Hello, I am new to the HD trike. I bought my blue and black trike a few weeks ago. When I was searching the web to find a trike forum, I found Trike Talk. I was glad to see a universal forum for HD and metric trikes as well. In the first thread that I saw had to do with finding neutral. When I picked up my trike, I did not notice at the time that neutral was going to be a problem. When I got home I contacted the service dept and asked why this was not addressed during prep and why was it given to me this way. They told me to ride it and break it in for the first 1K miles for service and they would make the adjustments at that time. WRONG!!! I said thank you and have a nice day so I proceeded to go to my garage and pulled down the clutch cable boot and adjusted the clutch cable so it would disengage the clutch pack fully. I know this cause I have been around HDs for about 25 to 30 yrs and know how to adjust the clutch. I lengthened the clutch cable by 6 flats. Now when I pull my clutch lever in, it fully disengages, the clutch pack goes into neutral like butter. This is the way it should be. I have now got 540 miles on the trike and everytime I come up to a stop sign or traffic light, shift into neutral, no problem.
Neutral TG
- Thread starter Moneypit
- Start date
T
TheBobs
Welcome and congrats on the new Triglide. I have the same color scheme as you do. I did the same thing with my clutch adjustment and saved a 60 mile round trip to the shop.
I had problems finding Neutral after 9,000 miles on my 2011 TG. A simple clutch cable adjustment solved the problem.
Hey, I have the same problem with my Triglide finding neutral. Can you please explain me what you have done in clear words, as I am from Germany.
Many thanks and reg. Günter
Many thanks and reg. Günter
- Thread starter
- #5
OK go to the front of the bike and pull the clutch boot down to expose the turn buckle. There should be 6 flats on it, take a magic marker and put a dot on one flat. Now loosen the turn buckle, it will take 2 1/2 inch wrench and one 9/16 wrench. Put the 9/16 on the jamnut one 1/2 inch above it and loosen it up turn the nut away from the buckle. Now turn the buckle 4 flats that will be like 1 2 3 4. Take note where the dot is. It should be the equivalent of a 1/2 turn. Now go sit on your bike start it up pull the clutch in and put it in first gear, now try to put it in neutral. If it goes in ok, then tighten it up and you are done. But if it does not go in, turn it two flats or more until you find neutral. Do not lengthen the clutch cable too far out, you will still need some free play for the clutch lever. What you are doing by lengthening the clutch cable is to disengage the clutch pack completely so there is not a load on it so you can find neutral. Once you have accomplished finding neutral, take the jamnut, turn it down to the turn buckle and use a 1/2inch wrench and a 9/16 wrench to tighten it back up. :wave4:
Hey, many thanks for your help, i will try it soon.
regards Günter from Germany
regards Günter from Germany
Originally Posted by Chaz7055
I have read all the posts on how to adjust the clutch, read the manual, watched the video suggested, and talked to a Harley mechanic. Is it just trial and error and practice ?????
1 How much free play do you put in the lever before you adjust the basket screw?
That one video doesnt even show pumping lever 3 times to seat balls in ramp and doesnt come close to what manual say ????
Welcome to the Forum! Hope this helps:
Here is a repost of Harris's instructions for adjusting a clutch. It was posted to the forum on 8-03-05. #7 is IMPORTANT. Hope this helps.
If you want to adjust the clutch, do this:
First, the bike must be cool when you do the clutch adjustment.
1) Slide the rubber boot off the adjustment nut assembly, in the clutch cable. Use a ½” and 9/16” wrench to loosen the jam nut back, then induce the maximum amount of slack.
2) Completely pull the clutch lever. Remove the “C” clip from the bottom of the clutch lever retaining pin, at the clutch lever, then slide the lever from the bracket, so it’s hanging by the cable.
3) Squirt Bike Aid lube into the cable just until it drips out of the jam nut assembly.
4) Remove the clutch inspection cover, loosening the screws in a “star” pattern. Use a sharpee pen, and mark the inside of the cover, to indicate which hole is the one that was on top. Always install the cover so that that hole is the top.
5) Loosen the 11/16” nut in the center of the clutch housing.
6) Using an allen wrench, loosen (counter-clockwise) the clutch adjuster screw, which is inside the 11/16” nut you just loosened.
7) This is the critical step. Gripping the shaft of your allen wrench with just your thumb and index finger turn it back (Clockwise) just until the point that you feel the least resistance. NO MORE!
8) From that point, loosen it back (Counter-clockwise) ½ turn to one full turn. Now that you’ve learned to use the clutch to control the motor, you should use ¾ turn. ½ turn is for “normal riders”, who use the clutch like an on/off switch. 1 turn is appropriate for a police bike in city traffic service.
9) Holding the allen wrench, so the screw stays in position, tighten the clutch adjustment nut. There is a torque value, but unless you have a crow’s foot, you can only tighten it so that it’s snug. If you are using an open-end wrench, take care not to let it slip off the nut, since you will be at an angle to the nut. If you do have a crow’s foot, it calls for 8 to 10 ft.lbs.
