as I was riding home tonite on the 91 E. I was topping off at around 70-75mph, and in the middle of the freeway. Im riding a bit harder than normal because I have a bag of chicken in my leather jacket and im trying to get home before it falls out (redonk I know...ahaha).  So I suddenly start to sputter on the freeway and lose speed quickly.
I hear a POP comming from either the exhaust from a rapid relase of the throttle (no gas comming down).  I start to switch the the far right lanes and eventually end up on the hazard lane with my brights on.

NOW I was pushing this tank of gas   and the first thing I thought was, dammit I should have filled up before I got on the freeway...

I look inside the tank and there is less than a quarter of the tank left.
Im thankful for that, as I wont be on the hazzard lane calling a friend..

Now I switch my raptor to reserve and give thebike a little gas as I hit the starter button. she starts right up and I exit a quarter mile down.

I hit the nearest station I can find, a 76' and fill up on thier 91.  I fill up my tank full and read the gallons number and it read : 2.245gal.
now thats a dam empty tank Id say...

So as I start her back up and start to take the side streets home, I noticed that my shifting has become much much harder...

I can fully get to the 3 gear and get to the speed limit, but down shifting was redonk!

as I got to red light hitting my shifter into the first gear was just too much. I almost was standing on the dam gear shift to get it down to 1st. then to neutral.  as I get near my pad, Im notcing it even more and more and begingin to think it was not just a simple gas problem  :'(

I park my bike and expect it,

this is what I have got:::::

-the bikes clutch seems to be working in a sense that I can pull the leaver.

-Its almost impossible to get my bike into first gear now and wont catch its gear 96% of the time

-I can fully up shift to 2nd. 3rd. and 4th. without even holding the clutch leaver.

SO, Im guessing the clutch cable went  out on me? OR I have no flippin clue at all...


Im going to see how she handle tommorw before I go to work. but what do you guys think could be the cause of this???

This is a newer* transmission and engine.

I also wanna factor in my just today recent change in shifting.
When I had my maxim yamaha, I swtiched the gears with a quick pull of the clutch and timed movement with the gear shifter and let go of the clutch fully right after I switched gears.

Now I noticed I never did this on the Savage because I dunno... I just held the clutch in longer and eased it out slowly with my fingers for a smooth acceleration.

I started switching gears like my MAXIM just this morning and was enjoying the fast movement like before, BUT I think Imight have somehow weaked the clutch in some way....

Dam, hit another bike problem  

A hand lever that moves doesn't mean much if the lever down on the engine isn't moving or moves very little.

Situations like this remind us of why it could be handy to know how to speed shift.

Not having a problem shifting up, only down... could be you're not disengaging the clutch fully.

check you clutch action, is the lever on the case between the marks?
Is the clutch lever too loose?  (too much free play)

sometimes when your oil is low or old you can have trouble shifting.

Watch the lever on the engine, pull th clutch,, how far is it moving?

Can you move it by hand?


Have a look at that shifter rod, Upshifting pulls, downshifting pushes, if its bent, pushing will flex it,

Hard to say. Seems if it was okay this morning,, it shoulda been okay tonite,, Odd symptoms, but Id have to have a look at that shift lever rod.

 
The only way to check the powdered metal eccentric (that is driven by the lever on the clutch case to push the pushrod in to release the clutch) is still in one piece is to take the silly cover off.  

This is gonna cost you a $20 gasket, so before you do it check your clutch case lever position, where is it pointing, relative to the marks on the gear case?    If you don't know what I am talking about, our old buddy Bullwinkle will show you what I mean


======================


Now we are really gonna time & date stamp all you guys -- with a fractured fairy tale like you used to get on Rocky and Bullwinkle in between the main cartoon sections.  

(you do remember Rocky and Bullwinkle, don't you?)



Once upon a time there were three little push rods  piggies......



They lived inside a gear case cover that had slop inherent in its construction.   The slop came from clearance between the eccentric cup thingie and the shaft that drove it (and a little smidgen from the fit up connection of the shaft to the lever on the outside, but just a little smidgen)

The three little pigs industriously and precisely quantified the amount of incidental slop and transferred the markings carefully to the outside of the side cover so they could easily see what exactly was going on with their slop.   They did this by trapping the eccentric flat against the case with thumb pressure and then moving the clutch arm on the outside of the case so they could study and mark where the slop started and stopped.

(slop is important to them little piggies -- they do get right hungry at times you know)







Then the little piggies carefully transferred these marks to the outside of the case with a permanent black sharpie pen.  To keep their minds straight, the three little piggies marked the start point of the real push rod contact motion with an "R" and the start of the waste portion of the incidental clearance motion with a "W".   They knew to ignore anything between the W and the R, but to  pay attention to the R point as the rod is in play compressing the clutch springs past that point.

The slight tension applied by the rubber band should eventually wind up right at the "R" mark as the various push rods are trialed as that is the start of the ideal push rod contact (when the rod is just barely in contact with the eccentric when all the waste motion slop is taken out of play).


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First the shortest little piggy climbed into the gearcase .....  and found he had no surviving adjustment left to push in the clutch at all.  He wasn't able to push on the rod at all because he was too short.  Not even getting close to the "R" mark meant there was still an air gap between the rod and the eccentric.  This little piggy was dead meat and the big bad wolf came and ate him for a bacon sandwich for his breakfast.


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The middle length little piggy climbed in next, and the lever just barely moved just a little bit to the very top edge of the good range, permitting just a little bit of possible adjustment range with the lock nuts and handle bar thumb screw.   Heck, he was barely able to push on the rod much at all.   There was some wasted air gap still involved in his motion as he missed resting on the "R" mark by a little bit.  The hungry wolf decided to wait around since the middle length piggy didn't have very long to live and would likely be pork chops by dinner time.


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Finally, the longest little piggy got into the case and the lever moved to the very start of the good range, giving the maximum possible adjustment span to the lock nuts and thumb screw.  The "R" mark showed that the rod was in light contact with the eccentric but was not pushing in the clutch springs any at this point (obviously that rubber band isn't strong enough to depress the clutch springs any).   This is an optimum clutch rod length for this particular bike at this point in time.   The big bad wolf threw up his hands as this little piggy looked very very healthy and he wasn't gonna wait around all that long as there were other bikes and other clutch rods that were gonna be lunch meat long before this one.


And the longest little piggy went wee ... wee ... wee ... all the way up to the Dragon at Deals Gap to play with the rest of the boys at the Dragon Run


     

Also the rubberband is just on a part of the bike to keep it pulled up high??