350 Clutch Cable Discovery/Differences

[moonpup]

Today, while looking at some spare used cables, I noticed a difference on the clutch cables that I hadn't given much notice to before.

Actually it was the absence of the grease fitting on some of them (that I expected to find on all of them) that drew my attention. 

So, after a bit of research, I found that all the pics from sales brochures & magazine articles from that time period showed no fittings on either the GTR or the GTO clutch cable from 1970 - 1971.

Apparently, Bridgestone had decided it was no longer needed for this particular cable, or the bean counters did their thing.

The pic below is from the Oct. 1970 Cycle World 350GTO road test....

[slawsonb]

Vely intelestink! Nice job Sleuthpup! 
...bert

[davis]

Interesting observation. If a poll seems a reasonable investigation of your theory, I am five for five on clutch cables with grease fittings with frame tag serial numbers up to 6547. According to my cable re-builder grease fittings were not a common item in the day or now. Are they another unique feature of Bridgestones?

[moonpup]

What got me started on this Davis was that NOS clutch cable that was on eBay. I saw that it had the fitting and knew that a reproduction cable I had previously picked up from Richard didn't, so before bidding and possibly spending a bunch of money on the eBay cable, I thought it would be best to see what kind of condition my used ones were in.

Of the 4 used cables I have, 2 are from GTO's and 2 are off GTR's. That's when I noticed the GTO's had no fittings while the GTR's (#'s 3665 & 5548) did. My first thought was... I just found another GTR vs. GTO thing. My research however, indicated is was more likely a "production year" issue, as none of the post 1970 350's (including the 71 GTR) have the fittings.

Oddly, the front brake cable (as seen in the pic) still had them till the end.  

[BRT-GTR]

  I've just checked the photos in the May, 1970, Cycle magazine, GTO road test. The photos (or my eyesight ) are not clear enough to say whether or not the bike had a clutch cable lubricator. However, this mag also carries a full page Rockford ad for 'The new for 1970' GTO, I'm pretty sure the clutch cable doesn't show a lubricator. Well spotted, Mike.

   We know BS built the red GTR's up to July 68, a total of 6782 machines (Kotaro). This was planned production, surely BS would have bought in enough cables to complete this batch with some left over?  It seems reasonable they all would have carried the clutch cable lubricator.

   Later production was not planned by BS but was at the request of Rockford's, between 2000 – 2500 more GTOs/GTRs being made for 1970/71.

Did BS  have  enough front brake cables (with lubricators)  in stock to complete these but ran out of clutch cables at some stage.  As Davis points out lubricators were not a common, off the shelf item and would have been specially made for BS. My best guess would be, they did have a further batch of clutch cables made but for whatever reason the lubricators were not available or fitted.
 Does anyone have a gold GTO with its original clutch cable, does it have a lubricator?
     Brian.

[moonpup]

Brian, the picture I included above was from the Oct. 1970 Cycle World road test for the gold 350 GTO's, which clearly shows no fitting. In addition, my 2 1970 gold GTO's don't have them either. I believe they are the original cables.

On a side note, I wonder if any of the non-fitted cables ever made it out to the parts inventory of dealers. My guess would be few if any considering how late in the run they came into existence, which would make finding a nos non-fitted cable darn near impossible! 

[davis]

Good job Moonpup, you do excellent investigative work which we can all benefit from. I recently had a clutch cable rebuilt thinking I would not see an NOS one availabe. Oops. One just sold for $114 I think. Anyways, the rebuild you see in the attached photo was considerably less money by using a damaged donor. The only piece of salvaged hardware that Barnett could not duplicate was the oiler, thus the donor cable was sacrificed. (Also, it is not likely they could not have dublicated the rubber boot close enough). I nickel plated and passivated the metal components and had an improved liner and stainless cable installed. I forgot to mention that all my cables came from GTR's.

[moonpup]

Thanks Davis. It's the little things like this that I hope can add to our knowledge base and like you said, may benefit other BS enthusiasts.

