Can the gurus help me out here? I just put on handlebar risers, which required me to re-route the choke cable. I did this by removing the line at the choke and running it outside of the fork tubes.

It got me thinking... I understand how a cable runs through a sheath and connects at some point on the engine case, carbs, etc. I can see where at that point you could place the cable farther up or farther down on some sort of wheel, lever, etc. and this would change the amount of slack on a cable.

But most of the cables I played with today have TWO adjustment points !!!

So how does the in-line adjuster work? How does simply turning a screw near my clutch lever make it so the clutch's friction point changes higher or lower? It seems like an amazing piece of low-tech that I really want to understand how it works.

So far, my best observation is that moving the screw pushes back a larger metal sheath that is about an inch long or so (I'm talking about the throttle/clutch cables) and that sheath pulls back on the plastic housing that covers the cable. But somehow, some way, the cable gets "shorter" or "longer".

Hmmm...

The cable is attached to the clutch mechanism  inside and it will move (it's under spring tension..) as you adjust the cable --the part that turns your pull into a pushing force to open the clutch plates. So there's part of the mystery. Essentially it takes your linear pull and uses that to rotate a piece on a shaft- as it rotates -the piece that rotates sits on a cam - as the piece rotates up on the cam - it moves up and down (side to side as it's oriented in the engine..) and pushes against the rod that opens and closes the clutch plates. A spring returns it to the starting point as you release the lever..

If you go on Bikebandit- look at the clutch fiche and it's assembly # 24 I think.

Over time the cable does actually stretch a little and needs adjustment- So that's part of the "magic" too. So you are really somewhat bringing it back to where it should be.
Also the inside tolerances of the cable ( how tightly it fits inside the sleeve..) aren't zero... so you have a little room for the casing to flex/bend contract/compress where as the actual cable stays straighter. Couldn't tell you how much but it does do this.

Or it could just be a magic trick....

My 1.3333 cents...


Best way to understand it is to pull the sprocket cover off your engine so you can see what I tried to explain up there ^^^.

 

Quote from: A_Steel_Horse on October 09, 2008, 04:05:10 AM
So how does the in-line adjuster work? How does simply turning a screw near my clutch lever make it so the clutch's friction point changes higher or lower?

Adjustments affecting the biting point should be made at the clutch end. The in-line adjuster is there to allow the 4-5 mm of freeplay required at the lever. Set the inline adjuster mid-way, then set the biting point at the clutch end, then fine tune the freeplay at the lever to 4-5mm using the inline adjuster. If you dont have enough freeplay at the lever the clutch can slip, too much and it wont dissengage fully.