Frayed Clutch Cable | GTAMotorcycle.com

Frayed Clutch Cable

arogal

Well-known member
Hi everyone,
I noticed that my clutch cable was starting to have some slack so I tightened it up a tad. As the open slit part came around as I was tightening it I saw a ton of wires that were snapped/frayed from the cable! The clutch cable was hanging on my maybe 4-5 wires. Good thing I was just around the corner of work on lunch and there is a shop just down the street from my work. If I didn't notice this I don't think I would have made it home, which would have led to me stranded on 403/QEW on the way home from work waiting for a tow. Made it down to the shop safely and should have bike back today or tomorrow.
Does anyone know what would have caused this? The previous owner swapped out OEM levers with aftermarket shorty ones and never put the OEM pin back in the clutch lever, which made it quite wobbly and not too secure.
I purchased the necessary OEM pin which got rid of most the slack as the screw now sits flush in the hole of the handle. I installed the pin back in the winter and the cable seemed to be fine at that point (put 3500kms on the bike since). Burly Cycle recommend that I get the pin or the cable will start to fray, but oddly enough, the cable seemed to fray after the pin was installed.
Did some research on why the cables fray, and most people said it is usually from aftermarket levers, and even CRG/Pazzo fray the cable on certain bikes.
Any way to prevent this in the future without getting new levers? I think the cable was starting to get warn out before I put the pin in the clutch lever and started to deteriorate over time afterwords....not too sure though. I just don't want this to be a problem that will repeat itself every couple thousand of clicks!
PS - I just realized this should have been posted in the technical section :S
 
The cable will wear out prematurely if the routing and/or the movement of the cable where it meets the lever is not perfect. Either of those issues will put excessive bend on the cable which is never suppose to see that kind of stress. Shorty levers are great but it sounds like those shorty levers were not even the correct fit for your bike and installation was incorrect to accommodate the wrong parts.
Also sounds like the clutch cable needs replacement more frequently then you were previously expecting, it is generally the thin nylon lining inside the outer cable tubing that wears out first and makes clutch lever adjustment necessary, as a clutch wears it engages later not sooner, as a clutch actuator cable wears it engages earlier or not at all.
 
"The previous owner swapped out OEM levers with aftermarket shorty ones..."

This may have been where it started. In the process of putting shorty (or any levers on, for that matter), you cannot bend or kink the cable even a tiny bit or you will set up stress points that will eventually fatigue and break. I accidentally put an innocuous-looking bend in my Fazer's clutch cable when first installing my Pazzo levers (ham-fisted effort to get the lever into the mount) and the result was pretty much what you saw:

LkovdwO.jpg


Had to replace the cable. Not a great deal of fun as it turns out...
 
Last OEM cable I had to replace cause it frayed and snapped, was at around 80K kms. Agreed, that the routing or something rubbing at the point of fray is the likely culprit.
 
The cable will wear out prematurely if the routing and/or the movement of the cable where it meets the lever is not perfect. Either of those issues will put excessive bend on the cable which is never suppose to see that kind of stress. Shorty levers are great but it sounds like those shorty levers were not even the correct fit for your bike and installation was incorrect to accommodate the wrong parts.
Also sounds like the clutch cable needs replacement more frequently then you were previously expecting, it is generally the thin nylon lining inside the outer cable tubing that wears out first and makes clutch lever adjustment necessary, as a clutch wears it engages later not sooner, as a clutch actuator cable wears it engages earlier or not at all.
They are indeed the right levers for the bike. The piece that needed to be put in the lever is called the "collar", not the pin (my mistake). Maybe when I put the collar in I did bend the cable a bit which interfered/put stress on the cable while engaging it. I never thought a tiny bend could lead to this!
Thank you for explaining how the cable works though, I now have a further understanding of how this could happen. I do hear of people lubing the cable also, but I have never done that.
 
Last edited:
Another thing that could cause it would be a drop.

The good thing if you've been riding for a while is that you could nurse a bike home with no clutch.
 
I have 2 identical bikes. The one with 120k kms, never lubed the cable. The one with 20k kms, I have to lube it somewhat often.
 
"The previous owner swapped out OEM levers with aftermarket shorty ones..."

This may have been where it started. In the process of putting shorty (or any levers on, for that matter), you cannot bend or kink the cable even a tiny bit or you will set up stress points that will eventually fatigue and break. I accidentally put an innocuous-looking bend in my Fazer's clutch cable when first installing my Pazzo levers (ham-fisted effort to get the lever into the mount) and the result was pretty much what you saw:

LkovdwO.jpg


Had to replace the cable. Not a great deal of fun as it turns out...
Yep, this looks really similar. Not a expensive fix, the cable was $25, but the labour is quoted to be at an hour.....
Looks like when I put the lever back on with the cable I had to smack her on also...guarantee I bent the cable a bit which lead to the same result at you.
 
a couple drops of used motor oil once in a while doesn't hurt. I like to use used motor oil as its thinner than new oil. if you have a dipstick on your bike it makes an ok oil dropper.

cables do need the occasional replacement. good to hear you didn't get stranded. shop likely wants a full hour as they will want to adjust the cable properly at BOTH ends.
 
