I did this today out of being pissed that my less than 1 year old stainless, plastic no lube needed cable broke. I checked for sharp areas in the housing or extreme bends and there were none. This is the 2nd time that a good looking cable just snapped while on the road so I figure I have little to risk by fixing this one. I did just as you show and it worked very well. My advice to anyone trying is drill a bit (no pun) deeper than you need and put the cable hole deep enough to make sure one side is not short. Mine worked better being almost none on one side. I was not near as perfect with filing my cable down but got it pretty smooth and if I gave it about 15 min more it could have been perfect. My other thought is drill out a few of these on the scrap wood piece so that if you mess up you do not have to dick with dragging your drill shit out again and you can just re-do the solder/flux again which is fast and easy. Once the wood is scorched by the flame it leaves carbon all over and solder does not do so well dirty. My other thought is that getting a cable stop and then putting that in a needle nose vice and filling it with flux then feeding the wire through it, fraying it then put some solder chunks in with the wire and flux. This would be a much less messy way and cut down on file time. It would hold much better than any screws no matter how tight you got them on. I am not getting any more bought cables if this lasts more than a month or two. I will get a roll of braided plastic coated bulk and just make my own. Thanks for showing me this video! It was fairly simple to do and if I was not out in the middle of the work parking lot it would have taken about 1/2 hour of my time and not totally annoyed me at a few points due to me forgetting my drill bit and drill thus dealing with the carbon issues. The point is, yeah it worked! Looks almost professional and next time through it will be un-distinguished from ANY bought wire you will find. I have NEVER had any clutch wires go bad like on my 2007 Buell Blast! This is less than a year on a high quality cable and broke in the same place right by the handlebar housing. I had literally JUST enough length of wire to make due with the set nut to the end of it's rope! Now the bike shifts better than ever. Just to be certain I shot it with WD40 and then some light oil but I honestly do not think lube or rough edges were the problem as my clutch cable worked perfectly right up to the point of it breaking this time. Last year the first one was really strange I had to adjust it several times (the wires were breaking one by one thus changing the tension) and the pull was getting hard sometimes (due to the resistance caused by the frayed cables in the cable cover no doubt). None of this occurred this round though just pop and done. BTW for anyone that has this happen immediately shut the kill switch. I was cruising about 75mph and coming to a light when this last time happened. It took a VERY long time to let the engine stop it even when I hit the kill switch and applied the breaks. You also do not stop smoothly and since you cannot shift into neutral until you are stopped you are just along for the ride so to speak. I am so glad it did not happen in high traffic like the time before this last year!
+James Hart I'm glad it helped. Before this internet thing.. I would go to local bike shop and he sell me the cable bulk, And hand me some brass ferrals. I could never get them on and when I did NEVER held!! That's why I posted for other to learn. Takes practice to get perfect But worth a afternoon work. I like to get these brass rods from the local hobby shop. Available in different dia. and about 1'-2' long. Trim them to what ever length/depth needed. (I leave little longer and file down after) and do exact same thing with the wood and solder, just using the brass tube as a retaining shell! Then cut and file the cable smooth to the barrel.!!!!
That may help a bit to contain the heat, but then you need to find aluminum and possible use it as sacrificial, Wood dunnage is usually always laying around at my shop, often glad to use it up. As some have pointed out, the charred wood can and may contaminate the solder! So that is something I should have mentioned in the video. Cleaner = stronger bond!
I actually disagree about the charcoal - I don’t think it would contaminate things as much as sap in the wood would. I make jewelry and this is similar to melting metal in a crucible and pouring into molds - many of those molds are made of graphite, which is essentially compressed charcoal. I think torching the hole a bit before you apply the flux would be a great thing to do - but that’s just a hunch. Anyway - thank you for doing this! I need to shorten an automotive throttle cable and this would do the trick, plus you can do it under the hood and not have to remove the whole cable… super helpful!!
