Kawasaki adjustable clutch lever assembly

I am trying to sort an adjustable clutch lever for my wifes 04 SV650S as she is struggling with her reach due to her small hands. As I couldn’t get a clutch lever assembly for a Kawasaki GPZ500 I tried fitting an adjustable clutch lever assembly from a Kawasaki ZXR400 at the weekend. But I found that even with the clutch end adjusted fully I didn’t have enough adjustment at the lever end to get rid of all the freeplay. Has anyone else come across this problem? If so how did you get round it?

[Sid Squid]

No. Just remove it and out the original back, then leave a little slack in the cable such that the lever is closer to the 'bar. As long as the clutch lifts enough to not drag then it's pulling enough cable.
Fitting an alternative lever that can be adjusted closer to the 'bar does the very same thing - if the lever travels less, less cable is pulled.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Sid Squid

then leave a little slack in the cable such that the lever is closer to the 'bar. As long as the clutch lifts enough to not drag then it's pulling enough cable.

Will try this with Claire's clutch, she has similar problems.

When I leave a bit more free play it is usually differcult to get it out of gear when you stop. That's why I wanted to fit an adjustable lever.

[jambo]

If slackening off the cable adjuster with the standard lever interferes with the clutch action then so will an adjustable lever set to the same level.

Think of the adjustable lever as being exactly the same as a normal one but with a little screw to let you hold it closer to the bar. It doesn't affect the operation of the clutch. 1cm of pull is still 1cm of pull with either lever.

HTH

Jambo

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by dave hendy

When I leave a bit more free play it is usually differcult to get it out of gear when you stop. That's why I wanted to fit an adjustable lever.

An adjustable lever doesn't compress all the lift into a shorter pull, it just changes the distance from the lever to the 'bar.
If the lever is closer to the 'bar when released, when pulled it will move less, the less it moves the less the cable is pulled, this is the same for a slacker cable or an adjustable lever.

The way I understand it is that a clutch is designed to disengage after a certain amount of operational movement. There are variables that effect this, such as wear on the clutch plates. If you slacken the cable to shorten the reach on the lever you might not get sufficient pull/travel to disengage the clutch.

Surely the geometry/design of a specific lever dictates the amount of cable that is pulled. So perhaps finding a lever design with more pull is the way to go.

But I might be talking b*ll*cks, I quite often do!

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by madness

The way I understand it is that a clutch is designed to disengage after a certain amount of operational movement. There are variables that effect this, such as wear on the clutch plates.

The wear on the clutch plates doesn't affect how much lift you need to disengage it, just where in the lift that amount of lift will be.

Originally Posted by madness

If you slacken the cable to shorten the reach on the lever you might not get sufficient pull/travel to disengage the clutch.

True, but if the clutch is adjusted and working right, the lever doesn't have to go full way to the 'bar to lift sufficiently, for example the lever may travel, say, four inches, if the lift necessary to disengage the clutch occurs after two inches, you could adjust the cable slack such that the lever were an inch closer to the 'bar when released, this would still allow the lever to pull three inches and the clutch to lift cleanly. This can be exploited by either fitting a lever that's adjustable, a lever that simply sits closer to the 'bar, or by leaving a little slack in the cable.

Originally Posted by madness

Surely the geometry/design of a specific lever dictates the amount of cable that is pulled. So perhaps finding a lever design with more pull is the way to go.

It's not down to the lever alone, the whole assembly will need changing. Very roughly I guesstimate that the SV lever pulls about 15mm of cable when moved from fully out to fully in, this is a pretty typical amount, but it is possible that there's something available that pulls that much cable whilst moving less, but importantly it will mean the clutch is heavier.

Originally Posted by madness

But I might be talking b*ll*cks, I quite often do!

No, you're pretty much on the money.

It must be appreciated that adjustable lever is just that, they adjust the position of the lever, they don't do anything magic, if, say, 10mm of lever movement equals 1mm of cable pull, then an adjustable lever doesn't make the clutch cable pull it's whole 15mm in any less lever movement. If the lever is closer to the 'bar it can travel less before it stops, and the cable travels consequently less too. As above this can be achieved in a few ways, cable slack, different shape lever, adjustable lever, it's all the same.