headlight level adjustment

[Nails]

Sorry for the flurry of posts, but I'm working on a bunch of stuff with my bike. Busy as a termite in Timber Town.
My headlight level knob doesn't work. Got the headlight housing off, and that wheel thing turns very stiffly. So much that the knob cable fell apart.
I'll replace the cable. But I don't really see anything I can do with the housing. I'll destroy it trying to get it apart.
Are all of these super stiff? Has anyone figured out a way to lube the housing mechanism?

[Nails]

Cable is PN 54010-1058. $36. (ordered)
Headlamp assembly is 23007-1144, $222!!! (I don't think so)

[Mr Jensee]

I think most of these adjustment knobs are stiff on this bike. Mine is and it was on Charlie's bike.
. Did everything I could to lube it up and make sure it wasn't jammed but it still wont turn. I think it is just a poor design.

[bikerking.biz]

My headlight knob, while a little stiff, is not overly, and has worked just fine since I've owned the bike (since 1993). I may have lubed the cable once, but am not sure of that- been awhile if I did. My worse problem is the choke lever, it IS very stiff, but I know others work just fine, some are too loose.

[Nails]

Thanks. My headlight cable was well lubricated but broke downstream of that. The headlight assembly itself is pretty stiff, and apparently no way to get in there to fix it. The new cable was less expensive than I expected, and it'll probably work at least for a little while. I might drill a little hole through where the cable is swaged to the square end thing, to sorta pin it all together with a piece of paperclip or something.

On the other hand, my choke (as well as all the throttle cables) were too stiff. I took all apart and lubed them with one of those units that puts the spray pressure right down the cable. I gpot some heavy gunk out. Cleaning the carbs helped a lot. Each part of the whole moved freely, but it was still stiff. The thing that made the most difference was rearranging things so the cables had fewer bends. Now, with a little use, the choke lever works fine. But my throttle still doesn't return by itself all the way to slow idle.

[Nails]

My cable was loose -- I could pull the knob from the fairing about 1/4". And when I tried to adjust it, it felt like a gear jumping.

Turns out, the cable screws into the cast end piece (headlight end), and mine was mostly unscrewed. It fell apart when I got it in my hands.

I cleaned off the old grease, using brake cleaner as well as I could, and put the inner cable back into the outer cable. The end of the inner cable is about flush with the outer cable -- no room to swag anything. I put some JB Weld in the end piece, and using two pliers screwed it back on.

Now I get like 1/16" end play. I can turn the knob right and the mechanism works. I exercised the mechanism with some needle-nose pliers, and it loosened up a little. Hopefully it'll work left as well, once the glue dries.

This is good because the outfit I bought the cable from took a week to tell me it's back-ordered. I got hope and shall cancel.