Got a zx12 with new clutch cable and new fibers and steels, adjusted to book settings and when the lever is pulled in I can see the stack move but it will not release from the motor.

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1. Place in 1st gear.
2. Pull lever in.
3. Walk the bike and see if clutch center 13087 moves together with 13187.
4. See if 13095 moves [out] with the clutch center. If not, only the pressure plate moves out, then you are good to go.
5. As you push the bike, let the lever out and does the bike stop moving with lever all the way out? That says nut 92015 did not back out and walk with the clutch center.

http://www.kawasakipartsnation.com/oemparts/a/kaw/500b2741f8700223e47918a9/clutch

* Last updated by: Hub on 12/4/2014 @ 9:50 AM *

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46102 hooks into 13102. No hook into each other, lots of slack at the cable.
If 92046 or 92025 is missing, this too will cause more slack at the cable.

'Not release from the motor' is to ask:
1. Where is the lever in all this? At the grip? No more adjustment?
2. I changed the plates because it was slipping? Center nut 92015 backed out and caused the slip?
3. The rod hooked to the release arm goes past and now won't pull the pressure plate, as in "release from the motor" is where the slack is coming from?

Book setting? Here is my rendition of the arm, the threads of the cable, where the lever is, and where the wheel breaks loose from the engine.

A. When I pack the frictions and steels, the cut side or the flat side of the steels face me. I look for some sort of flat side to the frictions or a stamping and those face me as well.
B. When the clutch has a pull style 'rod,' a needle roller or the throwout bearing kind of design, that is a cover to arm hook-into style kind of, one constant arch or the throw of the arm being pulled upon.
C. When all I need is a gap at the lever to perch. This is where the threads take up that interlock of the 13102, 'release component.'
D. When all is hooked up, I have all the threads at the thumbwheel, screwed into the clutch lever perch. I'm swinging that release arm until I can't swing it anymore. Taking up the threads at the cable end housing [off the clutch cover] is first thread adjustment move.
F. I want to make sure I have enough swing off that needle bearing so I could literally roll the needle bearing cage. I do not want a taut cable dragging on that bearing so as to wear it out too fast. Once I have that thread length taken up at the release arm, where is my lever to perch gap?
G. We are up to the perch and this finishes off the gap at the lever. The 'do as I say and not as I do' approach is, do I want that required gap for heat expansion, zero bearing load, because here we are at the perch gap. So the required 'book gap' is one and zero gap is the one I prefer, screw the throwout bearing. The hair trigger lever is where, yes, there is a hardy load on that lever, but not enough to pull the pressure plate... Get it?

How close/far-from this 'no release from motor' are we?

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Pulling the basket tomorrow, got some worn pieces! Thanks Hub!!

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You bet. I'd like to see who's doing what? Grooves so deep in the clutch outer, the plates do not float? Same goes for the grooves in the clutch center. Check those depths and then the rivets as explained on Kruz's 600 kawi basket, then whatever else you find.

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Had to order a new, all out of spec, drag racing is the culprit I suppose.

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Check that out Hub!

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...and when the lever is pulled in I can see the stack move but it will not release from the motor.

"Grooves so deep in the clutch..."

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Hub he had some really thick oil and the clutch were stuck together, wouldn't release.

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Bobby, it's a new one on me. Those look 'piano key'd.' Look at the top groove and the pounding out of the plate-fingers pushing metal. The thing to do is install the plates dry. This way, you make all the adjustments, put it in any gear, pull the clutch lever and roll the back wheel. If the plates stick in their grooves, it's not the oil.

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That was a new on me too Hub. I pulled the whole stack out as one unit and turned it upside down and not one plate moved, STUCK. I put on a new inner and outer hub and new fibers with the right weight oil.

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You finally got one eh Bobby. Congrats bro. Send a pic or post one please.
wolf

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Bobby, the piano keyed the plates. Say they can't float but lay in those grooves, cannot slide on those rails, have fresh oil pass thru them, thus, locking or cooking the oil... I can only assume the piano keys were the problem.

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Even with the new clutch basket I couldn't get it to release, I think the fibers got soaked in whatever he put in there and ruined them. The dented up clutch basket was most likely the start of all the problems

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Even with the new clutch basket I couldn't get it to release

Yes, I've dealt with sticking plates. Still, they have to break or you'd bang gears up and down, hold the clutch in gear and it would creep if not stall with lever in. So it still seems this is still average plus abuse is the basket was not always on the street but at the strip, yes? There's the damage. Because again, the plates have to break or you just putted up to someone's rear bumper, or hard to find N, or say in the morning, real cold is the oil, the springs pushing that pack all night. So once you slam it in 1st, it has to lunge; stall; grind gears; creep if the plates were stuck.

So since this is new to me, breakdown the list I just mentioned. If stuck all this time, then that locked plate to plate should do one of these combos. If you say no, then hard to think it's stuck together if no creep/grind/N is hard to click to.

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Yes on all points mentioned, this was a race bike and you nailed it right on the head.

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