Motorcycle Repair: 86 FXRS clutch, clutch action, clutch lever

Question
Hello Mike,

I was riding my 1986 HD FXRS Lowrider down the street and stopped at a light.  When the light turned green I attampted to shift from nuturel to 1st but the clutch lever had no tension on it at all when I pulled therefore the clutch did not disengage.  There was no tension at the shifter lever(I don't know the actual name of part: the lever coming out of the transmission at the end of the clutch cable.)  I could move the "shift lever" freely with my fingers with no tension and no clutch action.  No tension what so ever.  The bike was running fine although the shifting was getting a less crisp in the past weeks. Do you think this is clutch issue or could it be something like a tension spring giving out?  What's a new clutch cost on the average?

Thanks foy any input.

Best,
Erik  

Answer
There could be several reasons for the problem. Broken cable, bad throw out bearing, worn or broken spring plate onthe clutch to name a few. the only way to know is to tear the clutch apart to see what the problem is. Its going to be hard to comment on how much is will cost, due to the fact that differnt shops have different shop rates all over the country.
Good luck and happy riding
Mike