E.T., I've got two 700SCs (85 & 86) and I can tell you that they both have an odd problem concerning the clutch that you should know about.
If I ride my bike a long ways at a slow speed, the clutch will go out. What I mean by that is when I pull the lever, I get no resistance and the cliutch remains engaged. It happen to me today. I rode the Mountain Loop Highway along the west side of the Cascade Mountains and 23 miles of the loop is gravel road. I'm not a happy camper on gravel even riding one-up so I stayed in 2nd gear at about 4000 RPM most of the way. As soon as I got back onto the pavement, I pulled the clutch and had nothing so I had to shift up without the clutch and ride in OD for a few miles before the machine cooled off sufficently for the clutch function to come back. This has happened to me three times now and I can tell you that the first time scared the begeebers out of me as I was way back in the boonies on a gravel road with my wife on the back on a late Sunday afternoon. Each time I'e had the problem, it has been on gravel and a long span of running at relatively slow speed. I think that what's going on is that the clutch master cylinder is part of the engine body itself and when the engine gets too hot, the master cylinder gets hot as well and its seals start letting the fluid go by them rather than capturing and pushing it. I'm sure Dennis H. can say if this theory makes sense or is horse feathers. But, I think the issue has to do with slow speeds and heat. I don't know if that relates to what you're experiencing but I thought I'd share it with you. Dennis G. - Seattle -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of E.T. Sent: 03 July, 2009 13:48 To: Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers! Subject: [Nighthawk Lovers] 84 CB700s clutch Hey all, new guy here. I purchased an 84 Nighthawk 700s in February. Purchased with 27.6k and ive put 1.8k on since. When i purchased it, The bike made a bit of noise going into 1st from N and then also into 2nd, but the other gears were smooth. But i took it on a trip to TN and on the way down my clutch started to throw me some curveballs. This is my first bike , so i dont know much about repair(other than what my shop manual can tell me), but id like to be able to do as much to it on my own as possible. The problem i started to have was: The amount of pull on the clutch handle to disengage the clutch has shrunk, reducing my friction zone and making it hard to shift smoothly, and sometimes (embarrassingly) stalling out. At the moment the amount of pull required to disengage the clutch is about a half inch, and virtually no friction zone. I talked to my neighbor(not qualified in any way but an experienced rider who has restoredb2 bikes), he said it sounds like my clutch is going out, or i have low clutch fluid. I just checked the fluid today and it looks pretty full, and the previous owner had all the fluids purged and changed less than a year ago. So that leaves me with the clutch burning out... Im wondering if anyone else has had an experience i can draw off of, or knows more specifically what my problem could be. In a week Ill be headed out of town for 3 weeks so i wont be getting to it for a while but when i return id like to be able to get right to what needs to be done. All advice and knowledge is appreciated!!! Please educate me!! Thanks guys. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
