home brew cable shortening

jvandyke

Been Around the Block
Was bothered by long clutch cable (after putting clip ons on my '72 500k) and the bend seemed to induce binding, heavy clutch lever, much fatigue, now I'm told the 500 fours were notorious for clutch weirdness but even so, decided to try to shorten my cable.
measured cut, tried to drill out the old cable from the barrel, what a pain, ended up ruining it, tried the "solder in a wooden hole" method,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-gY27LTU2c
seemed to work great, felt really solid, but it pulled free way too easy, shopping for barrel ends to try to solder a new one on, not growing on trees apparently. Saw the "copper wire wrap" method, looks interesting but it failed him on the clutch.
Current plan (if I can't scrounge a new barrel quickly) re-try the solder in the wood mold thing since it was silly easy and "almost worked". This time around I'll clean and prep the cable end better. Got the solder (I think, coreless "mechanical"). Flux. Tried to fray the ends but will try harder next time. I think it's hard to heat the cable end while it's in the wood "mold" enough that the solder job is good.
Advice welcomed.
Motion pro is an option but the "I did it myself" pride is in full swing.
 
I take a stainless bolt (plain steel bolt will do fine) the right diameter for the end I need and cut a disc or cylinder the right thickness from it for the end. Then drill a hole through it the size of the cable. After that, I drill a much larger hole half way through. Then I slide the cable through from the small hole side. When I determine where it needs to go, I cut the cable about 1/2" longer. The trick to not having the cable pull back through is the larger hole on the outside. I fray the cable out as much as possible right to the center of where the end needs to go, than slide the end into position. Then just silver solder it into place. I use silver solder, but ordinary solder will work as well. The frayed out part combined with the solder is too large to pass through the smaller hole, so it is totally reliable - even if done poorly. Once it is soldered, grind the cable flush and clean up with a file and you have a permanent reliable cable. It is very important to not overheat the cable, or allow solder to wick into the cable past the end fitting. As far as the housing is concerned, I just cut it to length on a bench grinder being careful not to get it hot. You can re-use the metal end cap even though it is swagged on. Warm it up very carefully with a heat gun and it will come right off very easily. The plastic outer cover on the housing softens up super easy. You can re-install it on your new length housing the same way - warm it up with a heat gun and it will slide right on if you are careful.
 
Flanders will sell you as many or as few cable ends as you need. The trick is to splay the end of the cable out into a birds nest so that it cannot pull through the end fitting.
 
okay thanks, had tried flanders earlier but their site was down, now up, any idea which ones I need? I measure mine at 10mm long and 7mm dia,
maybe
Barrel End
Barrel end fitting to be used with 620-26080 solder on fitting, O.D. .281” (7.1mm), length .354” (9mm). Sold each For bag: Order 25

620-25380
.64
 
I'll try one more time to make my own since the attachment procedure is critical either way and no doubt that's where I failed last night. So, I probably could have coaxed the wire out of the OEM barrel with heat? I just went ahead and tried to drill press right through. Oops.
 
I turn down brass pieces on the lathe, drill them out with a hole just large enough for the cable then countersink about halfway down. Fray the cable, and silver solder it in. Works like a charm.
 
http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/cable8.jpg

yes that sounds like what you need.
 
yep, ichiban, watched your vid several times too, how the hell did you drill through that thing with hand drill? I went through 3 new bits and used a drill press and that dude was not letting me drill through it straight, I might try that barrel anyway, the hole is just off center, can't really hurt to try, I think I may try your method tonight, only using "real" solder and "flux" (although I applaud your resourcefulness!) I have a melting pot but am loath to throw $30 worth of solder in it just for one little plunge, this guy does it on his side burner,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axGTa0SvXjE
how do you other guys solder it? I have a propane torch, several soldering irons, a soldering cup (really big though)
The wood block thing worked a treat though.
 
tried to reuse the OEM barrel, despite off center hole, seemed good, pulled hard on it, reinstalled, started adjusting up the clutch, got it just about right and POP, out came the cable. Tried again this time a bit too much heat and the original barrel melted into oblivion. Gotta love learning curves! Need new barrel or make my own. This ain't easy.
What's the "best" way? Order up replacement barrels or buy some round stock (brass?) cut to length, drill hole, try again? or revisit the "mold it in the wood" method. Is a dip in molten solder (in a solder cup) "better" than torch heat? Can do either. Becoming a metallurgist here. Learning all the time ain't we?
Leaning a bit toward retrying the wood method. Can insert cable, reach into the wood mold with a needle nose and fray the crap out of the end, if the solder is good it should give a great hold with frayed cable embedded in the barrel but I question how the solder would grab if you can't heat the cable end decently in the hole, technique is everything I guess.
 
