clutch wont pull in

[Anonymous]

Just rebuilt my 1982 GS650 GL. Cant start it yet...so I've been going through everything to make sure I can ride as soon as I get it started. When I pull in the clutch lever, I see the elbow on the clutch plate cover turn in and I feel resistance and it springs back when I let out the lever. So far so good!.. I put it in gear and hold in the clutch. The bike acts like I'm not even holding in the clutch. The gears engage. Good thing I noticed this before I started it and tried to ride. I followed clymers instructions putting the plates back in...no problems. Anyone know why the clutch wont disengage the gears? Ive tried loosening the cable and tightening it all the way until it physically stops itself inside the plate cover...no luck.
-camaroman

[Don Lobacz]

The splined rod that goes down into the clutch cover probably needs to be rolled forward. Loosen up the cable, remove the bolt and pull the arm up off the splined rod. Spin the rod so that there is no slack when the arm moves (counterclockwise, I think). Reattach the arm and bolt, take up the slack in the cable and try it. If not, there may be a problem with your clutch reassembly.

[Anonymous]

On that model is it possible to pull the rod up and do that??? On my 1100e (( i just went to the garage and brought a clutch cover in to look at)) the actuating rod that has the gear on it cannot be moved upwards so as to dis engage the gear from the pressure plate pusher. If that were happening on my model, I would suspect the the gear on the end of the shaft was slipping a bit. But again I never saw the clutch and pusher setup on your model.

[Anonymous]

I hate to even ask - but did you completely remove the bolt? There is a notch that the bolt passes through - so just loosening the nut will not do the trick. If I understand the predicament correctly that is.

Steve

[focus frenzy]

OK, you just rebuilt the bike, did you put in a new clutch? if so, then what kind of clutch disc did you use? (IE: stock or aftermarket )
did you soak the disc in oil over night before installing them?

If you did soak them, then things will probably be ok, the disc will swell some and not want to disengage.
starting the bike in neutral and with the clutch engaged reving the engine a few times will sling the excess oil out.
if you used a aftermarket performance clutch, you may be stuck with it. (like me)
some performance aftermarket clutches are bad about dragging, and no amount of fiddling with them will get them to reliese like a stock clutch. except posibly using the stock springs with them.

[mcconnell]

Provided you did put it all together correctly (soaked the plates, correct number of plates in the right order, etc), with the engine off, take it off the center stand, pull in the clutch, click it into gear, and rock the bike fore and aft smartly until the plates break loose. Let us know if this worked.

[Anonymous]

I reused the stock clutch plates. I will try what you suggested about rocking the bike to see if they will break loose.

[nabrams]

I would follow Don's suggestion as a first step. You want to be certain that the push rod is in fact being actuated. I wasted a ton of time trying to troubleshoot the same problem on a Honda XL350 just to find that the push rod was never being pushed, so the pressure on the plates was never being released.