Neutral hard to find when warm?

[darren51274]

Hi, just having a little problem selecting neutral when engine is warm on my 2003 fzs1000.

When cold can always select it no problem, as bike warms up becomes increasingly hard to find neutral.
No problem selecting any other gears hot or cold.

Have tried adjusting clutch etc but has made no difference.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and any fixes????

Thanks Darren

[dazza]

Might just be a case of adjusting your tickover a little higher, I have had this problem before and that's what it was on mine.
I may be wrong but I think 1150 to 1250 rpm is about the norm, any lower and it can be tricky to find neutral.
Welcome to the site btw. 

[b1k3rdude]

check the following -

• the metal clutch plates for warping
• the clutch basket for wear on the finger where the friction plates rest against it.

Either will cause clutch drag, (because the clutch isn;t fully disengaging) which can then make it hard to find neutral.

Also check if the end-plug is missing from the clutch main-shaft -

- http://foc-u.co.uk/index.php/topic,13825.0.html

[redrat]

IF the clutch isn't dragging an just hard to find neutral may well be the return spring that has failed

[bludclot]

fitting a genuine new clutch cable made my neutral much easier to find. the only down side is the cost of the cable.

[Falcon 269]

IF the clutch isn't dragging an just hard to find neutral may well be the return spring that has failed

Usually a broken return spring will give problems with selecting all gears, not just neutral.

[Billy Balthorpe]

Not had that much experience with a Fazer engine, but a dragging clutch causing difficulty in selecting neutral is usually clutch plate related if you have already discounted all the obvious stuff like return springs etc. If it was a hydraulic clutch I would suspect air in the system. But the Gen 1 is cable.
The clutch doesn't have to be dragging much to make it difficult to select neutral, have you tried running the bike with the clutch in with it off the ground, just to make absolutely sure?

[darren51274]

Hi all and thanks for the replies ...

Been out today and as suggested by Dazza with the idle speed raised slightly it will indeed go into neutral 8 out of 10 times..

Will try bike up on stand and make sure clutch is not dragging next time i'm on the bike but with other things going on doubt it will be for a week or two.

The problem is not that bad or  too inconvenient at the moment so probably wont go as far as opening up clutch assembly etc just yet.

Thanks for all the help..

[davey boy]

I had this on my ktm and it was simply slightly too much oil in the sump after I had done a service
Worth checking