I'm posting this to see if there's a consensus on where I should look first to identify my problem.
Bike is "The Moonraker" my 1985 FXRS. I bought her brand new in 1985 and other than exhaust and Carb. and the 1999 crate motor she got after the first 185,000...she's pretty much stock. I've ridden this bike 285,000 mi....she's not a garage queen by any means. About a month or so back, I had her in a local independent shop to have the Stator and Voltage regulator replaced.
When I got her back, I noticed the clutch handle was "Snug" against the bracket...the 1/8" of normal play wasn't there. OK...the clutch was releasing at the "top" of the range of motion of the clutch handle. Pull it in about an inch, and shift. No problem. I rode for a while and noticed the point of disengagement seemed to be self-adjusting...I had to pull the clutch in farther to get it to disengage. Hmmmm.
I went ahead and went through my normal clutch adjustment procedure and everything returned to normal. When I did that, I made sure to leave the 1/8" of free play in the handle. Rode on. By now I've put 250-300 mi. on the bike since it left the shop. Yesterday I took her for a ride and noticed the clutch "self-adjusting" again. By the time I got her home, I had to pull the handle all the way to the left grip...and as I pulled into my driveway..even that wasn't enough to get it to disengage.
I haven't had time to open anything up yet, and thought I'd post here to see where some of you more experienced folks would look first.
Thanks for your thoughts.

 

First thought is congratulations on owning a bike from new for so long and also your considerable mileage. My suspicions are there is something bad going on in the clutch itself or your operating mechanism, however my 1990 clutch is different to yours, so I can't read across with any confidence. I was horrified to discover, when dismantling my primary a while ago to replace the stock clutch with Barnett +1 plates, that my pressure plate was failing, which is one possibility. Anyway our experts such as Dr H will be along soon with a more expert analysis.

 

Sounds like your throw out bearing for your clutch is bad. It's a relatively easy job to replace. It's immediately under the clutch cover where you cable goes in on the trans... Here's a link of an exploded view. parts are 5,7,9 and 10.

http://partsfinder.onlinemicrofiche....ISSION%20GEARS

 

i have an 85 flhtc. i had the same problem. i would say the throw out bearing is toast. with the bike sitting on the kick stand, take the cover off the right side of the transmission. under the trans cover there will be the throw out bearing, just pull it out. it's 2 hardened washers around a very small bearing. if there's no bearing in there it's shot. it's a 1/2 an hour job to fix it. check the clutch fingers too they're attached to the clutch arm that enters through the top of the trans cover. i carry a spare throw out bearing and a spare clutch fingers. once you get in there you will see how easy it is to fix.

 

Ding..Ding..Ding...We have a winner..!!
Thanks folks. Sure enough, I pulled the right side cover off this morning and found the bearing has failed. The inner thrust washer is virtually "welded" onto the right side push rod end, and there are significant gouges in the contact face of the clutch release finger.
Fortunately...I already have everything in my saddlebags to put it all back together with new parts and get her back on the road. Those parts are a permanent part of my "road kit", and yes...I'm ordering 2 more of each today in order to have 1 set in the saddlebags, and one set on the shelf. It's been my observation over the years that parts for this bike are getting difficult to locate and especially so when you're in B.F.E. in the middle of the night..!! I've been criticized for the amount of "Stuff" I carry...but I prefer to be prepared. Thanks for the comments. ya'll hit it right on the head.

 

if you're out on the road and the bearing goes out, if you can get the bike to lean over far enough, you shouldn't lose any oil out of the trans when you take the side cover off.

 

Living in Upstate NY I was a dedicated snowmobiler as well as Harley enthusiast and always carried everything but the kitchen sing in the boot... Was criticised a lot but didn't really care what others thought. Slowly my cell phone would ring more and more while out on the trails.... Kinda liked helping my friends and people in general.. and Yea I carried food as well... You never know...

 

When clutch stack height adjustment goes out of adjustment the throwout arm and bearing will break soon enough.

 

Tomfiii's comment got me to thinking..(Thanks).
A little over a month and 600 mi. ago...my local independent shop replaced the stator, voltage regulator, and clutch hub bearing for me. When I got the bike back, I noticed that when adjusting the clutch after putting her back together...they had the clutch handle very "Snug" against the bracket..ZERO free play. The clutch released with very little movement of the handle. I went ahead and rode 600 mi. without re-adjusting to put the 1/8th in. of free play back into the handle as called for in the manual.
Now I'm wondering if having no free play in the clutch handle could be causing that throw-out bearing to wear prematurely..??
I'm not trying to throw blame, or go back at the shop...just learn more for my own benefit.

 

Yes. It is not made to continuously ride on the ramps. One needs to remember that the main shaft is always spinning when running. the bearing is there to momentarily engage against the ramp for the time it takes to shift. Not constantly...