After replacing the cam chain this has happened in my bike too. I think it was on it's way out for awhile, when I got the bike there was no slack in the clutch lever at all, I adjusted it to 2mm but I think it was too late. Half of it has snapped off, I am gonna try a telescopic magnet but I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one!
Fixed! Grabbed the spare from my old 610. I was able to find a strong magnetic pickup from a car parts store. Without it, no chance. It came out quite easily actually, I thought I was somehow going to have to rotate it with the magnetic which would probably not have even worked, but it came out really easily by just grabbing it. Don't bother with the LED light ones they are too big. Looked at a flexi one also too big/wide (I know, I know, that's what she said, right? ) It was just a regular telescopic magnetic pickup. Clutch is back to it's usual self! Feels weird and satisfying to get something all done in one day without a massive saga behind it! There's one on eBay for £25, think I might grab it for when I rebuild my old bike.
April 2020 and I've just been through this process of broken actuator etc and thought it worth adding some current info regarding the part and a further observation of my own. Firstly, getting hold of a replacement actuator is now exceptionally difficult as that part is no longer being manufactured or supplied by Husqvarna. SWM don't appear to use the part on any of their bikes which are being made at the old Husky factory. After a while, I gave up looking (tried various dealers and breakers) and had mine welded as several others have. Putting the clutch mechanism back together, the whole setup and the significance of the adjusting screw at the thrust bearing suddenly becomes apparent. Earlier in this thread, George talked about setting the adjusting screw flush to the locknut - that certainly put mine in the ball park but it's not the whole story. The workshop manual has a diagram which shows the required distance between the end of the actuator arm (the part that actually holds the nipple of the cable) and the upright part of the perch/bracket that holds the cable on the engine casing. The gap should be 110.5-112.5mm - a single turn of the adjuster screw made 5-10mm difference of this gap. To get to the required GAP, my adjuster screw was slightly beyond flush with the screw. The adjustment at the handlebars is all about ensuring that there isn't constant tension on the actuator arm. 3mm of play is enough to satisfy that as long as the cable routing is ok. After setting everything up as described above, the clutch is working better than it ever has. I've owned the bike for 10 years and it's never been easy to find neutral at a standstill - I can now get it at a standstill with no problem. I'm gutted that it's taken me 10 years to discover this! Going forward, my annual service will include checking the gap between the actuator and the cable perch and adjusting the lock screw if necessary. Hopefully that'll make the welded actuator outlast the rest of the bike! Hope that somebody out there finds this useful.
Another 2020 update here. I just bought a 2009 610 with 11k miles and experienced the same clutch drag issues described in this thread. Pulled the actuator arm out and it was bent and cracked. Got it straightened and welded locally and now I have no problem finding neutral, no creep in gear, etc.
