Over the last few months I've been building a 3AJ I bought off ebay in bits. I'm pretty mechanically minded but have never owned a bike before and certainly never done anything this involved. So eventually the thing is in one piece instead of many but the damn thing won't start. Most of the problem here seems to be the clutch not disengaging properly:

When building the bike I couldn't find neutral, move through more than 2 gears or disengage the clutch. I took the cover off, separated all the clutch plates out, oiled and replaced. This at least meant I can rattle through the gears and find neutral, but not trigger the neutral light or neutral relay for the starter.

I have adjusted the clutch cable to maximum and it frees off a bit, but not enough. Also, it won't start on the button in neutral without the relays clicking it off immediately - overcurrent I guess. I'm charging the battery now to see if that does anything, but I'm not hopeful.

My mate gets very tired trying to push start it too and so I haven't had much of a go at that:-/

Getting a bit frustrated now, ideas?

Pictures for the curious at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4981785...7594237835258/

hiya i am also just starting to rebuild my engine i bought a bike of off ebay and it has had so many problems where someone has done some weird things or left bits out. with the clutch have you checked all the components in the push rod parts there is supposed to be a shaft then a ball bearing that pushes against an adjusting bolt in the centre of the clutch just an idea. i had the opposite the clutch was permanently disengaged this was down to the splines of the clutch miss aligned.

The guy I bought it from dismantled it to paint the frame, the engine and gearbox was taken out as a lump and not opened up. He said it was running before that. I suspect it's a worn part or something that needs adjusting, or maybe it'll free off when it's running but at the moment I just don't know.

Hi Alex,

I have decided that the XT600's are too difficult to bump start, so would recommed that you get to the bottom of why the electric start isn't behaving. This might involve (temporarly) bypassing the neutral sensor, clutch lever and side stand switches, their signals are fed to the CDI which should refuse to start in gear unless the clutch lever is pulled in and the side stand up - If I remember correctly.
If your neutral light isn't coming on that could be part of your problem.

I'm not very clear on your clutch cable adjustment, my understanding is that you need to do trhe following:
1) remove clutch cover, if bike lent enough then oil wont escape

2) put maximum slack in the cable

3) undo the loc-nut in the centre of the clutch and screw the screw in until it just touches something behind it, then back the screw of one quarter of a turn and lock the lock nut

4) Replace the clutch cover, having replaced gasket if necesary (if you grease both sides of a new gasket they can often be re-used a number of times)

5) re-adjust the clutch cable free play so that there is 3 or 4mm of gap betwen the edge o the lever and it's mounting bracket wheh the lever is pulled in to the point where all slack is taken up

It is probably wise to lube the cable before doing this, unless you have done so recently.

Also note that if the bike is stationary you will need to spin the back wheel to move through the gears.

Hope this helps

Mark

Ok, thanks. Useful stuff on the adjustment, I have merely screwed the adjusters on the cable to max. New clutch cable too so that should be ok. I'll try your adjustment method, and hope that I don't need to order another gasket because it seems to take 10-14 days for the dealer to get stuff in. Grrrrrr.

The electric start I will try again after clutch adjustment, the kickstand switch has been bypassed by someone before I got the bike, and I have refurbed the clutch micro-switch so it shouldn't be anything to do with that. I can hear the starter relay click on to energise the circuit when I pull the clutch lever in.

Put the bike in nuetral.... Can you move the bike forwards and backwards with no resistance ??

Put her in gear then pull in the clutch lever and try again to roll her forwards and back.. Easy ?????

If its not dissengaging then a common issue is notches on the clutch outer basket and sometimes the inner.. These notches grip the plates and stops them moving apart ! Very common on toquey singles, especially old ones.

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