Not engaging into gear from neutral

[thegirafferider]

Hello,

THis is my first post here and if you want to get to know me a little I have written a novel :type: to introduce myself in the newbie bit.

I have an xj600n T reg. She has been sat for a while and starts and runs but wont go into gear, she did before storage.
I pull on the front brake lever, the clutch lever and push down into first and it jumps out and lurches forward a bit. Like it does when you stall the engine.

My friend is old school and suggested the clutch plates were jammed and said to park the front wheel against a hay bale or wall..and attempt to put it into gear and the forward force of the stall will unjam the plates....I DUNNO about you but this doesnt sound great!! What if its not the plates? what damage you could cause doing this is scarily unknown to me!

There is also a bolt, a retaining bolt, I think its called, under what I believe is called the throwout arm assembly on the clutch cover. This bolt will not tighten at all and I hesitantly think this may be the cause???

I looked on this forum for a similar problem and there are but not similar enough... I did find this (http://www.xjrider.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2395) to get my names for parts.

Please could you help me as its been tooooo long and I need to get out and hit the road!!

Thanks for reading.

Sarah