'62 Mouse Trap Adjustment

[Skin]

I'm helping a Friend on his '62. I replaced the rear brake line and routed behind the inner primary. Since I had the clutch, sprockets and chain off, I cleaned everything up and put a new clutch cable on. I have the HD manual and followed adjustment procedures but when I pull the handlebar lever all the way in, the mouse trap will hang up.
that's not fun if you weren't paying attention and it decides to let off. I can pull the lever until the clutch disengages, but that's not right. Anyway, anybody got any ideas I can use? Thanks Skin

[Hossamania]

Have you lubed the mousetrap well? I've only worked on one, no real adjustment other than the cables, but I lubed the cables and the mousetrap mechanism itself, including the spring, and the owner and two others that owned mousetraps said it was the easiest pull they had ever used.

[HogMike]

I'm helping a Friend on his '62. I replaced the rear brake line and routed behind the inner primary. Since I had the clutch, sprockets and chain off, I cleaned everything up and put a new clutch cable on. I have the HD manual and followed adjustment procedures but when I pull the handlebar lever all the way in, the mouse trap will hang up.
that's not fun if you weren't paying attention and it decides to let off. I can pull the lever until the clutch disengages, but that's not right. Anyway, anybody got any ideas I can use? Thanks Skin

First thing I'd ask is the clutch assembly all the way to the handle bars stock.
If so, start at the clutch pack and work back. The service manual works assuming stock parts.
The trick is to get the clutch springs and adjuster nut set proper. then the long thin rod from the clutch arm to the mouse trap can be set to just barely loose.
Set the bottom booster spring holder and "over center screw" to allow the booster to pull the clutch open with just a hint of lever pull at the handle bars. Mostly a trial and error setup. By adjusting the spring pull at the bottom of the booster spring will compensate for the slop in the rest of the system. If the mouse trap "hangs up" after a pull, loosen up the booster spring a bit.
Make sure the stop screw is adjusted properly so that it just goes "over center".
You have a new cable and if everything on the mouse trap is proper (pivots, bushings, etc etc) the mouse trap works very well.

I've had many bikes with mouse traps and each one had a little different setup depending on clutch pack, clutch springs, release lever, etc etc.
Also make sure the mouse trap assembly is mounted on the down tube in the proper place, mine just clears the gas tank by about a  1/2 ".
Hope this helps a bit.

[Hillside Motorcycle]

And once you have it squared away.....1-2 finger operation.