Dragging clutch on a 650SS

Its a common failing,   The Manx racers used to have difficulty with push starts due to this. They improved things by measuring the clearance between rollers and track and fitting Rollers that were ! or2 thou oversize . I could get a 3 thou feeler in my 99 clutch so I fitted 1 thou OS rollers that took out 2 thou (1 thou each side!)  leaving me with 1 thou clearance and much reduced wobble.I also filled a few thou off the outer edge of the plain plates as they were rubbing the inside of the drum somehow.  I now set up the springs using a dial gauge and have a light clutch ,no drag ,easy neutral at a standstill etc.  Finding OS rollers was a little difficult but they do exist.Think I had to buy 50. min order.Help a friend !.

Isn't one of the issues caused by excessive earbox main shaft end float, which provides lost motion that needs to be taken up in the clutch?

Does the AMC box suffer with excessive MS end float, ? not something I have seen .

.. it's the pre-AMC (dolls head, laydown etc) that have the end float problem as there's a bronze thrust ring in there that wears.

Many of the replacement cables sold these days have nylon outer skins. These are generally useless on a Norton 650. The problem being the outer skin stretches at the sharp bends the cable has to turn through from the lever, down past the instruments and then along over the engine and down to the gearbox. This outer layer stretches and allows the coiled body to open up. When the lever is pulled the body coils are pulled towards each other rather than pulling the inner cable. The movement of the clutch lever gives the illusion that the inner cable is operating the clutch when actually it isn't really.  A hot engine does not help as the heat softens the cables Nylon outer.

Purchase a good quality cable and try and fit it with a minimum of sharp bends. I used to buy the slightly longer cable fitted to the high bar Manxman 650. This allowed me to run the cable under the tank and along the right side frame rail before heading down to the gearbox.

Seen some Manx clutches filled with some 50 rollers, no roller cage. Appears to have been a quite common mod. Only time I've experienced Manx clutch drag was when the centre nut came loose. But a 650SS clutch has more plates so more prone to dragging.

Supplier may be Atlasball and co

Sounds perfect Bill,  where did you find the rollers ?, I spent some time looking.  Its possible that you are having a similar problem  to the one i had , Clutch not very secure on the shaft,  In my case a new clutch spider was needed. If the shaft is not moving ,it has to be the spider. Not surprised you found 5 thou, I ordered a new race plate and found it gave even more clearance than the 60 year old one. Old worn out  edwardian machinery at Nortons beats modern CNC  ? ,  ha ha.

I also found them there but discounted them as I thought  they were taking the "P"  a bit with prices !!.