Speaking of benefitting, do you think your guy would be willing to do cables for other members? I have 2 non-fitted GTO cables that I may want redone and that could be used as donors. No pressure, just curious.

Also, where did you find those rubber grommets near the bottom of the headlight buckets? Are they generic? There are no part numbers that I could find for them, which leads me to believe that they were just part of and came with the wiring harness.

[CL-100]

I have a one page color brochure for the 1971 350's. On both the GTR and GTO there is no lube fitting for the clutch cable. The fitting is present however on both front brake cables.

On a side note, last year at Barber I purchased a box of 350 parts for $90 that included a NOS clutch cable with the lube fitting.  My wife spotted the parts while we were walking through the swap meet. Sometimes you just get lucky. I never would have noticed it.

[coxy]

CL you are lucky not  just for the  cables  but to have a wife that's not only interested  in swap meets  but to be able to  find you parts as well  awesome!

[CL-100]

Coxy, I keep telling her that she's the best wife ever!  When we go to these vintage festival swap meets I just tell her what I'm looking for and if it's there she'll find it.

[coxy]

That's unreal my wife has more  fun getting  teeth extracted

[davis]

Regarding the clutch: Contact Joe Snell at Barnett Tool, joe@barnettclutches.com. He has the attached drawing for a Bridgestone 350 clutch cable. The cable was beautiful with one minor drawback - the outer casing had a little convolution to it, not dead smooth like the original. You may want to talk to Joe about it; I will if I order more.

Regarding the Grommets: I included information for another non-service grommet for the generator's case/wiring harness.
http://us.essentracomponents.com/shop/en-US/essentracomponentsus/open-hole-grommet--epdm--80-mm-id--160-mm-od--80-mm-thick--110-mm-hole-dia-1126609
http://us.essentracomponents.com/shop/en-US/essentracomponentsus/open-hole-grommet--pvc--110-mm-id--200-mm-od--60-mm-thick--150-mm-hole-dia-1126568
http://us.essentracomponents.com/shop/en-US/essentracomponentsus/open-hole-grommet--pvc--160-mm-id--270-mm-od--70-mm-thick--220-mm-hole-dia-1126576

Happy hunting!

[slawsonb]

So just to be sure I understand. These guys built you a cable with an "oiler" similar to the original BS? I see it in the drawing, but not sure they executed. If so, good deal!
...bert

[davis]

It's a good deal Bert. But, you have to supply the grease fitting (or as Joe calls it, an oiler). They are not hard to disassemble from a shot cable. I had all the removeable hardware plated and the boot is probably special to so I cleaned and conditioned it. I believe I paid $67 plus shipping both ways.

I hope the long hyperlinks for the grommets worked out. If not let me know.

[moonpup]

... snip...I hope the long hyperlinks for the grommets worked out. If not let me know.

Hi Davis, the links worked fine, but since I don't have all the measurements handy, could you edit them and indicate which grommet goes to which link? It'd save members time in the future as well. Thanks.

[davis]

Regarding the Grommets: I included information for another non-service grommet for the generator's case/wiring harness.
http://us.essentracomponents.com/shop/en-US/essentracomponentsus/open-hole-grommet--epdm--80-mm-id--160-mm-od--80-mm-thick--110-mm-hole-dia-1126609  GENERATOR GROMMET
http://us.essentracomponents.com/shop/en-US/essentracomponentsus/open-hole-grommet--pvc--110-mm-id--200-mm-od--60-mm-thick--150-mm-hole-dia-1126568 HEADLIGHT SMALL GROMMET
http://us.essentracomponents.com/shop/en-US/essentracomponentsus/open-hole-grommet--pvc--160-mm-id--270-mm-od--70-mm-thick--220-mm-hole-dia-1126576 HEADLIGHT LARGE GROMMET

[davis]

Forget the clutch cable drawing I attached. It's almost completely wrong! I did not look it over until BRT GRT brought it to my attention. Good catch and thanks. Fortunately, I had sent a cable to copy from and that was duplicated faithfully. For any interested, that would be the best way to go until a good drawing is produced.