now fixed the issue with the replacement clutch basket assembly that I removed the recently fitted new clutch actuator/release arm and re-fitted the old one. Once again I properly adjusted it and then set off on a test ride and it selected neutral every time. The original clutch release actuator does have a little wear in it and has 2 ball bearings missing from the cage.....but it still works.
I hope this might be of some help to someone with the dreaded clutch dragging issues.
