Clutch is difficult to engage

[Heritage Guy]

I have a 1982 Yamaha XS400. The clutch is quite stiff and is difficult to engage for my wife. The cable has been lubricated and adjusted but it has only improved marginally. I assume I need to replace the cable. How difficult is this? Has anyone done this?

 

[Scorpio1963]

Have you tryed adjusting the clutch cable where it goes into the side of the engine?This can release some of the tension and make less stiff.

 

[Greasey Fingers]

One good trick is to cable tie the clutch lever right in against the handle bar (as if you were pulling the lever in to change gears) then leave it cable tied overnight like that. This helped a lot to free up my clutch plates and definatly improved that sticky hard to pull in clutch thing. Oil change may also help some, try draining it as well when you cable tie the clutch in and leave it draining overnight too.

Once you remove the cable tie and replace oil, run the bike and then when you come back you could even cable tie it again (without draining oil) and leave overnight after all the fresh oil has gone through the plates to give it every chance of freeing up? (sort of like rinsing out the plates with fresh oil)

 

[Heritage Guy]

Thanks for the responses. Were is the drain plug for the clutch case oil?

 

[Greasey Fingers]

The clutch case oil is the same as the engine oil. You just drain from the main sump plug.