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1999 RoadKing Clutch Problem

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Cmartinez844

New Member
Hello im Chris, New to the forum community! I got my bike a couple of months ago and ive already come to my first problem with it. I was riding on the fetter and was about to get on the highway but as I was going to up shift to shift to 5th gear my shift peddle was stuck and I started freaking out because I didn't know what was going on. I was stuck in 4th gear for a couple of miles until I came to a turn so I could get off the road. I tried to down shift but it still didn't let me shift! as I went to the turn at a slow speed still in fourth gear it finally let me down shift. I stopped and put it in neutral. I turned it off and started it again and tried to shift to 1st and while I tried to shift and holding the clutch lever in it stalled out. I was still holding the clutch lever. I don't know what is wrong. looking for advise or any help. Thanks

Chris
 
How freely does the entire shift mechanism move? If the bike was parked outside, there may be enough rust on the front shift pivot rod (which has the toe and heel levers on the outside end and the shift arm next to the engine) that the centering spring in the transmission which "re-cocks" the ratchet shifter can't spring back to the center to re-set the pawl for the next shift.

How close to the handlebar is the clutch lever when the the bike starts to move as you release the clutch lever? If the bike tries to move with the lever against the grip or when the lever is very close to the lever, you indeed have a clutch adjustment problem, or you may have both problems (clutch adjustment and bound shifter).
 
I just did the clutch adjustment. still no luck. still stalls out when I shift gears. but I did notice that the clutch cable hitting the exhaust pipe and the hard plastic cover around the cable was melted all the way to the wires. I saw the actual cable due to it the cover being melted. would that cause the actual cable to be damaged and not hold the clutch in like it was stretched due to the heat exposure? Thanks guys!
 
Hard to say without seeing its operation but it surely cant help. It will become a problem if the cable is exposed even if its not the problem now.
 
It sounds as though you have proof that the cable sheath is a hard, heavy duty plastic straw. When that section melted and you pulled in the clutch lever the sheath collapsed in the melted area. Making the sheath shorter or longer is what the adjuster located in front of the down tubes does when the adjuster is shortened or lengthened. I would bet that the amount of collapse exceeds what can be taken up in the adjuster so that cable is done, will need to be replaced. When the new one is installed, it needs to be routed farther away from the exhaust pipe. Look at some other similar machines when you have a chance and look to see if you are missing a heat shield and where the clutch cable runs. Good catch, I'd have never even suspected what your problem turned out to be.
 
Getting the internal cable hot enough and it will stretch out and cause a lot of problems BUT that should show up at the ferule at the clutch handle when tooooo much free-play is there...

signed....BUBBIE
 
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