Front brake and clutch, need some help

[nifey]

Hey all, I'm pretty new to the site and it's been an amazing amount of help already. I've have 2 minor ( I hope) problems, I've tried the search and have an idea what to do but it doesn,t seem to be working. With my bike on the centerstand ( 1982 GS550L 10697 miles) the rear wheel is rotating in neutral with the clutch in, it will also spin in 1st gear with the clutch in and takes a decent amount of pressure with my foot to stop it, its almost impossible to stop by hand. The clutch cable had slack at the handle and the engine case so I tightened the adjustments but with no change. Should I adjust it more or might it be a clutch cable/clutch problem. The handlebar side can only adjust maybe a 1/4 inch and on the engine side the adjustment is up about 1/2 inch. When I bought the bike I was told it had a new clutch installed last season (2005). If it was the oil was definately not changed at that time. As for the front brake the pads are in constant light contact with the rotor. It doesn't seem to cause a problem with moving the bike but I am conserned about rotor/pad wear. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me and also thank you to Earlfor for the tip on getting the bike on the centerstand and all the others with stripped oil drains. The local bike shop didn't have a helicoil the would work so the rubber stopper is working great in the meantime.

[mark]

I can't help you with you're clutch problem, but light contact of the brake pads with the rotor is normal.

[Billy Ricks]

I can't help you with you're clutch problem, but light contact of the brake pads with the rotor is normal.

It's normal for the wheel to spin a bit under both those conditions. As long as it shifts smoothly don't fret. And the pads will make light contact otherwise you will use alot of lever before you have good braking. Drag racers will pry the pads back a bit to get the best times.

[Suzuki mad]

Let me get it straight, with the engine turning over out of gear the rear wheel rotates so much that you can't stop it with your hand!

Most bikes will start up and the rear wheel goes around slightly. It's normaly that the clutch is sticky when cold. If its spinning like your in gear and won't stop without a lot of force; the engine starts to stall loosen off the clutch adjustment on both handle bar and clutch end till this stops. Then check for gear engagement and slippage resetting the clutch in small amounts till it works properly.

Suzuki mad
1981 GS1000E
1983 GSX1100ESD Still in a lot of bits

[nifey]

Thanyou for the information about the brakes, I wasn't sure if the contact was normal and my haynes manual didn't say anything about it. As for the rear wheel I read in another post if the rear whell turn in neutral or in first with the clutch in there is an adjust to do to the clutch cable until you can stop the wheel with light finger pressure. In neutral this isn't a problem but in first gear with the clutch pulled all the way in there is still too much power to the rear wheel. I'm not sure if this means the clutch isn't fully disengaged or if I misunderstood what should happen. I hope this cleared up my problem.

[Doctor Shifty]

If you can handle a bit of engineering, here is one fix for a stripped sump plug. I should add that my 4 into 1 system made the original a pain to deal with and moving it was the only way to change the oil without removing the pipes.

The original hole is filled with metal epoxy.



Kim

[Boondocks]

Thanyou for the information about the brakes, I wasn't sure if the contact was normal and my haynes manual didn't say anything about it. As for the rear wheel I read in another post if the rear whell turn in neutral or in first with the clutch in there is an adjust to do to the clutch cable until you can stop the wheel with light finger pressure. In neutral this isn't a problem but in first gear with the clutch pulled all the way in there is still too much power to the rear wheel. I'm not sure if this means the clutch isn't fully disengaged or if I misunderstood what should happen. I hope this cleared up my problem.

Don't worry about the light brake pad contact.

Don't worry about the rear wheel spinning while the bike is on the centerstand, it's normal. It's not a good idea to run the engine while on the centerstand. The bike is not designed for this, and it will cause chain snatch which puts stress on the drive line.

Don't adjust the clutch unless you follow the workshop manual instructions. If you take too much slack out of the adjustment, it will cause the clutch to partially disengage and slip under load. You should have about 2-3 mm (0.08 - 0.12 inch) play measured at the clutch leve holder before the clutch begins to engage. Once it's properly adjusted, forget about what happens on the centerstand and go riding.

Be careful about making changes if you don't understand how something should work. It may make a normal operating situation go bad with expensive consequences.

[nifey]

Thank you for the help

I just want to thank everybody for the help. You really took a lot of worries off my mind. Thank you again.