Clutch engagement

[Saloman1]

Hello, I am a two week old FZ6 04 owner and have a newbee question. Do the Yamaha bikes have a longer clutch movement in engage or do I need to adjust mine? My clutch seems to engage the last inch of movement. Any advice will be appreciated.

Roy in Tucson, AZ
45 years old new bike rider.

 

[jsteinb95]

Hi Roy....welcome to the family! Sorry, can't help you with the clutch, but someone else definitely can. :thumbup:

 

[wrightme43]

yes my did that as well.
I added freeplay but made sure the clutch was completely disengaged before it gets to the handle bar.
If you get it too close, and you sit in a long line clutch in/clutch out/ in out in out in out it gets hot and starts to have to be pulled in further. If you have too much freeplay it will start to creep forward even with the lever pulled to the bar.
I was able to get the friction zone closer to the grip where I wanted it by adjusting freeplay. Hope it helps.

 

[Saloman1]

Thanks, I will look into the freeplay adjustment. I might have a shop do it. I am a newbee to bike mechanics as well.

 

[bd43]

After I installed my Pazzo levers, this is what I did. With the thumb wheel adjustment turned all the way in so there was plenty of slack on the cable (I had to do this anyway to change levers) note where the clutch arm is just above the gear box on the RHS of the bike. This is the say "home" position of the arm as obviously the clutch is fully engaged. Adjust the thumb wheel now to take up the slack in the cable. If the arm moves off the "home" positon then you've taken out too much slack, so back it out. With the Pazzo lever, I can adjust the reach of the lever, but the closer the reach, the less cable will be pulled in to disengage the clutch. To check full disengagement, I put the bike on the center stand, started it, pulled the lever all the way in, place the bike in first gear. The rear will spin briefly, but stop it with the rear brake briefly and release. Now check to see if it still turns. If it does, then then the lever is not fully disengaging the clutch. With a stock lever, if the wheel moves then the cable still has too much slack. Gee, I hope I'm making some sense here.

You've only got so much cable pull from the clutch lever so there is the right amount of adjustment to get the clutch fully engaged to disengaged. You just have to find it by adjusting the thumb wheel.

 

[madmanmaigret]

made sense to me! good job BD :thumbup:

 

[Tailgate]

Thanks BD for the info. Yeah, the FZ6 clutch engages near the end of play. This has been noted in at least one magazine review (said it was not "user friendly"). Service manual (page 3-14) calls for .4 to .6 inch of freeplay at lever end and this is including the the distance of the "ball" end of lever. I have found, however, that it can make for some very clean and quick gear changes since one doesn't really even need to pull the lever in very much.

 

[OneTrack]

The FZ6 clutch has a very short (almost sharp) engagement/disengagement range that takes a bit of getting used to....it's seems almost like it's an ON/OFF switch at first.
I originally adjusted quite a bit of freeplay into the clutch lever, but slowly started adjusting this freeplay out as I got more used to the clutch.
After installing Pazzo levers, I was able to "fine tune" the clutch adjustment vs lever reach and it's perfect for me now.
The OEM clutch lever always bothered me that it didn't have a dial adjuster for reach the same as the front brake lever. The Pazzo clutch lever fixes that.

 

[Saloman1]

Thanks to all who offered advice. It sounds like I need to get use to it.
What a great forum. I am learning more each day I read it.
Roy-Tucson