FIXED: 4T clutch failure
Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 8:13 pm
Hi everyone. I am in dire need of some clutch-repair guidance. My 2012 4T is currently in the shop (not a scooter shop but a willing motorcycle shop), and I need the scooter running in the next three days to be able to take my road test for the motorcycle license. The scooter only has about 45 miles on it, but admittedly I have probably strained the clutch a bit while learning. (And I imagine that people squeezed the clutch all the time for the six years that the scooter spent in a showroom.)
The clutch hand lever was extremely loose when I bought the scooter (going in all the way to the grip), so I tried to tighten the cable down under the engine. I loosened the lock nut, backed the adjustment barrel out, and tightened the lock nut. No change. So I used some vise grips to pull the cable tight and moved in the pinch barrel at the end of the cable. The hand lever was nice and tight, but after one squeeze, I heard a snapping noise and everything went slack.
I pulled out the inner cable, figuring that I had broken it, but discovered that it was in one piece! I put in a new inner cable for good measure (rather than putting the old one back in), but even after tightening everything as much as I could, the hand lever was still completely slack. I noticed that the threaded part of the cable housing, where the lock nut and barrel adjustment are, was no longer flush against (or screwed into?) the the guide the cable runs through on the frame.
Rather than risking doing any more damage, I took it to my local motorcycle mechanic. After working for a bit, he just called me to report that he can't get the clutch to disengage at all, even by pulling on the under-engine lever directly, which indicates to him that (at least part of) the clutch itself is broken. He's willing to keep working, and he has a copy of the Service Station Manual.
So I'm asking all of you with experience working on scooters: Does this sound like something a motorcycle mechanic can fix in a few days? Is it really possible that I broke the clutch by over-tightening the cable? Might there be an easier fix to try (like replacing the threaded part of the housing) before opening up the clutch? If the clutch really is broken, is there a "weakest link" that likely needs to be fixed or replaced? Are there any parts that I should rush-order right away? Is there any other information I should give the mechanic?
Thank you!
The clutch hand lever was extremely loose when I bought the scooter (going in all the way to the grip), so I tried to tighten the cable down under the engine. I loosened the lock nut, backed the adjustment barrel out, and tightened the lock nut. No change. So I used some vise grips to pull the cable tight and moved in the pinch barrel at the end of the cable. The hand lever was nice and tight, but after one squeeze, I heard a snapping noise and everything went slack.
I pulled out the inner cable, figuring that I had broken it, but discovered that it was in one piece! I put in a new inner cable for good measure (rather than putting the old one back in), but even after tightening everything as much as I could, the hand lever was still completely slack. I noticed that the threaded part of the cable housing, where the lock nut and barrel adjustment are, was no longer flush against (or screwed into?) the the guide the cable runs through on the frame.
Rather than risking doing any more damage, I took it to my local motorcycle mechanic. After working for a bit, he just called me to report that he can't get the clutch to disengage at all, even by pulling on the under-engine lever directly, which indicates to him that (at least part of) the clutch itself is broken. He's willing to keep working, and he has a copy of the Service Station Manual.
So I'm asking all of you with experience working on scooters: Does this sound like something a motorcycle mechanic can fix in a few days? Is it really possible that I broke the clutch by over-tightening the cable? Might there be an easier fix to try (like replacing the threaded part of the housing) before opening up the clutch? If the clutch really is broken, is there a "weakest link" that likely needs to be fixed or replaced? Are there any parts that I should rush-order right away? Is there any other information I should give the mechanic?
Thank you!