The Zephyr Zone

Hello fellow Zephyr owners!!

Was hoping that someone here could help me out.
I am in the final stages of my bike rebuild, and when taking it apart, something i did not do was mark up the splines on the clutch arm, on the clutch cover/ input shaft.
I having a good go at trying different combos of cable adjustment and arm positions on the splines, but the clutch just feels so hard. The haynes manual does not help in this situation. But basically if anyone could help with describing or even sending over a photo of the posisiton of their clutch arm and the position it is on the splines, that would be amazing.
Thank you!!

Kind regards,

Phil (squeezyphil)

Hi Phil, as far as I remember I had a similar problem with the clutch arm, there is a notch/cut out on the bottom of the shaft inside the clutch case that has to line up with the clutch mechanism. There should be marks on the splined part and the arm itself, mine didn't line up exactly, it was a couple of splines out but I seemed to get better clutch activation like this, it could have been that I had an aftermarket cable, I just don't remember as I've worked on quite a few different bikes since then. Well here's pics of mine, I hope they help.

Side view.....

As per the top picture in the above post, the 'line' in the center of the arm should align with the center punch mark on the shaft.

P.S. Buy a second-hand genuine service manual. WAY more informative on stuff like this than Haynes. Often several of them for sale on e-bay.

hi phil i can remember when i had the cover off mine and remember when you insert the spindel it does have to engage properly inside ,other wise it will smash the clutch case when started ,and also as above ,david

thank you very much for your help! Now that you've mentioned it, i see the punch mark on the end of the shaft and have aligned them up. Has definately helped. I think i probably had it set up that the cable was not pulling the lever quite far enough. Much better, thank you chaps!

Just out of interest, has anyone seen / made a hydraulic clutch conversion? I've seen them on bikes with a pushrd through the clutch shaft, not quite sure how this "cam on the side" system could easily be replaced.

Ian

Ian in Holland wrote:Just out of interest, has anyone seen / made a hydraulic clutch conversion? I've seen them on bikes with a pushrd through the clutch shaft, not quite sure how this "cam on the side" system could easily be replaced.

Ian

Not sure what advantage you would gain from such a difficult modification. I have aftermarket heavy duty clutch springs, and with a well adjusted and good genuine Kawasaki cable the clutch action is fast and not at all heavy.

If your looking to do some clutch work, I reckon heavier springs and replacement of the rubbers in the clutch basket should be at the top of the list. With standard springs the clutch on my D1 slipped constantly at full throttle over about 6000 rpm. Bad rubbers (from age) make gear changes exceptionally 'clunky'. Especially first to second.