Busted Clutch Mount...Help!!!

[Rocketjock]

Lesson #1. Never work on your bike when you're tired. I did. Now, what'll I do?
I had been waiting for three weeks for a new clutch cable for my 80 GS750.
Got it yesterday at lunch and after dinner I decided to do the simple task of installing it. As I wound the nut on the engine side into its mount it began to get tighter and tighter. I just figured crud on the threads. And I was turning it with a tiny 10mm wrench. A little more WD40 and I had just begun to see it wound completely thru when, pop. The whole brack let go. Turns out the little spring had slipped inside and was winding itself up inside the hole. So here I sit totally dejected by the whole affair. Guess my question is..can the two pieces be rewelded to the case? My short term fix is going to be to drill thru the bottom half of the mount , fit a small nut and bolt thru there with a strip of stainless metal to bed the cable end down firmly by wrapping aroung it so I can use it. That is if I can get a drill in there. I really don't want to pull the engine now. Looking for suggestions.

[DimitriT]

Not sure what you broke from your description. Did you break the threaded hole which goes into the front sprocket cover? If so you just need a new cover.

[Jethro]

A repair shop should be able to weld a new mount on there. It does need to pretty strong or you are going to have problems getting the clutch throw correct. A homebrew fix could be drilling through the case, installing some "T" nuts from inside the cases, JB welding the holes, and using that to attach a new cable bracket on.

[BRycraft]

Broken Mount

Sounds like the mount that the threaded section of the cable is what came off and from the description of you wanting to drill on the remaining half I would guess the rear portion furthest from the head is what broke.
I would be willing to bet an experienced welder can weld that back in. The key of course is having a threaded rod secured in place when it is welded so the threads are aligned and removal and or adjustments in the future can be made. Rather then use the actual clutch cable I would suggest a long bolt, most likely metric use a long bolt that is the same size as the clutch cable threaded rod and position the bolt in the broken piece of metal and secure it with maybe just a tack weld on the end to hold it in place, then place the bolt with the now tacked broken section up against the other set of threads that are still attached to the engine. Then have it welded. Since it isn't holding the world together it doesn't have to be atlas strong, however you also don't want it breaking off again because of the pressure from the cable as it pulls the clutch. Once it is welded that spot weld can be removed and the bolt should be able to be removed by unthreading it and then the clutch cable can be reinserted in it's place. The key is getting it welded so that the threads match up for the threaded rod of the clutch cable. I am only offering a guess at what I am hoping can be done, just an idea is all and maybe someone will come up with something else. Maybe JB Weld can take the place of a welder, that also might be worth a try.
Good luck and too bad, I have had difficulty and now I know to be more careful...
Bill

[bwringer]

I don't know if I'd want to be drilling through the case...

I wonder if you could fabricate something out of strips of steel that would attach to a couple of nearby case bolts and/or one of the cam chain tensioner bolts, etc.

You might be able to put the clutch actuating arm on at a different angle if that would make it easier to make a bracket. Cable routing could be tougher, though.

Hmmmmmmmm...

[Buffalo Breath]

weid

Get it welded and use the old cable to line things up, you will have to grind it down so the welder can build it up cause a surface weld wont hold up

[bwringer]

After thinking about it some more and pondering my bike a while, it does seem that you need to go on a quest to find the best welder in town. There's just not much room for jury-rigging, and the safety consequences of a suddenly broken clutch could be pretty bad.

[Rocketjock]

I agree with pretty well all your ideas. I would be concerned with drilling thru the case tho as this could cause leakage problems and I would not want filings falling in there. The bike has been off the road for a good year and. ironically, this was the last thing I had to do before test driving it. So, my hope is to gerry rig it for this year and deal with a proper fix next summer. I tracked down some long aircraft drill bits at Canadian Tire and I am going to drill a 1/8 hole thru the bottom half of the mount, insert a small nut and bolt and use something like pipe strapping wrapped over the cable end to secure it. Sure hope that'll do the trick. Otherwise it's pull the engine from the thing I just got assembled, run it into a specialty machine shop, have a tig welder weld the two pieces back in place, drill out and helicoil the new mounting nub and put the whole damn thing back together again! DOH!

[Buffalo Breath]

weld

good welder should be able to do it in the frame

[Rocketjock]

Did what I said I would. Works great. Won't need to bother with a weld job until some future time when I pull the engine to have it blasted and repainted. Question tho. Is there any way of sending pics along with these messages to show what I've done. You know. to help out the next poor bastard that do the same stupid thing?