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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Oiling clutch and brake cables.
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Message started by Ramsforever on 03/25/09 at 09:04:58

Title: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by Ramsforever on 03/25/09 at 09:04:58

Looked in the tech section but didn't see anything for this.

If I missed it, I apologize.

Is it an easy thing, or is there stuff I have to take apart?

Thanks in advance.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by prechermike on 03/25/09 at 09:31:12

Oldfeller wrote:

"For those who want to lube a cable on the cheap, do it the Savage Greg way.

Verified as a "cheap and good method" by the Yoda Institute, BTW.

Baggie, poke cable thru baggie at the corner. Rubber band wrapped over corner edge of baggie (band stretched tight). Baggie is now one with the outside jacket of the cable.

Put 1/2 cup of heavy lube oil into baggie. Seal baggie good. Suspend cable and baggie vertically with a catch pan underneath. Oil migrates from baggie through cable to drip pan, removing trash and junk as the bulk of it moves through the cable. Full saturation of heavy oil remains inside cable jacket and penetrates the moving cable completely too.

Is slow, takes a day or so to work. Works well using the HEAVIEST GEAR OILS you have around your garage so the lubrication results stick around for years and years and years.

Does not require replacement of cables with expensive new cables.

A cagey old fart can do this to a cable without even removing it from the natural run it takes down the handlebars and frame of the bike. I have done this trick to two bikes by only taking the cable end loose at the top and putting tin foil under the lower end making a "funnel tunnel" to carry the drip oil over the side of the engine down to the oil drain catch pan.

Life doesn't have to be hard or expensive unless you just WANT to do it that way.

Up to you though. Us old farts have patience enough for stuff like this. Young people tend to bust stuff when they try out our old fart tricks -- "too much foolish energy they have" sez Master Yoda.

<grin>

Oldfeller"

I oiled my clutch and throttle this way, it was simple.

Mike

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by diamond jim on 03/25/09 at 09:34:11

That's a great method. Since I've got rian forcasted for the next three days, it looks like a perfect time to oil the cables.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by Ramsforever on 03/25/09 at 09:34:10

Sounds good. Thank you!

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by diamond jim on 03/25/09 at 13:03:03

Went and set mine up. Looks like I've got two IV bags hooked to my bike! I'm using 80W-90 oil.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by diamond jim on 03/25/09 at 14:22:30

It took about 90 minutes before I started seeing the oil coming out the other end of the cables.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by diamond jim on 03/26/09 at 07:19:50

I removed the IV bags and hooked the cables back up this morning. Wow, super smooth. Much better feel. It's nice knowing the cables are well lubed with quality oil. In the past I usually sprayed WD-40 into the end using the little red straw. Of course, only some went in and the rest went everywhere else! This is so much better. Since mine's an '06 that was bought new last summer, I had figured the cables didn't need oiling yet. I can see now, and feel, that they did.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by prechermike on 03/26/09 at 07:24:05

My bike is an 87 that I have only had about 7 months with 6100 miles on it now. Obviously it was not rode alot and I doubt it had much TLC for th epast 20 years either. But it is really in good shape, I jump on and go and have gotten home everytime so far. I agree Jim, it made a lot of difference in the feel of the clutch and throttle cable.

I also adjusted the clutch cable as well, that made a huge difference also. It was something that I didn't realize needed fixing, thought it was suppose to be that way. It was OK before, but much better after.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by Digger on 03/26/09 at 19:39:05

And for those of us with less patience:

Cable Lube Tool (http://www.speedsupplies.com/accessorylistingdetailpurch.asp?item=19658)

I've had one like this (mine says YAMAHA on it) for over 30 years and it is still going strong. I like to use chain lube or Tri-Flow on my cables.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by diamond jim on 03/26/09 at 20:02:42

I've seen those. Never used them. May have to pick one up.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by Oldfeller on 03/27/09 at 02:39:02

Choice here is to spray a little chain oil into the cable (very thin when it goes in, evaporates into a film on the cable when the carrier departs) or physically move out all the trash and gorp from old lube and replace it with a deep total saturation of heavy gear oil.

(hint: your wife already has the rubber bands and baggies for free and those cans of chain lube costs you some pocket money)

Those that have used the trick are reporting the change in feel from a saturation lube job. Soon they will report on heavy gear oil being around visibly the exiting internal cable ends for months & months & months. Then they will report on how the single application lasts for years (but that should logically take some years to happen).

