I replaced the stator over the last winter. When I got it all back together, the clutch was releasing way out. Much farther then it did before the stator replacement. All summer it has been like this, and I had no problems. But now in the last 3 days. The clutch is releasing near the grip. And sometimes it's "squeaks" when I pull it. It also seems a lot harder to pull. It isn't "slipping" or popping out of gear, but it seems much harder to get into neutral.

Is my clutch just out of adjustment, or does it need replaced? The bike is 10 years old and has 26,000 miles on it.

 

I suggest you stop riding it until you can check the clutch Spring Plate.
Your symptoms of the clutch lever engagement position changing like it is, sounds very much like a Spring Plate failing. If caught early enough, it's not to expensive to repair, but if the plate is failing and you keep riding it, you'll be looking at replacing the entire clutch basket.

 

I'm off this weekend, so I will take it apart and see what's up.

I was hoping you, cHarley would answer. You seem to know the most about Sportsters on this forum. Thanks for your incite.

 

in the 60's the saying was eric clapton was god! in 2013 cHarley is god! cheers from montana

 

I agree with cHarley as I do most of the time. The sping plate in my clutch went at about 15K and like 3 years old. When mine went the clutch was harder to pull, the bike would move in gear even with the clutch pulled all the way in and was super hard to get out of gear. I got lucky as the basket was fine. I replaced the stock clutch with the SE clutch and would do it over and over again. Much stronger clutch, it's a bit cheaper than the stock one and does not have the spring plate in it to break again.

 

You might find this old thread helpful.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sport...tch-alert.html

I don't come on here as much as in the past. I got tired of all the silly questions about "what else can I chop off my bike?" etc

cHarley is a great guy, and fun to ride with also.

 

I took apart the side of the trans today. I got the clutch housing off but I see you need special tools to actually get to the inside of the clutch itself. I have a buddy that's an indy and he said he would look at it to find out what's up with it.

When I drained the fluid, the bolt had all kinds of metal shavings and the magnet.

 

Not unusual to have shavinging on the drain plug. That's why they made it a magnet.

 

Too tight primary chain will make finding neutral difficult as well.

 

I've changed the fluid before and I also had it apart for the stator replacement. This time there was WAY more metal on the plug