How To Adjust A Harley Foot Clutch

[@robh9343]

I don't even have a foot clutch, I just really like to listen to the way Grease explains his how to videos and all of the steps needed. It's so easy to follow and he definitely knows his stuff!! Great job!

[@greasesgarage]

Thank you Rob I really appreciate that 🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@RickBraidwood]

The pushrod adjusting screw is for adjusting pushrod end play (1/4 to 1/2 turn out from lightly seated). This endplay is to prevent the pushrod throwout bearing from burning up. The spring retainer nuts are for compressing the clutch springs to the proper installed height/pressure. My Barnett heavy-duty clutch springs have a 1-1/2" free length and have 68 pounds of pressure at their installed height of 1-1/8". With the pushrod adjusting screw set, and locknut tightened, and spring pressure adjusted....measure from the clutch release arm mounting point to the mounting point on the foot clutch pedal. With the pedal in the position you want, you may have to lengthen, shorten, or fabricate a new rod/chain or whatever you'd like to use, to achieve the pedal position you desire. That's it! You're done. Bang 'dem gears!

[@panheadsforever74]

Its cool to see younger guys like you runnin a foot clutch. great video

[@greasesgarage]

Thanks man! Once it’s dialed in it really makes riding so much more exciting

[@elvisquanbeck]

Hearing and seeing how the adjuster screw activates the clutch helped out big!

[@greasesgarage]

Glad to hear it man! I know I never understood it til I had this open primary and got to see it firsthand

[@LOLjerel]

Great video ! You can check clutch release with a dial indicator on the adj screw of clutch then engage clutch fully end gap should be about .084" gap as not to over extend pressure plate , You can adj linkage geometry lengths .

[@greasesgarage]

Good tip man thank you!

[@dustinbeck3807]

Hell yes. This type of break down is exactly what hooked me with the podcast 🤘 Absolutely love being able to hear your breakdowns and walk throughs still!🎉

[@greasesgarage]

Glad to hear it brotha! These are my favorite videos to make and it’s much easier to go through it with the video element now. More walkthroughs to come 🤘🏼🤘🏼

[@HighwayBully3669]

You and your videos have been inspirational, informative and oddly enough, exciting (gear head shyte) After modifying my 2014 sporty to a rear leg jockey shift with foot clutch, ran into hard first gear and hole shot clutch release. Your video is the only one that addressed the foot clutch with detail. Can't wait to make that adjustment and go screaming down the road. Keep up the excellent work!!!

[@greasesgarage]

So happy to hear that the video stands out from the others on the topic. It’s always been my goal to make the complex simple. We get too stuck in the rhythm of “set it to factory spec” and for things like this it’s so important to know what does what so people can ENJOY their foot clutches. Let me know how it goes and if there’s anything you need just reach out

[@degonzoman]

The primary belt being too tight was exactly the problem I had with my 47. If I would have seen this video before it would have saves me hours of fiddling with clutch. Great videos. Keep your foot in it

[@greasesgarage]

So glad to hear this man! It drove me crazy too and everybody told me it had nothing to do with the belt but I loosened it anyways and fixed it. Had to put that info out for the world 🌎🙏🏼

[@degonzoman]

@@greasesgarage My new dilemma is my 97 Evo with a primo 3” belt that I have been running for 20 yrs is now tight. It has a solid 1 piece backing plate, no adjustment and no issues with clutch walk. Everyone I talk to has no clue. The day starts off with the proper amount of play, 100 miles later it’s tight. I re torqued the motor and primary but no change. I’m just gonna run it and see what happens.

[@greasesgarage]

@@degonzoman that’s interesting, I’ve never run a belt without a separate trans allowing it to adjust

[@degonzoman]

@@greasesgarage I’m running a baker 6 speed with a Premo brute IV that has a solid backing plate back in the day. They’re two piece adjustable nowadays.

[@Scummy_shovel]

@@degonzomanso you can’t adjust the trans to set the belt tension? I have never seen a setup where it’s not adjusted

[@MrMeatball052]

Another killer tutorial! I'll be in my garage most of the day tomorrow wrenching. No foot clutch for me though.....yet....

[@greasesgarage]

Haha I will keep trying til I get everyone to try it. Thanks for the kind words tho man happy it made it simple

[@bobbya8438]

Great vid I have a 59 pan with a 65 trans foot clutch hand shift full suicide just replaced my clutches had to adjust the foot clutch all the way back cause the clutch wouldn’t disengage but theres no nubbs on the pressure plate ( aftermarket) I just use nylock crown nuts ) and measure carefully ……good to go

[@Forlornnn]

Hey man, i'm having trouble with my 4speed transmission/bdl clutch on my cone shovel. I made a foot clutch setup and it seems to keep jumping out of neutral into gear, it happens even when im trying to kick start the bike. Any insight would be appreciated.

[@greasesgarage]

I don’t think that jumping out of gear would be related to the jockey shifting but more about what’s inside the transmission itself, it could need a rebuild

[@Uri_Fregz]

I love the sound of my dry clutch on the shovel, except mine isn’t that noticeable. I wonder if there is a way to make it louder?

