I had something strange happen to me on my ride yesterday. Earlier in the day a friend commented that I had a little too much slack in my clutch cable. Later, on a hard climb, I lost the clutch all together. The slack was gone, actually tight to the point where it was allowing the clutch to slip. We had adjust things at the leaver as well as the adjuster in the cable itself. We were able to get it loose enough to finish the ride and get back to the truck.

What would make the adjustment go from loose to too tight? There were no kinks in the cable. Leaver action felt smooth. Couldn't feel any roughness when pulling the leaver. The connector in the clutch case didn't look bent. When riding after adjusting the cable, it felt fine. Anyone ever experience this before? Warped clutch plates or something?

Edit: 2018KLX250

Toph

 

My understanding is the clutch was fine until you adjusted the slack out of the cable? After that it started slipping while on the uphill climb. Sounds to me like you accidentally over tightened the clutch cable which caused the clutch to overheat and start slipping. Was the clutch engaging smoothly prior to the adjustment? No clunking, or grinding of gears when you shifted from neutral to first? No creeping along when in gear with clutch lever pulled in?
As much as you guys are riding the very tight technical trails and mountains, the engine has to lug an awful lot to get you over logs, rocks and such. This slow slugging along and slipping the clutch really heats up the oil and clutch plates. Are you running synthetic oil? Since it seemed to return to normal service it may have been an isolated incident caused from the adjustment and particular area you were riding at the time. If it happens again, I would pull the side cover and inspect the plates for hot spots which would indicate warped plates. While its apart consider replacing the warped plates and installing the Barnett Clutch Spring kit many of the guys use after upgrading to the 300 or 351 kits. Hope this helps and keep us posted.

 

Thanks for the response. The clutch cable free play never came back so I'm thinking maybe the plate/s got warped. Not sure if I would feel that but it felt fine riding it out of the woods. Im going to drain the oil and pull the cover regardless. Don't feel comfortable taking it back out until I figure out the issue.

Toph