Clutch and neutral

[Fire-medic]

Most of the time I'd say it's either the master cyl or the slave cyl starting to go bad, allowing air into the system. A stock, new master cyl or slave isn't that expensive and it's always fixed it. I have tried rebuilding both, and half the time it doesn't work, so I end up buying a new hydraulic cyl anyway.

Sometimes you get lucky and it's just low fluid, requiring a refill and a good bleed. I used to use my Mityvac, but I have found it's easier to backflush w/a 60 ml syringe & a short length of clear plastic tubing hose-clamped to the slave bleeder nipple. The back flush method was suggested by another member, and after trying it, I have found it works better/more-quickly to bleed the clutch slave/master setup than my Mityvac use did, not sure why, maybe something to do w/the design of the system & air becoming trapped where the upward-movement of fluid helps the air bubbles/pockets to dislodge and migrate upstream to the master cyl.

 

[Diablotin]

Today I changed my brake pads and re-aligned my master just in case. Surprisely during the short ride I took for testing the brakes, the clutch issue was gone.
That's a surprise since the level of fluid wasn't low. So maybe I'm lucky after all let's see...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Fire-medic]

By "re-aligned," I assume you mean you repositioned it's location on the handlebars, to move the lever up or down from where it was? I found on my FZR1000 which uses the same clutch & brake master cylinders as my VMax, that running the brake fluid low in the reservoir and w/the large or small holes inside the reservoir not covered w/fluid will allow air into the system, resulting in a lever being spongy or coming back closer to the handlebar. It happens on my FZR1000 if the level is low because it only has a side stand.

While working on my VMax yesterday to lube the eccentric cam on the side stand switch, it occurred to me that you could wire-in a switch installed in an inconspicuous place to keep the bike from being driven even if the stand was retracted, and once the bike was put into gear, if someone tried to hotwire it. Of course, no good for a rollaway theft w/a dead engine.

Today I changed my brake pads and re-aligned my master just in case. Surprisely during the short ride I took for testing the brakes, the clutch issue was gone.
That's a surprise since the level of fluid wasn't low. So maybe I'm lucky after all let's see...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Diablotin]

By "re-aligned," I assume you mean you repositioned it's location on the handlebars, to move the lever up or down from where it was? I found on my FZR1000 which uses the same clutch & brake master cylinders as my VMax, that running the brake fluid low in the reservoir and w/the large or small holes inside the reservoir not covered w/fluid will allow air into the system, resulting in a lever being spongy or coming back closer to the handlebar. It happens on my FZR1000 if the level is low because it only has a side stand.

While working on my VMax yesterday to lube the eccentric cam on the side stand switch, it occurred to me that you could wire-in a switch installed in an inconspicuous place to keep the bike from being driven even if the stand was retracted, and once the bike was put into gear, if someone tried to hotwire it. Of course, no good for a rollaway theft w/a dead engine.

I changed the bar for something more upright and put back the ZX14 masters.
Less spongy and I don't miss the neutral so far. The weird part is the level wasn't low. But the issue could have been similar.

Interesting, where do you wire that switch ?

 

[Fire-medic]

The side stand switch, I believe you could just wire it into one of the leads from the side stand switch, in series, if I am not mistaken, and put the switch somewhere where you can easily reach it but its function would not be apparent or easily located. Maybe something in the vicinity of the choke lever, facing down? A mini toggle or a rocker switch to just open/close one leg of the side stand switch should do it. Anyone else have any ideas about it?