methods to prevent premature clutch cable wear

[Anonymous]

what things can you do in order to help prevent premature cable wear ? lots of grease would be one of those things im sure


what else ? what have you done in the past or currently ?


thanks

[Jeff Tate]

I lube mine with WD-40 every so often and it seems to do the job. My bike is an '82 1100EZ and still useing the origional cable.

[KGB]

Lube, WD-40 is great, NOT chain lube.
Also keep the slack out of it. Makes sure it has "easy" curves/bends.

Keep riding,keeps it moving and not sitting in the casing going bad
OK I made that up, but keep riding

Keith

[Anonymous]

also- i dont see how wd40 is any good for anything cept things like mechanical clock gears and such, the stuff just dries up in a few seconds and seems completely useless, i would think you would want ot use something that stays wet like lithium or marine, or similar grease ?

even graphite would have to be better.


no ?

i just have no belief in WD40 at all, but maybe better than nothing at all i suppose

[Jeff Tate]

It's hard to argue with success, but everyone has their favorite way of doing things. True, WD-40 dosen't last for months but it makes for a very smooth and light pull on the lever. I just lube the cable about once every 3 weeks or so. Grease is fine, but being thicker it creates more drag which (for me) increases the chance of missed shifts. Look at it this way. It certainly won't hurt anything to try it.

[Anonymous]

Good old motor oil.

I always lube cables with good old motor oil.

My clutch cable comes apart so I just feed the wire in and oil it with motor oil at the same time. This works wonders with any other cable as well. Especially bicycle cables new or old. I never install a cable without oiling it. On a new bike I'll take all the cables off and oil them before reinstaling them. If you compare the action with an un-oiled cable to an oiled one its easy to see the dif.

Hold the cable in one hand with the wire pulled almost all the way out. Wrap your pointer finger around the top of the cable so that a puddle of oil can form on top of the cabble end. feed the wire in and add oil to the puddle as needed while feeding the wire in.

[Anonymous]

Keep it off the engine.

Keep it off the engine. The fact that mine and probably others run between the carbs and the top end doesn't help. Right now I have mine zip tied to the #1 intake manifold to keep it from melting on the engine. That little wire on the float bowl had to go. It didn't do poop as far as keeping my cable away from the engine.

[Anonymous]

I just replaced the original clutch cable on my 1983 GS750ES because it was frayed/broken through about 1/2 the wire strands. The interesting thing was that the damage wasn't at the obvious place to look: next to the barrel-shaped terminus at the handlebar lever. In fact, I was lucky to see the damage at all since it was about 2" from the lever end, in the curved metal tube/casing (sort of rounded L-shape). Clearly the cable must have been chafing on the bend in this tube. The only visible evidence was a tiny free strand of wire that I saw lodged in the grease at the mouth of the tube....there is not enought slack in the cable to pull it completely out of the tube for inspection if the lower, "motor" end of the wire is still attached to the actuation lever. So, I would advise riders with this sort of cable to thoroughly lube the cable before installation, paying particular attention in getting the wire that passes through the tube thoroughly greased/oiled before you attach the lower end to the pushrod lever.

[daveo]

Everything everyone else said, except, or also, white lithium grease is the recommended lubricant, there is a fitting you can buy that clamps over the cable end (when not in lever) that allows you to insert a spray can with the skinny plastic tip into it and pressure fill the entire cable till it's running out the other end. I re-routed mine so it's on the outboard of #1 carb to widen the bend, but I have drag bars that add a little slack in the cable. Also make sure when you finally tighten both sets of adjusting sleeves that the cable is not raking the edge of any of the insertion slots when cable is operated, and grease the ball fittings at each end, then have a nice ride