Savage Greg had him a good trick with the little rubber band and the baggie. Kudos to one of the old departed master fix-it trick writers -- I still miss him.

If you ever drain your brake lines totally dry and can't get your brakes to pump because of it, do the baggie trick with brake fluid instead of oil.

You can squeeze lightly on the brake fluid filled baggie and refill your brake line totally. You need to just crack the bottom banjo fitting a bit to let the air out while you lightly squeeze on the brake fluid filled baggie attached to the top banjo. Once you see that the air has stopped bubbling and you have a flow of solid fluid, snug the bottom banjo back up and you got a line full of fluid that will pump from the master cylinder for you.

Saved my butt, it did when I couldn't get a pump up to save my life.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by SV og LS on 03/28/09 at 01:29:39

5A7971737079797067150 wrote:

Savage Greg had him a good trick with the little rubber band and the baggie. Kudos to one of the old departed master fix-it trick writers -- I still miss him.

That plastic bag trick is from seventies Haynes manuals. It works well for naked bikes, although gear oil is a bit sticky compared to engine oil and collects more dust and grit at the cable ends which then ends up down the cable next time you bag oil it. With faired bikes I'm not going to remove fairings to place drip pans so I just inject 15 or 20 drops of engine oil down the cable and connect the upper end. 15 to 20 drops appears to be all it takes, there'll be 2 or 3 drops at the lower end the next day. This is cleaner and a lot quicker, no idea how long engine oil lubricates cables as I oil them annually. With old and/or never previously oiled cables I'd use a bit more oil.

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by Oldfeller on 03/28/09 at 04:49:18

Congrats to the Haynes people, congrats to Savage Greg -- it is still a good trick wherever it came from or from or from whoever teaches it to you.

(it was in the 1970's era Clymers Honda S90 book as well)

Key point of the trick is you can lube a cable with a significant amount of a long lasting oil with the cable still sitting in place on the bike.

If there happens to be a down & up loop in the cable run, well it gets completely filled up with oil and the oil stays there as a reservoir to keep suppling oil to the rest of the cable by osmosis through the cable weave itself.

Long lasting, the heavy oil baggie trick ...

Yes, you can use a lighter oil if you want to. But if you want that buttery smooth feel of a clutch cable floating in a supporting sea of 90-140 weight gear oil nothing else will substitute.

Fair warning though, our clutch cables continue to ooze the heavy gear oil for a long period of time and it winds up making little oil droplettes on the clutch to engine lever bracket that you have to mop up occasionally.

I don't mind, shows me it's still there and still working.

Side benefit is your little rubber bellows won't dry rot near a quick when they have an internal coating of heavy gear oil -- they stay nice and fresh and flexible for a long time.

I haven't noticed the grit you mention, but I am sure I am wiping it off ongoing as I have to clean the bike periodically. Have any of you who ride all year noticed that in the winter time all the little birds like to perch on your warm engine cases to warm their little cold feet up (must be like a emergency bird hostel to them little brown tweety birds)? Leave you little white presents on your cases, they do.

I have to wash my bike more in the winter than I ever have to do in the summertime .....

;D

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by craigq on 03/28/09 at 06:03:55

7D5E5654575E5E5740320 wrote:

8-)
I did this last night. Brandi's a 2008 S40, but I figure if I start this early on I should be okay later on, rather than forgetting all about lubing the cables and running into problems later on.

Thanks for the excellent tip! I didn't have any rubber bands so I taped the baggie to the cables' outer sheaths with electrical tape. Worked just as well I suppose. 80/90 gear oil as that's what I have on hand for lubing the chain on my CBR125R.

Now I've got to do this to the cables on the 125R...

Thanks again! :D

Title: Re: Oiling clutch and brake cables.
Post by diamond jim on 03/28/09 at 08:24:11

Good deal. I put about 8 ounces of oil in each bag. You could do it with less oil but I wanted the weight of the oil to push the oil thru. When I removed the bags I left the drip cups in place overnight. I've had a few drops since on the clutch cable but not since on the throttle cable. Oldfeller's description of "buttery smooth" is right on. It feels like a lighter weight clutch now, maybe like a V-Star 650 clutch.