Some great tricks mentioned here, however cables don't always fail in the garage or driveway. So I machined some quick repair furrels for roadside emergency repairs. I bought 1/4" brass round bar and cut several furrels and drilled and tapped them for 8-32 grub screws and then cross-drilled the furrel to accept most cable wire sizes used on most bikes. In the event of a failure I can shorten the outer cable sleeve buy adjusting the adjuster nuts and then add a furrel to the cable end and tighten the grub screw to pinch the cable in the brass end. This may not be permanent but it will get me home to create a pernanent end using some of the suggested ideas.

Swivels.jpg


8)
 
molten solder in wood failed again, what about a brass/steel tube the right diameter, cut to length, hole in one side, cable inserted, frayed, fill the whole thing with solder?
or I can get the ends (I'm told) at a shop about 10 miles away
 
Playing Devil's advocate here. Why, if you have a torch do you try and drill out the old end when you can heat it with the torch and it should come right out. I see talk of not having the heat go 1/8" past the end fitting because it might make the wire brittle where it needs to flex. Why does it need to flex. 1-2" from the fitting is never pulled in any direction other than straight, no flexing in that area. Why not use flux core solder if you are going to use flux anyways. The flux helps draw the solder completely into the cable.
There's lots of places that sell cable parts. It's cheaper to buy them than make them unless you work for free. Barnett, Flanders, MotionPro, etc.
 
cable parts are NOT easy to come by off the shelf, although I did find some at a shop where the mechanic just gave a me two for nothing, this after much calling and looking
can't answer your questions about flux, core, and such, I'm not that experienced, just following in known paths where I can
heating the OEM barrel to extract wire might have worked fine but the barrel itself IS solder so too much heat and, it's a glob, reusing it is a no go most likely for above reasons, it'll disappear
I got a brass barrel, the hole was a bit small, enlarged it and chamfered one side, pulled cable through, frayed out the ends, fluxed the whole mess, used a brass pipe cap as a solder cup (just sitting in my big cup) couple rounds of dipping as was not too convinced I was getting good solder penetration, looked okay, used dremel cut off wheel to clean up the frays and such, installed, seems fine, will beat on it before I head cross country.
Cable pull is easier, cleaned up the front end even more, cable tucked away neat and clean, not a big loop anymore, hopefully it's good, need to check up on my cable adjustment technique as I don't want to needlessly stress it by squeezing lever after I've already reached max clutch action, not sure how you determine that, right now I plan an just seeing how it operates (lever free play is "too much" by the book at the moment)
 
jvandyke said:
Cable pull is easier, cleaned up the front end even more, cable tucked away neat and clean, not a big loop anymore, hopefully it's good, need to check up on my cable adjustment technique as I don't want to needlessly stress it by squeezing lever after I've already reached max clutch action, not sure how you determine that, right now I plan an just seeing how it operates (lever free play is "too much" by the book at the moment)

Hard to overstate the value of something as simple as correct length cables correctly routed. Shortening cables is definitely a pain so spend whatever time it takes to design a routing that works well. Very often only 1 inch is the difference between "works GREAT" and "well, at least it looks better this way". Trial zip tie your new routing in place, put ALL the parts back on your motorcycle and run the steering back and forth through the full travel before you commit to a new length and routing. Carefully designed cables last a REALLY long time. Those that don't think it is that important end up making a lot of custom cables!

Just my opinion here, but I say solid lead cable ends may be ok for your lawn mower, but not on my bikes. I like stainless mostly because I use it a lot and it is handy, but steel, brass - anything but just soft lead. Seen PLENTY of brass ends worn to the point of causing problems. A good point was made about overheating the cable - very hard to not do with a torch. I use a torch myself because I use silver that has to get mighty hot, but I clamp the wire right up to the end in some aluminum plates to serve as a heat sink and recommend to anyone using a torch to do the same.
 
Thanks for the input. Dunking in a solder pot is recommended to avoid much of the overheating issues, I would guess., so I have solid brass and (hopefully) nicely frayed and soldered cable. Hope to test later today but we'll see.
 
J-Rod10 said:
I turn down brass pieces on the lathe, drill them out with a hole just large enough for the cable then countersink about halfway down. Fray the cable, and silver solder it in. Works like a charm.

Same here, cheap and works well (so far).
 
cqyqte said:
Some great tricks mentioned here, however cables don't always fail in the garage or driveway. So I machined some quick repair furrels for roadside emergency repairs. I bought 1/4" brass round bar and cut several furrels and drilled and tapped them for 8-32 grub screws and then cross-drilled the furrel to accept most cable wire sizes used on most bikes. In the event of a failure I can shorten the outer cable sleeve buy adjusting the adjuster nuts and then add a furrel to the cable end and tighten the grub screw to pinch the cable in the brass end. This may not be permanent but it will get me home to create a pernanent end using some of the suggested ideas.

Swivels.jpg


8)
Good idea. I've ridden home on more than one occasion sans clutch.
 
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