[@greasesgarage]

This is the correct question to ask haha. Love it. These are drag specialities plates, the inexpensive ones. Maybe that’s the secret

[@Uri_Fregz]

@@greasesgarage do you run both the friction and steel from drag specialties?

[@jamesdejean6548]

Remove the rattlers

[@sies2371]

my clutch grips fairly high on the pedal at idle, but when i ride the clutch drags when fully pressed in ... any tips?

[@greasesgarage]

If I'm understanding what you're saying correctly, it sounds like there isn't enough total throw to disengage your clutch, even though the pedal travel is fairly long. Is that correct? If so, I'd want to know how long your pedal is and where on that pedal the pull mechanism is attached. You need more twist of your clutch arm. If the rod attached to your pedal is only halfway up the pedal, move it to the very top so you're getting the full pull out of it. If the pedal is very short, use a longer pedal to give you more travel. Let me know if this helps

[@RCASSIN]

Great videos! I have a 42 WLA and it grinds while attempting to put it in 1st gear. Any thoughts on how to adjust that? Thanks

[@greasesgarage]

Usually happens when the clutch isn’t fully disengaging the plates. I would check your clutch throw to make sure the plates are separated.

[@davidbones8947]

Please show a evo 5 speed foot clutch conversion can i use a chain primary i live in So Oregon rain dirt roads i would like to cover the primary thants

[@greasesgarage]

I will try to get my hands on an evo 5 speed setup but it’ll be down the road because nobody I know has one. As for chain primary yes absolutely. You don’t need to go open primary to run a jockey shift

[@MartinHelmreich-f9s]

is this adjustment similar to a clutch from an VL 1931 ?

[@greasesgarage]

Not exactly the same but very similar

[@miketothewright]

Loving your videos, they’ve all been super helpful, thank you! Keep up the awesome work man

[@greasesgarage]

Thanks brotha, I appreciate the kind words 🙏🏼

[@CalebGus]

Anyone know why the clutch is so loud when depressed? I look forward to doing a foot clutch, but is it possible to do without that grinding/scraping sound?

[@greasesgarage]

Yes. The sound you’re hearing is the clutch plates chattering against each other, this is distinctive of the dry clutch of the open primary. With a closed oil soaked primary the oil dampens that sound so you don’t hear it, so you could do a foot clutch with a closed primary and you wouldn’t hear the sound. Though I’ll admit, at chopper shows you hear the sound all day long and if you spend enough time around these chopper shows you’ll eventually want to have it yourself haha. Give it time

[@1Badbiker]

Hi bro , I used your knowhow to setup the rockerclutch I instald on my 1973 shovel.Normaly on a cable opperated clutch I whould set the clutch pushrod to nearly thigth and then back it off for some freeplay , on the rockerclutch I had to do what you mentioned and srew the clutch pushrod way in to make the clutch disingage ! it works but is this to much stress on the clutch release bearing ? hope to hear from ya. Fred from the Netherlands.

[@greasesgarage]

Hey Fred, Glad to hear you got the clutch working! As far as the stress on the clutch, you want to make sure it only pulls JUST far enough to disengage the clutch, no further. So back it out a little bit and see if it still works, if it does, back it out a little more and repeat until it doesn’t then turn it back in. That’s your perfect setting 👌🏼

[@1Badbiker]

Thanks bro , so if there is pressere on the pushrod iff needed thats oke ?

[@Rif_Leman]

Just FYI: Starret is pronounced "Stare it" and a machinist ruler is referred to as a scale. My bone stock 1999 Softail clutch WILL NOT function properly when adjusted to the factory manual specs. I had to learn the proper finness for MY clutch.

[@greasesgarage]

It’s definitely a “feel it out” type of thing. Springs wear out over time and lose tension, plates wear down with friction and shrink up, there’s too many factors at play. But when I was struggling to set mine up all I heard from everyone was the same old “buy a manual” speech so hopefully this video (and your confirmation) is enough for people to try tweaking their own setups. Thanks for the input brotha

[@Rif_Leman]

@@greasesgarage Just to be clear: I encourage every rider and/or builder to have the factory service manuals and factory parts catalogs for their machine . If their machine is a swap meet special, then at least get the factory parts catalogs that cover the parts from which their machine is built. Having these books/pdfs/whatever will provide invaluable information and will pay for themselves many times over if your wrench your own ride. My 1999 Softail clutch will not function properly when adjusted to fac man specs, BUT, fac man specs got me into the ball park so that I could figure out what needed to be done.

[@kalaniortiz3063]

Hey grease, love the vids and the way you give simple info and instruction. I was wondering if you knew how to determine what belt you need for your application? Ive looked for something like that on forums and can’t find an answer. I have an open belt assembly on the way and wanna make sure I get it right.

[@kalaniortiz3063]

* specifically how many teeth my belt should be. I see a lot of different amount of teeth options for 1.5” belts.

