Throttle/Clutch Help

Yesterday I bought my KZ as a first bike and she was running fine with no serious problems. Just a little bit ago I ran into some troubles...

I fired her up just fine, but then noticed that when I shifted into 1st gear, she started moving forward without my giving it any throttle as well as the clutch lever pulled. I shut her off and to take a closer look I put her on the center stand and turned her on. The rear wheel immediately started spinning and wouldn't stop. This is happening in all gears except neutral.

The only things that had been changed on the bike since yesterday were removing and then reconnecting the gas tank where I am pretty sure my reconnections of the gas tubes from the petcock and carbs are fine, I also removed the horn last night which shouldn't affect anything. The one thing I think is the problem is that as I was cleaning the bike earlier, I came across the clutch cable that runs from the lever into the engine. As I am new to bikes I of course started tweaking with the nuts that are positioned on the cable, I am pretty sure this adjustment is my problem.





I have been on youtube trying to figure out how to readjust the nuts on the cable but I can't seem to fix the issue. Any ideas?

Clutches will hang up over time if not used regularly. There is probably a "trick fix", but an new set of plates and steels will surely fix it for good. Paul

It sounds like you inadvertently lengthened your clutch cable either near the clutch lever or near the engine casing. Lengthening the cable would prevent the clutch from fully disengaging when the clutch lever is pulled. You should be able to readjust it to shorten it. In other words "untweak those nuts".

Take a look at this.

You need to buy a Kawasaki Service Manual for your bike. If explains how to do everything including adjusting the clutch. Be sure to get one for your exact year/model as there are differences.

Yes, if you played around with that adjuster I'm not surprised your clutch is not working right. You need to adjust your clutch.

Here's a link to an electronic version of the KZ650-B1 manual (click on "Regular Download". The clutch adjustment should be similar (maybe not identical), but a lot of other stuff will be very different, so be very careful using this! Ed

hotfile.com/dl/148056848/131ba5a/Z650_B1...vice_Manual.pdf.html

Thanks for the links ed and cum, between the two of them i think I was able to properly adjust the clutch lever so there is only a few mm's of play in there. The case of the moving back wheel is still around though.

After a little bit more googling, I am suspicious that my bikes idle throttle may need to be readjusted. Either that or there is a more serious problem with the clutch itself or transmission. I am going to look into this issue and see what I can do.

By the way ed, I am definitely caving in and getting the manual now instead of later. With a couple unforseen problems I definitely need my official manual asap. Thanks again for being an extra push to get one lol I need to listen to you guys who have been around the way a little bit more, always appreciate the help!

Trevor

You probably ought to lubricate the clutch cable, especially the clutch lever end as it can get dirty, & gritty which can cause the end to bind & eventually break. A broken clutch cable is usually the result of neglected maintenance. The throttle cables probably need some attention as well. I use disk brake caliper lube on the ends.