10) Replace the cover, making sure the gasket is good. Tighten the screws in a star pattern, to 50-70 inch pounds of torque.
11) Again add Bike aid to the cable, until it drips from the jam nut assembly.
12) Replace the lever in the bracket, being careful not to bend the black plastic anti-rattle shim. Install the “C” clip.
13) Tighten the cable at the jam nut assembly. Once it is roughly tightened, pull the clutch lever three times to seat the ball and ramp in the mechanism. Then tighten to the point that there is about 1/16” of free play at the lever. If you pull the cable housing out from the lever, the edge of a nickel should just fit between the shoulder of the cable, and the bracket.
I have read all the posts on how to adjust the clutch, read the manual, watched the video suggested, and talked to a Harley mechanic. Is it just trial and error and practice ?????
1 How much free play do you put in the lever before you adjust the basket screw?
That one video doesnt even show pumping lever 3 times to seat balls in ramp and doesnt come close to what manual say ????
Welcome to the Forum! Hope this helps:
Here is a repost of Harris's instructions for adjusting a clutch. It was posted to the forum on 8-03-05. #7 is IMPORTANT. Hope this helps.
If you want to adjust the clutch, do this:
First, the bike must be cool when you do the clutch adjustment.
1) Slide the rubber boot off the adjustment nut assembly, in the clutch cable. Use a ½” and 9/16” wrench to loosen the jam nut back, then induce the maximum amount of slack.
2) Completely pull the clutch lever. Remove the “C” clip from the bottom of the clutch lever retaining pin, at the clutch lever, then slide the lever from the bracket, so it’s hanging by the cable.
3) Squirt Bike Aid lube into the cable just until it drips out of the jam nut assembly.
4) Remove the clutch inspection cover, loosening the screws in a “star” pattern. Use a sharpee pen, and mark the inside of the cover, to indicate which hole is the one that was on top. Always install the cover so that that hole is the top.
5) Loosen the 11/16” nut in the center of the clutch housing.
6) Using an allen wrench, loosen (counter-clockwise) the clutch adjuster screw, which is inside the 11/16” nut you just loosened.
7) This is the critical step. Gripping the shaft of your allen wrench with just your thumb and index finger turn it back (Clockwise) just until the point that you feel the least resistance. NO MORE!
8) From that point, loosen it back (Counter-clockwise) ½ turn to one full turn. Now that you’ve learned to use the clutch to control the motor, you should use ¾ turn. ½ turn is for “normal riders”, who use the clutch like an on/off switch. 1 turn is appropriate for a police bike in city traffic service.
9) Holding the allen wrench, so the screw stays in position, tighten the clutch adjustment nut. There is a torque value, but unless you have a crow’s foot, you can only tighten it so that it’s snug. If you are using an open-end wrench, take care not to let it slip off the nut, since you will be at an angle to the nut. If you do have a crow’s foot, it calls for 8 to 10 ft.lbs.
10) Replace the cover, making sure the gasket is good. Tighten the screws in a star pattern, to 50-70 inch pounds of torque.
11) Again add Bike aid to the cable, until it drips from the jam nut assembly.
12) Replace the lever in the bracket, being careful not to bend the black plastic anti-rattle shim. Install the “C” clip.
13) Tighten the cable at the jam nut assembly. Once it is roughly tightened, pull the clutch lever three times to seat the ball and ramp in the mechanism. Then tighten to the point that there is about 1/16” of free play at the lever. If you pull the cable housing out from the lever, the edge of a nickel should just fit between the shoulder of the cable, and the bracket.
Moneypit, Let's exagerate this to make it easier to understand: What if your clutch cable was broken and you couldn't disengage the clutch? You could still get into and out of any gear as long as the bike was moving fast enough by adding or backing off the throttle as necessary. So what we really need to do to find neutral easily is to unload the clutch plates, which in turns unloads the tranny gears allowing them to slide easily.
Which ever way you need to move the shifter to get into neutral, LIGHTLY move the shift lever and blip the throttle and feel the shifter slip right into neutral.
Then next chance you get, back off the jam nut holding the clutch adjustment nut and open the adjuster one more turn (six "flats"). You should be able to feel the tranny shifting into neutral easier on the next ride. If the tranny shifts better, but not as easily as you want it to, open the adjustments nuts only 3 flats this time. If you get the adjustments nuts too far apart the clutch will slip.
Phu Cat
Which ever way you need to move the shifter to get into neutral, LIGHTLY move the shift lever and blip the throttle and feel the shifter slip right into neutral.
Then next chance you get, back off the jam nut holding the clutch adjustment nut and open the adjuster one more turn (six "flats"). You should be able to feel the tranny shifting into neutral easier on the next ride. If the tranny shifts better, but not as easily as you want it to, open the adjustments nuts only 3 flats this time. If you get the adjustments nuts too far apart the clutch will slip.
Phu Cat
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