Harley Braided Clutch Cable Install

Now that the new Mini Apes are securely fastened to the upper tree of the Road King, I'm gonna swap out the clutch cables. Instead of using the stock, black, factory clutch cable, I've opted to use a braided with a plastic protective coating. You'll notice that it is longer than the factory cable. The reason for that is the difference in rise with the Mini Apes. Always work any finished component, make sure it's on a clean surface. You can remove the original gasket from the cover. If the gasket happens to stay with the transmission case, make sure you remove all the gasket from the transmission case. You don't want double thickness gaskets or a piece of gasket trapped under the new gasket. It will cause a minor leak. And if the motorcycle didn't leak before you took it apart, it shouldn't leak after you put it together. I can then release the retaining clip inside on the ball and ramp. Safety glasses, retaining ring pliers. Just carefully remove the retaining ring. Remove the entire ball and ramp as an assembly. You can invert it, and then carefully remove the entire assembly from the end of the cable. You wanna loosen the cable in the cover. And again, instead of working on a finished surface, pull the rest of the ball and ramp away, flip the cover back over, work clean and neat. You can now loosen the factory cable. Again, the second set of hands becomes invaluable. You've got a long length of cable. As you loosen it, it's gonna want to twist and snake around. That extra set of hands is always helpful. Once the cable's unthreaded, make sure the O-ring stays with the old cable. You don't want two O-rings against the sealing surface. As with any component you removed from the motorcycle, set it aside, roll it up, set it aside, mark it. You may or may not use it, but if you have to use it again in the future, make sure that it is a usable piece. You can see the new cable is clearly marked, "Caution, do not over-tighten." The reason for that is, if you over-tighten, this fitting into the clutch release cover, you'll develop a small leak, and your transmission fluid will contaminate the clear coating on the braided cable. You can remove the protecting cover from the end of the cable. Make sure the O-ring is in place. We'll use just a little thread sealant. And you'll note these are a Teflon line cable. You'll never introduce any type of lubrication inside the housing for the entire life of the cable. The Teflon will do its job. You can then start to carefully thread the new cable into the release cover. This is a cast aluminum piece with a thread cut into it. Make sure you start that thread straight. Chances are if you cross thread this piece, you'll be buying a new clutch release cover. Again, make sure those threads start nice and straight. You should be able to thread that on by hand with very little effort. If you're cross threading it, chances are you'll develop a leak when you reassemble it. You wanna then just tighten it down, make sure it's snug but don't over-tighten it. You can then extend the inner portion of the cable. Reinstall the lower ball and ramp assembly into the cover, making sure it lines up correctly. You can then reinstall the fitting to the end of the cable, and also the upper ball and ramp assembly into the cover. Make sure it swings free, push it all the way forward. This will drop the ball and ramp all the way down in the release cover. You can then reinstall the snap ring. Make sure the ball and ramp is operating correctly. Obviously make sure there's no extra components on the table. Make sure you use everything you take apart. Always work clean. There's always residual transmission fluid. Wipe up the sealing surface on the release cover. Do the same on the transmission case. Make sure before you go to reinstall the clutch release cover to the end of the throwout bearing, that you remove the Derby cover, loosen the center clutch adjuster nut and the clutch adjuster screw. Back 'em all the way out so that throwout bearing can go all the way into the crank case. Obviously, once you reinstall the clutch cable up the frame downtube, up the handle bar into the clutch perch, you'll have to make a final clutch adjustment. All surfaces clean, I'll install a new James End Cover Gasket. When you're dealing with machined aluminum surfaces, there's really no need to add a bead of silicone or any type of sealant. The two machine surfaces, and the correct gasket should be all the sealing you need in order to keep the fluid inside the case. Before I install the cover, I wanna make sure I prep and clean all my hardware. A little Klean N' Prime, just a touch of blue Threadlocker. And again, working with an extra set of hands is very important. When you put this cable back through the exhaust, under the cam cover, up in front of the engine between the oil filter and the downtube, you don't wanna have to force it and scar up the nice, clear coat on the braid. Use that extra set of hands. Take your time. I'll have Mark start to feed it through. And you really need to note where the cable was routed when you took it out. Try and use that correct routing path. Stay away from the hot exhaust. Make sure that there's no areas where the cable can get pinched when you're riding your motorcycle. You know, and again, take your time. Do things correctly. Do 'em once. Mark will keep pulling all the extra cable up towards the front of the motorcycle. I'll make sure that ball and ramp is all the way to the back position, which would be as if the clutch was released. I can then put the clutch release cover over the transmission. The end of the case, capturing the new gasket, I can install a couple of the bolts just to hold it in place. Get 'em started. Make sure the gasket is over every alignment dowel and over every open hole that the bolt goes through. Start threading all the hardware in evenly. Any multi fastener cover always work in a star or a cross pattern. Again, depending on what exhaust system's on your motorcycle, whether you're doing a handlebar change, you're just replacing the clutch cable, or you happen to be replacing the end cover, updating a throwout bearing, replacing a leaky gasket, depending on what exhaust is on your motorcycle's really gonna dictate as to how far you need to take the motorcycle apart. On this particular application, I didn't need to remove the exhaust entirely from the motorcycle. I was able to loosen up the cylinder mounting flanges, the mounting tab underneath the release cover, the crossover clamp and the two rearward most bolts that hold the muffler to the saddlebag. At that point, it loosened up the exhaust enough, where I was able to pull it away and be able to access the entire clutch release cover. I did remove this heat shield for the simple reason that I'm working over it with tools. And it's much easier to cover an open exhaust pipe without a shield on it than to try and cover a shield and work over a finished chrome piece. Again, if you work carefully, you don't wanna make contact with any other component. With all the clutch release cover hardware reinstalled, tightened down with a new gasket, I wanna torque it to a factory spec of 84 to 104-inch pounds. Again, use a nice star pattern. This is indeed where a nice ball Allen comes in handy. Try not to use any more extensions than you have to. We've installed the new plastic-coated braided clutch cable, new gasket. Reinstalled the ball and ramp with the retaining ring inside the clutch release cover. You'll note the transmission dipstick is still loose and still hanging out of the transmission case. That tells me there's no transmission fluid in this motorcycle. In order to wrap up the rest of the exhaust, reinstall the Derby cover and do a proper clutch adjustment, I need to head up to the handlebars, reinstall the clutch perch, make sure everything is routed correctly, the new path for the cable, then I can adjust the clutch, put the Derby cover back. At that point, we can almost reassemble the exhaust, because we're done in this area, and we'll be moving along, installing the Mini Apes on our Road King.