Adjust when clutch engages? Hawk250

[tomalak007]

This may be a dumb question, but how can I change when the clutch engages the engine? It seems like as I'm letting go of the clutch lever it engages in the last 1/8 of an inch with some gear grinding noise going on if I do it slow. Any way I can get it to start at like half way? It just seems extreme the way it is. Thanks.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by tomalak007

This may be a dumb question, but how can I change when the clutch engages the engine? It seems like as I'm letting go of the clutch lever it engages in the last 1/8 of an inch with some gear grinding noise going on if I do it slow. Any way I can get it to start at like half way? It just seems extreme the way it is. Thanks.

Is this a new bike, or been ridden for a while?

In any case, there are two places to adjust the clutch. The engine side should have a bracket toward the front of the engine with a long threaded shaft on the end of the clutch cable and a nut on each side of the bracket. The other is the one you are familiar with at the clutch lever. If no amount of clutch lever adjustment is giving you the right amount of clutch engagement, then you need to adjust the engine side of the cable.

What I usually do is turn the clutch lever adjuster all the way in. Then, you will loosen one or both nuts on the engine side, and what you want to do is back the threaded section away from the clutch arm until there is just a little bit of free play in the clutch arm that the cable pulls on. If you grab the clutch arm with your hand you can swing it forward until it stops. That point where it stops is when the arm is starting to try and press against the clutch and compress the springs. I will usually back the engine adjuster out until I get just a bit of free play at this arm so I know that it is not quite at that engagement point.

Next, check the free play at the clutch lever. You want between 1/4", and no more than half an inch of free play with the adjuster all the way in at the lever. This should ensure that you have the ability to fine tune the free play at the clutch lever some without running out of adjustment. If you find you can't get about 1/8th inch of free play at the lever aduster even with it all the way out, turn it back in, and adjust the engine side of the cable a little more.

This is my method, and I do this because there should always be some level of adjustment at the clutch lever in both directions. You will likely have to adjust the engine side a couple of times to get it where you are happy. Setting all of the free play on the engine side adjuster only, and leaving no ability to adjust the cable IN at the lever can leave the potential for the clutch to be partially engaged with no way of easily backing it off to gain a little bit of slack. I try to get mine set to where my clutch lever adjuster is more or less in the middle of its range.

If you find that you can't get the right amount of free play with both adjusters almost all the way out, then it is definitely time for a new cable.

[Megadan]

Here, you can always follow this guide as well, same basic idea as what I described, but done a bit differently. This is the TT250 clutch cable setup and adjustment guide, and since the TT250 is pretty much the same bike with the same parts, it works for ours as well.
http://californiascooterco.com/blog/?p=20046

[tomalak007]

Yeah its a new bike. I will try that out, thanks for responding!