Last edited:
gotta be careful with those shorty levers
of course as they are shorter, the mechanical advantage is reduced
they get around this by moving the cable attach point closer to the pivot
this results in close to the same mechanical advantage
but if taken too extreme, can cause more radius than the cable is happy with

look at an OEM lever, cable pull is almost dead straight
brand name shorties are prolly okay
but the ebay knock off stuff could be troublesome
 
Cable replacement isn't hard...do it yourself. Just make sure to route it the same way.

I was going to, but I have a 40km commute home and I wouldn't have made it home from work work the cable. I suppose I could have brought tools to work and complete the job today though :S

look at an OEM lever, cable pull is almost dead straight
brand name shorties are prolly okay
but the ebay knock off stuff could be troublesome

These are knock off ebay levers. I am planning to invest in some CRG or Pazzo levers as I plan on keeping the bike for quite some time. They do seem very solid on the bike and have zero to little play. Never thought about the shorties pulling the cable on an angle in comparison to straight with the oem levers. Good advice!
 
Last edited:
What is the OP talking about when they say "OEM pin"? The clutch pivot bolt?! Anywho, throwing in my own 2 cents I say that the little end knob getting stuck/frozen in the lever is probably what starts off the fraying in most cases. It needs lube, doesn't really matter what kind

shop likely wants a full hour as they will want to adjust the cable properly at BOTH ends.

Adjusting the cable at the bottom end adds about fifteen seconds to the job.
 
What type of bike is this?

I recently had the same thing happen to my Fz09, 35,000kms.

The new part number has been updated, and you can see by the design it is different.

7a7e57d736eea2dd7d1b4c44bb4e23fa.jpg
1116a443b8e63c969b775af83efba368.jpg
 
What type of bike is this?

I recently had the same thing happen to my Fz09, 35,000kms.

The new part number has been updated, and you can see by the design it is different.

7a7e57d736eea2dd7d1b4c44bb4e23fa.jpg
1116a443b8e63c969b775af83efba368.jpg
It is a 2009 ZX6R with 25,000kms on it. The OEM cable is not available as they are on back order so the shop ordered in an aftermarket cable instead.
Yours was not as bad as mine was. Mine was hanging on by a couple threads :lmao:

What is the OP talking about when they say "OEM pin"? The clutch pivot bolt?! Anywho, throwing in my own 2 cents I say that the little end knob getting stuck/frozen in the lever is probably what starts off the fraying in most cases. It needs lube, doesn't really matter what kind
Adjusting the cable at the bottom end adds about fifteen seconds to the job.

Yes the clutch pivot bolt is what I would be referring to. You can fit the screw through the hole without it, but it doesn't securely hold the bolt and leaves some wiggle room/play. It was missing when I bought bike and put the pivot bolt in before I even started riding this season as it was easily noticeable it wasn't there.
s-l225.jpg

The piece that is around the bolt is what was initially missing. Just the bolt was securing the lever
 
Last edited:
I felt something snap on my commute home, was at St Clair and Kingston road, it was a very careful ride home to Whitby in stop and go traffic.

My cable as well was backordered, I ended up ordering one from Buffalo as well as Yamaha Canada, at least now I have a spare.

The aftermarket cable for your bike is probably from Motion Pro, they do good stuff, but nothing for my bike.

Better pic of how bad the cable was.

f75e19558b4d1b25b5b22196750db25a.jpg
 
Most of my bikes now use hydraulic instead of cable which is a major upgrade, on cable bikes I use the lightest of machine oil available (honing stone oil) the lube does little to nothing for any sliding surface that is still coated with nylon, the lube will help with any metal to metal contact such as where the pull cable goes through the curved pipe. That little curved collet on the lead cylinder is plastic and should be a loose interference fit in the lever, if it is too tight it will kink the cable on every pull, if it is sloppy loose the cable will pull slightly off of the correct path of travel. Assemble the top part first, put some pull tension on the lower end of the cable and inspect the lever/cable connection for smooth operation before complete assembly.

If you ride in winter, thick oil in the throttle or clutch cables will not work so well :| been there done that.
... almost looks like yours was hit with powder graphite, don't use that, it's thick and messy and not a great lubricant for nylon contact to steel parts.
 
Last edited:
almost looks like yours was hit with powder graphite, don't use that, it's thick and messy and not a great lubricant for nylon contact to steel parts.

The person who sold me the bike got it safetied at Rosey Tows and he sprayed a sh*t load of some sort of grease on both levers. The cable looked like it was lubed up with some nasty grey stuff also.
Lot's of little things could have caused this, and I am not aware!
 
...
My cable as well was backordered, I ended up ordering one from Buffalo as well as Yamaha Canada, at least now I have a spare.

Any dealership that doesn't keep disposable items like a clutch cable in stock is not serious about supporting their product, even worse when that is the importer/distributor, what replacement parts are they stocking nothing? Yamaha dealership and their distributor needs to get real, that stuff is lucky to survive the warranty period. Shame on them and good for having the foresight to keep a spare on hand.
 
The person who sold me the bike got it safetied at Rosey Tows and he sprayed a sh*t load of some sort of grease on both levers. The cable looked like it was lubed up with some nasty grey stuff also.
Lot's of little things could have caused this, and I am not aware!

Castrol chain lube maybe? ... very poor choice to use chain lube, goes on like oil, turns thick like grease.
 

Back
Top Bottom