Help needed with 93, clutch problems?

[rdbs505]

Hey everyone!

So I inherited a nearly mint 1993 Katana 1100 with 5K miles on it that belonged to my grandpa. The bike has been sitting for probably close to 20 years. Long story short, I finally got it running but it will not move!

The bike will shift into gear, but as I let the clutch out, it doesn't move. The bike can be in any gear, with the clutch all the way out and it doesn't move. It acts like every gear is neutral even though it seems to shift into all the gears with the shifter. When the bike is off, and in gear it will even roll. I haven't changed the engine oil in it yet, any ideas? Could something have corroded together, or does it sound like something is mechanically broken?

I appreciate any help or insight that is offered!

Thanks!

[DClark]

How does the lever feel? When you pull it, it should have a decent amount of resistance. I’d think it’d be near impossible to to pull in with one finger.
If that’s the case, it needs to be bled. For that matter, you need
to change every fluid ( fork, clutch , brake, motor and fork).

[rdbs505]

How does the lever feel? When you pull it, it should have a decent amount of resistance. I’d think it’d be near impossible to to pull in with one finger.
If that’s the case, it needs to be bled. For that matter, you need
to change every fluid ( fork, clutch , brake, motor and fork).

Yep the lever has a good consistent resistance kinda feel to it. I did bleed and change the fluid in that, it was one of the few things that actually went pretty smooth. I'm not ruling anything out but I'd doubt that the hydraulic clutch system has any involvement at this point. I noticed with the bike off, and in 1st gear, I can roll the bike and I hear a slight "click" kinda noise. If I roll the bike forward it will make the noise once, then go away...but If I roll forward, then stop, and go backwards it'll make it in that direction to, but only once. If that makes any sense. I don't know, just an observation. I have no idea where to start.

[DClark]

Put the bike on center stand, with bike running in first gear, see if rear wheel moves.
if it doesn’t , take off clutch activator ( I don’t know name), it is at the end of the clutch line, behind foot peg,held on by 3 Allen head bolts ( it will take maybe 2 minutes to remove)
there is a long pin in it, depressing the clutch should make it move.
if it checks out, try letting bike warm up to see if that might loosen things up ( I doubt it though but hey , easy to do!)
lastly, remove the clutch . For all you know, the previous owner might have tried to repair clutch, failed and let it sit for the last two decades.
Never assume anything!

[rdbs505]

Put the bike on center stand, with bike running in first gear, see if rear wheel moves.
if it doesn’t , take off clutch activator ( I don’t know name), it is at the end of the clutch line, behind foot peg,held on by 3 Allen head bolts ( it will take maybe 2 minutes to remove)
there is a long pin in it, depressing the clutch should make it move.
if it checks out, try letting bike warm up to see if that might loosen things up ( I doubt it though but hey , easy to do!)
lastly, remove the clutch . For all you know, the previous owner might have tried to repair clutch, failed and let it sit for the last two decades.
Never assume anything!

Ok, so on the center stand the bike starts and goes into gear. The rear wheel moves pretty fast once I put it in gear, however it does not spin faster if I twist the throttle. Does that mean the clutch is slipping? I also noticed with the bike not running, and on the center stand, that if I put it in gear and try to move the wheel by hand its difficult to do. The bike warm and up to operating temperature didn't seem to loosen anything up. I do know that the previous and only ever owner of the bike, my gpa..never had any clutch issues with it so atleast theres that lol. I will remove the clutch actuator and see if the long pin moves. I'll move on to the clutch next if that checks out. I appreciate your input, I don't have a manual or much knowledge about these machines but I'm learning!

[DClark]

One of the characteristics of the katana 1100 is that you pull in
the clutch and the wheel keeps spinning - that’s from the motor oil spinning around.
That you have difficulty turning the wheel , but it doesn’t move faster with more throttle to me sounds like you should pull the clutch out.

[DClark]

Here’s a thought -
perhaps the owner left the bike in gear.
that means the plate with the springs has been pushing against the clutch for two decades.
Now, those poor springs are weak, you can’t get enough pressure on those plates to move the bike.
Now, I have never gone into my clutch , I’ll do that this fall.
if I were you, I’d probably :
1) drain the motor oil
2) remove the clutch cover
3) pull out clutch. As you take it apart, Mark each plate with a sharpee/ permanent marker
look at the clutch plates - are they smooth and shiny? If so, replace
look at the steel plates - any bluin? Dump if they do . Lay them on a piece of glass( pull a 8x10 picture off the wall if you must) any steel plate that does not lay flat should be tossed.)
look at the spring plate - I don’t know what spec is for that but there is a manual on line in this forum.
lastily, I hope you didn’t put in some 5-30 car oil into the bike.
thats all I got.

