79 KZ400 Clutch adjustment screw and lock nut

Hey guys,

I've read a bunch of threads and cannot seem to find an answer to my problem yet, hence this question:

I recently went looking for an oil leak and foolishly took apart the adjustment screw/lock nut on the clutch cover. My clutch is now incredibly loose and I cannot get it to tighten.
I have everything reassembled now and have turned the screw out (counterclockwise right?) until I get tension in the clutch lever. After this I have tightened the nut, however I cannot get more than one pull on the lever because it gets loose again. I have played with the adjusting nut and lock nut on the cable, but it makes no difference. Any thoughts? Below is a picture of what I'm working with. Thanks!

Loosen the adjuster at the lever
Loosen the lock nut on the mid adjuster and shorten the casing a bit
Loosen the clutch adjuster nut
Gently loosen the adjusting screw by turning it in (clockwise), then back it out until it touches an then another 1/4 turn
Tighten lockout without turning the adjuster
Adjust mid adjuster until slack is nearly gone
Fine adjust at the lever

www.kz400.com/Technicaltips.htm

I turned clockwise until it couldn't turn anymore, then 1/4th turn counterclockwise, and felt the cable come under tension. Locked the nut without turning the screw. I have maxed out the mid adjuster and lever and I still have a ton of slack with no tension upon lever pull. I didn't have this problem yesterday, and can't imagine the cable was somehow routed incorrectly. Any thoughts? Thanks for your help!

After a very frustrating several hours, I am nowhere. I followed you instructions, and the ones on kz400, tried different turns of the screw before locking and nothing. My only thought is I put something together improperly? Does this look ok? Any advice or thoughts are welcome...

It looks like it is assembled correctly, tho I'd be tempted to get a couple of cans of brake cleaner and spray away the chain goo.
In the post above, you said you turned the screw all the way clockwise then 1/4 out. That is not correct.
Turn the screw clock wise until it is no longer in contact with the mechanism. Slowly turn it counterclockwise until it touches, then clockwise 1/4 . t seems counterintuitive, but that's how it goes.

From the FSM --




Good Fortune!

After doing the same thing many times and achieving the same result I have come to the conclusion something else must be wrong. When I pull the lever, I get good tension, then nothing. I think the apparatus is freezing up, hence the lax cable. I'm going to take it apart and grease it really good today. I'll let you know the results. Thanks again!

Update for anyone who is searching, I finally got the bike to work. The problem was the piece on the other side of the screw (and cover) was cross-threaded and would not screw flush with the notch on the inside of the cover. After fixing it and re-greasing everything it runs through the gears. Thanks for the help!

Glad you found the problem.