Help Bike sluggish after stator replacement - bad clutch or something rubbing? - CBR250

Hi again,

Finally got the time to install the replacement stator I bought a couple weeks back, sealed everything up again today and put new oil in, then set out for a test ride.
Two things are immediately obvious:

1. The clutch does not have the same range as before. It has a lot more slack and seems to engage much earlier (two sides of the same problem, I guess).
2. The bike seems super reluctant to accelerate. It's like I've got the brakes on. A bit difficult to describe more accurately, but certainly does not seem happy to move up to higher revs.

Could be my imagination, but I don't think it's revving as freely in neutral either.
Since it's the first time I've taken the crank case off and bolted it on again, I've got two ideas of what might have happened:

Either I haven't tucked the cord for the stator away neatly enough and something is rubbing on the rotor, causing the weird feeling of resistance, or -

I didn't put the little pin that activates the clutch back in correctly and this is preventing the clutch from fully engaging/disengaging.

Would love to hear what people think is more probable. The bike seems to roll alright in gear with the clutch held in, but when it was in gear up on the stand it was a real job to turn the rear wheel with my hand - even with the clutch lever pulled in completely. And there's definitely more slack in there than before.

Sorry again for the longwinded question - would really appreciate any advice.

 

Cheers for the prompt reply!
The stator is definitely the correct size - it's identical to the one I pulled out.


The bolts holding the stator in place are those nice little round-head allen-key bolts. I didn't notice any slots in them or the stator plate.
Ignorant rookie time: I have no idea what advance is or how to set it, unless it's something to do with the rotational position of the crankshaft...but still clueless.

Here's a pic of the stator before I put the crank case back on:

 

I haven't adjusted the clutch cable at all - but it definitely feels different to how it used to. Thought about trying to add some tension by winding out that little threaded wheel near the clutch lever, but it's a bit rusted and looked like it had already been wound out a fair bit, so I didn't touch it in the end.

 

The place where the clutch cable is mounted on the engine has another thread, but again I think it's pretty wound out - don't think there's much more tension to be had from that end - will definitely have another look though.
I keep on coming back to the thought that I shouldn't need to tweak the tension that much just because I disconnected and reconnected the cable...if it was fine before I took the crankcase off, where's that extra slack come from?

Also, the more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to think that the acceleration problems are unlikely to be caused by the clutch - and I'm more than happy to be contradicted here. But my reasoning is that by default the clutch is fully engaged. So if there's any deficiency in how I've installed that actuator pin that could stop the clutch from "working", then surely I'll have problems stopping the engine from trying to drive the wheel (e.g. stall when trying to shift into first to take off)... instead of struggling to get the engine to drive the wheel properly, which is where I'm at now.

Game plan at the moment is to re-drain and have another careful look at the routing of the stator cable inside the crankcase. Even looking at the pic I posted above gives me doubts.
In the meantime, still heaps keen to hear anyone's two bobs on what they think the problem could be. Cheers for the help so far, my67xr!

 

Decided against pulling the crankcase off again today. Tweaked the clutch using the thread down near the engine - had heaps more room than I thought - took all the slack out of the cable. Still doesn't explain where the slack came from though. Can confidently say there's nothing wrong with the clutch disengaging - I can start the engine with the bike in gear and the clutch lever held in, which seems a pretty conclusive test to me. Went for another test ride just in case, couldn't detect any serious difference. Looking to get out onto some proper road tomorrow and really test out the acceleration. There's only so much you can do in the narrow 50km/h streets around my house. Starting to wonder if my mind's just playing tricks on me...M1 tomorrow should sort that out.

 

Update re that test ride - didn't even make it to the M1, was accelerating out of a roundabout and definitely felt the clutch slip, i.e. pulling on the throttle and had a sudden leap in revs that did not correspond to a change in speed. Gradually got up to 60 after letting off the throttle and slowly climbing again. No problems cruising constantly at any speed. Absolutely stoked... :|
Now I've got a new question - do you think this is due to bad installation of that actuator pin, or has nice fresh oil just helped my already worn clutch plates to be a bit less grippy? Or is it possible I've over-tensioned the clutch cable?
The oil was a 10-40, definitely no friction modifiers. Pretty top end Penrite from memory (not at home right now).