[shpielers]

+1
before taking the clutch all the way apart, with just the cover off, squeeze the lever a few times and watch the clutch- is it moving at all? When releasing, does it look like all the plates are '''relaxing' equally? Some of them might be sticking together after so much time left in gear.
If you're wanting to try cheapest things first and eliminate 1 thing at a time, those are free. Might just have to take it apart and separate out everything so they don't stick anymore. At that point, next easiest/cheapest is likely new clutch springs. DC is right, springs left under compression eventually weaken.

On that note, I'd recommend replacing your timing adjustment spring. Completely unrelated. I did mine as a preventative measure - had about a ~5mm difference between relaxed states between old and new.

[DClark]

Where’s this spring located?

[rdbs505]

Here’s a thought -
perhaps the owner left the bike in gear.
that means the plate with the springs has been pushing against the clutch for two decades.
Now, those poor springs are weak, you can’t get enough pressure on those plates to move the bike.
Now, I have never gone into my clutch , I’ll do that this fall.
if I were you, I’d probably :
1) drain the motor oil
2) remove the clutch cover
3) pull out clutch. As you take it apart, Mark each plate with a sharpee/ permanent marker
look at the clutch plates - are they smooth and shiny? If so, replace
look at the steel plates - any bluin? Dump if they do . Lay them on a piece of glass( pull a 8x10 picture off the wall if you must) any steel plate that does not lay flat should be tossed.)
look at the spring plate - I don’t know what spec is for that but there is a manual on line in this forum.
lastily, I hope you didn’t put in some 5-30 car oil into the bike.
thats all I got.

Thanks guys for the input, I appreciate all the ideas.

So I went back through and completely cleaned the hydraulic clutch master cylinder.. I disassembled and cleaned the slave cylinder or whatever its called as well. For some reason the lever feels good with a slight amount of free play, until I let it slap back a few times..then it gets firm like its building up pressure and the clutch pull becomes really stiff. Anyhow, it might be normal for this system..I'm not sure.

I finally got the engine oil drained and the clutch cover off. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it, but the clutch is moving. I'm not sure how much. I'm going to try and investigate a little more today and will update later. Again, thanks guys I appreciate your input!

[rdbs505]

+1
before taking the clutch all the way apart, with just the cover off, squeeze the lever a few times and watch the clutch- is it moving at all? When releasing, does it look like all the plates are '''relaxing' equally? Some of them might be sticking together after so much time left in gear.
If you're wanting to try cheapest things first and eliminate 1 thing at a time, those are free. Might just have to take it apart and separate out everything so they don't stick anymore. At that point, next easiest/cheapest is likely new clutch springs. DC is right, springs left under compression eventually weaken.

On that note, I'd recommend replacing your timing adjustment spring. Completely unrelated. I did mine as a preventative measure - had about a ~5mm difference between relaxed states between old and new.

Good idea..

Once I figure out the clutch problem, I'll have to take a look into that spring. I'll probably have to order parts anyhow, so I'll just toss one in the basket. I'm also dealing with some sort of issue on cyl.1 and 2, as I've noticed all 4 cylinders are getting spark but for some reason the headers coming off cyl 1 and 2 are only getting about 150 degrees vs 650-700 on the other two. Lots of fun! So I'm curious as well, which spring is this exactly and where is it located? Thanks !!

[DClark]

If you have to pump a few times to get resistance, you have air in the line, need to bleed it.
if bike was sitting for 20 years with gas ( even gas treated with Stabil or similar), the carbs need to be yanked and give a serious cleaning .

[rdbs505]

If you have to pump a few times to get resistance, you have air in the line, need to bleed it.
if bike was sitting for 20 years with gas ( even gas treated with Stabil or similar), the carbs need to be yanked and give a serious cleaning .

Yeah its been bled a few times, and both ends of the system have been cleaned and re-assembled. Its firm always, what I'm saying is that when I squeeze the lever the first time after bleeding it its firm, and has a couple mm of free play. If when I squeeze the lever and let it slap back a few times, it gets much firmer and the free play goes away. Like its building pressure somewhere. The carbs have been pulled, cleaned, and rebuilt with new carb kit. Gonna take a look at clutch side tonight. Thx!

[DClark]

The clutch should always have resistance to it. If you have to squeeze it a few times, you’ve got air in the line.
if you’ve bled it a lot and it still does this, you’ve still got air. There is a banjo bolt ( I think ) near the fluid resovour, crack it open there.
This bike will need a lot of work. The rear shock is likely lacking nitrogen, send out for rebuild. The valves will need to be adjusted , carbs synched. And those tires might be 26 year old rotted out rubber, toss them, they’ll kill you.

[shpielers]

Where’s this spring located?

The cam chain tensioner is right under the carbs. 2 small bolts (5mm hex) hold in the mechanism, 1 big one (20ish mm) for loosening it to reset. There's write ups for how to reset (needed if the spring will be replaced) on here. I'd recommend looking at them - it's been a while since I've done it, and those write ups are what I used to do it
It applies pressure to the timing chain and automatically applies more as the chain stretches over time. There's manual versions that seemed to be popular amongst the wrench heads back in the early days of this site.