changing gears -
thought i'd share this tip as it was one i meant to look into for the longest time, could never figure the adjustment out till i picked up a svc manual. Mine was delaying 12 - 15 seconds, i kid not
First, the honda svc manual says a 1 second delay is normal - just so you know what's going on, if you pull the seat and rear fender cover off the frame, you'll notice everytime you move the gear shift lever toward the left out of any gear, it dis-engages the clutch - then when you put it into the next gear slot, there's a dampner or small "shock absorber" that delays the clutch's release, to help it make a smooth transition into full engagement - a pretty neat system.
on the right hand side, under the rear fender, if you look in toward the transmission, over top of the right rear tire, at about the 1:00 O'clock position, you'll see a 12MM nut staring squarely at you. (by squarely, i mean, as if you were looking at a clock on the wall, with the center of the clock being the threaded shaft the nut is threaded on). Actually it will appear like two nuts are jammed together - it's actually just one nut with the second nut being one piece with the first - the 2nd nut is a deeper or longer nut, that's riding between two spring clamp fingers, kind of like a small version of the spring clamp that holds the fuel filter in place. That spring clamp just holds that nut from turning on it's own from vibration etc.
I ended up turning the nut clockwise about a half dozen turns, and it brought the delay down to about 3-4 seconds, then turned it some more till i got the delay down to the prescribed 1 second level.
There's also a pointer, kind of like the pointer on the cutting deck's belt tensioner, with a marker that you can visually inspect, to check clutch life.
If you raise the seat, there's a inspection hole under the seat and looking down, you'll see the pointer, but the index mark or notch may be covered with dirt - svc manual shows it to be a red notch, that if the pointer is past it, clutch is worn beyond svc life. Mine, even after i puled the rear fenders, and washed it, the red notch was a faint faint red.
After the adjustment i described above, the marker reading was not affected by the adjustment, so the delay thing is just a factor of linkage geometry.
anyway, hope that helps.
I also built my own flywheel puller and flywheel holder - pretty simple affair to make but worked as well as a factory puller - i'll try to take some shots of it, and edit them into this post later, in case it helps someone else.
thought i'd share this tip as it was one i meant to look into for the longest time, could never figure the adjustment out till i picked up a svc manual. Mine was delaying 12 - 15 seconds, i kid not
First, the honda svc manual says a 1 second delay is normal - just so you know what's going on, if you pull the seat and rear fender cover off the frame, you'll notice everytime you move the gear shift lever toward the left out of any gear, it dis-engages the clutch - then when you put it into the next gear slot, there's a dampner or small "shock absorber" that delays the clutch's release, to help it make a smooth transition into full engagement - a pretty neat system.
on the right hand side, under the rear fender, if you look in toward the transmission, over top of the right rear tire, at about the 1:00 O'clock position, you'll see a 12MM nut staring squarely at you. (by squarely, i mean, as if you were looking at a clock on the wall, with the center of the clock being the threaded shaft the nut is threaded on). Actually it will appear like two nuts are jammed together - it's actually just one nut with the second nut being one piece with the first - the 2nd nut is a deeper or longer nut, that's riding between two spring clamp fingers, kind of like a small version of the spring clamp that holds the fuel filter in place. That spring clamp just holds that nut from turning on it's own from vibration etc.
I ended up turning the nut clockwise about a half dozen turns, and it brought the delay down to about 3-4 seconds, then turned it some more till i got the delay down to the prescribed 1 second level.
There's also a pointer, kind of like the pointer on the cutting deck's belt tensioner, with a marker that you can visually inspect, to check clutch life.
If you raise the seat, there's a inspection hole under the seat and looking down, you'll see the pointer, but the index mark or notch may be covered with dirt - svc manual shows it to be a red notch, that if the pointer is past it, clutch is worn beyond svc life. Mine, even after i puled the rear fenders, and washed it, the red notch was a faint faint red.
After the adjustment i described above, the marker reading was not affected by the adjustment, so the delay thing is just a factor of linkage geometry.
anyway, hope that helps.
I also built my own flywheel puller and flywheel holder - pretty simple affair to make but worked as well as a factory puller - i'll try to take some shots of it, and edit them into this post later, in case it helps someone else.
