Hi, and a quick clutch question

hi guys, just bought my first bike xj 550 r 1981 pretty sure its all stock, its in my sig i believe. if i did that right.

anyways, ive got it running pretty good so far, it needs work but it runs, the clutch is my problem now, when the bike is cold or first starts it wont even be usable does the clutch in and shuts off the bike when putting it into first, and i fiddle and fiddle and nothing works, warm it up like 5 mins or so and it clicks right in with a quick adjustment and shifts almost to perfect, no noise no grind no bonk,

is there anything that can cause this? anyone had this problem and found a fix?

im trying to get her running good for the weekend, want to get my class 6, wish theyd loan out bikes haha,

anyways thanks and awesome site ive been reading it straight for the last 2 weeks or so its helped with a lot of questions, like finding the idle adjustment screw

thanks again hope someone knows something!

 

sounds like your sidestand switch is stuck.
I am pretty sure that model has one

 

the switch for the kickstand, works when i leave the kickstand down it kills the bike,( done that twice now good thing for it ) but why would it only be stuck when cold and not hot?

 

Because things have a tendency to stick when they are cold, and loosen up when they warm up.

It may also just be a coincidence that seems like the cold is affecting it. Next time it dies, physically reach down and pull the plunger out manually while jiggling it a little instead of letting the internal spring do it. I used to have to do that all the time until it got to the point where no matter how I manipulated the switch, it would no longer make the connection. I replaced it with a new switch and I now have no problems at all.

 

How about the switch on the clutch lever, will it give similar problems? Mine went bad last year and gave some starting problems.