Hello! So I picked up a 74 DT250 and I have gotten to the clutch. It didn't have a clutch cable when I picked it up. I installed one and there's no resistance or spring back in the lever. I tried actuating it by hand on the arm under the bike, there's no resistance until the very last bit of forward travel and even then, it's negligible.

I took the side cover off to get a peek at the clutch assembly. Everything looks fine, the friction pads are very worn but other than that it's "okay". I say okay because there is one steel separation plate missing (one of the funky ones with the notch). Making it 7 total separating plates (1 full round, 6 weird/notched). I have a new notched plate on the way. 

Now, I put it all back together and then adjusted the cable just to do some testing. It's better but there's still a large dead spot before I get any resistance. I removed the push rod and plunger, they both looked fine and in good shape. The large "cap" that the springs press on is in good shape. Basket is in good shape. I removed a separation plate, bringing the cap closer/further in and the dead spot got smaller. Makes sense, right? But when I put the full and correct stack in, it seems like the plunger has to go very far before it contacts the cap. Also, if I were to get new friction plates, it would add even MORE space for the plunger to travel before contact. The current friction plates are just a few miles from being toast with a whole plate missing and the clutch it acting like the stack is too tall. 

Everything looks fine. What am I missing here? Is my bike a model that uses one of those steel ball bearings between the pushrod and plunger? It seems like that would take up the slack but I don't see one on any parts diagram for this bike. 

There's an adjustment under the left cover that gives you half a turn by lifting or dropping a tapered face where it meets the pushrod to move the clutch. Number 25. Has a pin offset that engages in the arm. If you turn it in to far it'll go tight, but if you back it off a turn or maybe half a turn depending--you'll end up with half a turn of usable movement to raise or drop the arm. I'm guessing your trouble is that bit. I think, looking at the parts drawing, that your pushrod had rounded ends to give a ball bearing affect. Earlier generation motors had an 8mm ball bearing the same size as the mushroom piece that lifts the pressure plate But--if you can go by drawings--this shows the mushroom short rod looking same as the clutch rod which i'm guessing is about 6.5mm or 1/4".

www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcycle/1974/dt250a/clutch

Ah, alright! I'll give the adjustment a go tomorrow morning. I did some more searching on the adjustment mentioned and it seems thats what the issue is but I'll have to confirm. Thank ya. 

As for the ball bearing, I figured this didn't have one because of the rounded pushrod but I was throwing out  anything I could think of. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy, honestly. 

Interesting discoveries have been made! It seems my bike has the pressure plate off a 360. Based on the parts diagram, the 250 pressure plate does not have the internal machined teeth that the 360 has, my pressure plate has the teeth. Weird. The adjustment under the other cover was the culprit, thank you for that by the way. 

I'm a bit lost because looking at the diagrams...it looks like the only difference is the pressure plate and number of friction plates. The friction plate part numbers are also different for the 250 and 360, which set do I buy? I assume the 250 but if the 360 stack is "taller" due to one more friction plates, then I also assume it definitely matters. SO! If I have the 360 pressure plate, should I get the 360 friction plate set? Or can I run the 250 friction plates with the 360 pressure plate? This bike was definitely a farm bike for most of it's life, who knows what different model parts they switched out.