New Clutch Cable

Well, today was a fun day. I wound up finally replacing my clutch cable with one of the cables made by Magnum, in black pearl. Never took Rose apart so much before. Sure was lots of fun. Even with the joys of apartment living... and lugging tools downstairs. Really wish I had a house!

Removing the slip-on exhaust was a bit of a pain at first. Once it was removed carefully by hand, the rest became pretty straight forward for the dismantling and removing of parts.

The old gasket was cracked on the far side, not enough to cause a leak, but it was a good split down the side.  A few other signs of replacement needed were shown throughout the gasket.

Having the transmission exposed and opened was a good opportunity to clean any gunk and residue out.  With everything cleaned and ready to go. I reinstalled the clutch cable cover. Oh, I should mentioned I used some 'big' Craftsman ring pliers to remove the snap ring on the ball/ramp assembly. What a pain... I think it was the tool. Sadly I couldn't find any Knipex in my area. I'll probably return these pliers as I felt they were... But they did the job... and in the end it doesn't matter.

Then came time to reinstall the lever handle to the clutch cable... this is where it all went south rather fast for me. For some reason I couldn't get enough slack to get it back on the housing. At it's loosest I was still unable to get enough slack. I wound up reopening the cover and manually feeding it through. I wasn't expecting this to happen. Not really sure why, but it worked in the end. I wasn't pressed with time I'd have examined what was going on a little better. Darn work... in 30 minutes.... time to call in "I'll be running slightly late!"

Tightening everything back down, and double checking my torque specs and steps to make sure everything was back in place, things went real smooth afterward. .Even the slip-on exhaust slipped back on hassle free. Might have helped that I cleaned all the contacts off prior.
Note to self: Get a set of deep sockets! It would have come in handy on the ring clip for the exhaust.

Sadly with all the rush at the last bit of this project I was unable to work on polishing the cover like I had planned to do. I'll be doing that in the next day or so. Haven't really had one day off from work this month. Bike weeks around the corner though and I've requested it all! Can't wait!!!
Very fun and relaxing project. Hoping for more down the road.

I'll post some photos of the new cable when I get a chance, as mentioned earlier I had to haul it to work and didn't get a chance to do so. After a test ride, I must say the braided cable vs stock OEM is a world of difference, a lot smoother, and more responsive. I need to make another adjustment to the cable to bring the sensitivity to a similar feel to what I was using prior. Or just get used to the new feel haha.