I did this today out of being pissed that my less than 1 year old stainless, plastic no lube needed cable broke. I checked for sharp areas in the housing or extreme bends and there were none. This is the 2nd time that a good looking cable just snapped while on the road so I figure I have little to risk by fixing this one. I did just as you show and it worked very well. My advice to anyone trying is drill a bit (no pun) deeper than you need and put the cable hole deep enough to make sure one side is not short. Mine worked better being almost none on one side. I was not near as perfect with filing my cable down but got it pretty smooth and if I gave it about 15 min more it could have been perfect. My other thought is drill out a few of these on the scrap wood piece so that if you mess up you do not have to dick with dragging your drill shit out again and you can just re-do the solder/flux again which is fast and easy. Once the wood is scorched by the flame it leaves carbon all over and solder does not do so well dirty. My other thought is that getting a cable stop and then putting that in a needle nose vice and filling it with flux then feeding the wire through it, fraying it then put some solder chunks in with the wire and flux. This would be a much less messy way and cut down on file time. It would hold much better than any screws no matter how tight you got them on. I am not getting any more bought cables if this lasts more than a month or two. I will get a roll of braided plastic coated bulk and just make my own. Thanks for showing me this video! It was fairly simple to do and if I was not out in the middle of the work parking lot it would have taken about 1/2 hour of my time and not totally annoyed me at a few points due to me forgetting my drill bit and drill thus dealing with the carbon issues. The point is, yeah it worked! Looks almost professional and next time through it will be un-distinguished from ANY bought wire you will find. I have NEVER had any clutch wires go bad like on my 2007 Buell Blast! This is less than a year on a high quality cable and broke in the same place right by the handlebar housing. I had literally JUST enough length of wire to make due with the set nut to the end of it's rope! Now the bike shifts better than ever. Just to be certain I shot it with WD40 and then some light oil but I honestly do not think lube or rough edges were the problem as my clutch cable worked perfectly right up to the point of it breaking this time. Last year the first one was really strange I had to adjust it several times (the wires were breaking one by one thus changing the tension) and the pull was getting hard sometimes (due to the resistance caused by the frayed cables in the cable cover no doubt). None of this occurred this round though just pop and done. BTW for anyone that has this happen immediately shut the kill switch. I was cruising about 75mph and coming to a light when this last time happened. It took a VERY long time to let the engine stop it even when I hit the kill switch and applied the breaks. You also do not stop smoothly and since you cannot shift into neutral until you are stopped you are just along for the ride so to speak. I am so glad it did not happen in high traffic like the time before this last year!
+James Hart
I'm glad it helped. Before this internet thing.. I would go to local bike shop and he sell me the cable bulk, And hand me some brass ferrals. I could never get them on and when I did NEVER held!! That's why I posted for other to learn. Takes practice to get perfect But worth a afternoon work. I like to get these brass rods from the local hobby shop. Available in different dia. and about 1'-2' long. Trim them to what ever length/depth needed. (I leave little longer and file down after) and do exact same thing with the wood and solder, just using the brass tube as a retaining shell! Then cut and file the cable smooth to the barrel.!!!!
Very sweet fix!!!
Love the gas cam sitting below flame and the leaves and all the other safe environment conditions
Better to hear the solder in a spoon and pour it in .... Pre tin the cable end
Excellent indeed!
Good, job it work great
should have put somealuminum around the board
That may help a bit to contain the heat, but then you need to find aluminum and possible use it as sacrificial, Wood dunnage is usually always laying around at my shop, often glad to use it up.
As some have pointed out, the charred wood can and may contaminate the solder! So that is something I should have mentioned in the video. Cleaner = stronger bond!
I actually disagree about the charcoal - I don’t think it would contaminate things as much as sap in the wood would. I make jewelry and this is similar to melting metal in a crucible and pouring into molds - many of those molds are made of graphite, which is essentially compressed charcoal. I think torching the hole a bit before you apply the flux would be a great thing to do - but that’s just a hunch.
Anyway - thank you for doing this! I need to shorten an automotive throttle cable and this would do the trick, plus you can do it under the hood and not have to remove the whole cable… super helpful!!
Wtf