[@greasesgarage]

Great question, did you order a kit or just the pulleys? What bike is it going on

[@kalaniortiz3063]

@@greasesgarage I’m just getting a set of used pulleys and didn’t come with belt and seller didn’t have any info to help with. Gonna be running this on my 1973 shovelhead and ratchet 4 speed.

[@greasesgarage]

I'll have to do some more digging on this but you'll want to determine whether your pulleys are for an 11mm belt or 8mm. That distance is from tooth to tooth on the belt itself. As far as why there are two options and which you'd choose for which situation, I can't say. I just know that the only one available for my evo/shovelhead combo was an 8mm which was marketed as being for 4 speed tranmission kickstart only. @@kalaniortiz3063

[@jorgequiros1310]

Hey man, i find your videos really helpful, I got a question, do you have any tip to how to adjust the primary belt ? Cheers

[@greasesgarage]

Thanks man. So in this video I showed you the benchmark I use for where the tension should be, but as far as how you’d make those adjustments, I will have to do another video to show that. I’ll add it to the list

[@jorgequiros1310]

I found the problem, I wasn’t able to find neutral easy or to go to the gears while the bike got hot, it was all in the clutch adjustment, and I sanded off a little bit the fingers of the clutch hub, now is working as it should be, thanks

[@greasesgarage]

@jorgequiros1310 that’s great to hear! Congrats on getting it solved brotha

[@EricOsborn-b6n]

You solved my problem. Would have never thought to loosen my belt

[@greasesgarage]

Glad to hear it!

[@ryanm6947]

How do you adjust the belt?

[@greasesgarage]

I’ll film a video on this

[@ryanm6947]

Cool thanks!

[@russellsalinas295]

Great info. Thx for sharing this!

[@greasesgarage]

Glad it was helpful!

[@BostonScreamer]

oh my god, im tinkering with my shovel tomorrow. Maybe this will help make my foot clutch feel less like and on-off switch

[@greasesgarage]

It 100% will. The tighter you make those clutch nuts the more it becomes and on off switch so start by backing those out! 🤘🏼

[@dilo777]

Also if you set your clutch hub nuts to where you like the throw of your clutch but experience slipping in high gear…You should tighten those nuts. But only enough to get rid of any slipping

[@greasesgarage]

Good call!

[@erikrapoport7318]

First, its a 6 inch SCALE or a 6 inch RULE, and its pronounced STARE-IT. But you knew i would chime in

[@greasesgarage]

No it’s not! 😂

[@patrickjordan7547]

Hey thanks man very informative

[@greasesgarage]

Thanks Patrick

[@theoneracer2716]

Your wrong on spring tension nuts... they are not there to set pedal.throw but they apply pressure for disc compaction not to set pedal engagement thrown

[@1955porsche]

very impressed

[@greasesgarage]

@@1955porsche thank you 🙏🏼

[@anthonysmalawipredators8794]

I need to get an extra one of those linkage ends for the cowpie so you can weld it for me. I don't wana pull mine apart when i'm not fully prepared to build the set up. Then my shovel would be down untill I get off my lazy ass lol I'd rather have the piece that needs weld work done and on deck that way when i'm ready to jump into the project I have that piece already

[@greasesgarage]

100% man if you can source a spare one on eBay I’ll make up a shifter for ya with it

[@anthonysmalawipredators8794]

​@@greasesgaragesweet thanks man! I'll keep my eyes peeled for one. I can't say it enough, your explanations are so thorough and simplified that it really does give me quite a bit of confidence when I start wrenching. I hate videos where they tell you 3/4 of the steps then just skip to the end when they're finished. Like why tf even bother making a "how-to" video in the first place lol

[@greasesgarage]

@@anthonysmalawipredators8794 I hear that brotha! When I was getting started in this and learning the basics I always felt like the way people explained it was overly complicated. It takes a surprising amount of time to make the videos seem simple lol, but in the end I’m happy to hear that it’s coming through as clear as I’m trying to make it 🙏🏼

[@hippieschoppercorner]

You saved my ass wity this video

[@greasesgarage]

🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼

[@platinumtreeservice2872]

The clutch adjustment bolt? Oh well that's how you adjust the pitch of the horn.

[@JdAldaco]

Service manuals seldom apply to custom applications in my experience

[@greasesgarage]

So true, but it’s amazing how often people will tell you to reference them for those applications

[@txhc666]

I've seen people use a chain.

[@greasesgarage]

Yes many use a chain but do note you won’t see the pedal raising effect you’re seeing in this video if you used a chain

[@txhc666]

@@greasesgarage thank you. I'm building my first chopper

[@theoneracer2716]

You are incorrect about clutch adjuster center screw..its used to elimnate all play in pushrod assemblys but not some much as to preload the throw out bearing(premature failure)..dont mislead the public to failure.

[@MicahBell_1860]

I'll go rhythm

[@BlainesGarage]

So much wrong information in this video.

[@greasesgarage]

If you say so

[@gertkristensen6451]

worst bike ever