I just reinstalled my rh engine sidecover (after an engine teardown) and the clutch actuation lever is loose. That is, it has no resistance until it is almost at the top of its travel.  According to the Clymer manual, I should need to put a wrench on the lever to move it up far enough to attach the cable, but I can easily move it up by hand.  
It seems to me that this means that there is something wrong with the clutch. Any suggestions?

No leftover parts. The rod is in place and works when the lever is almost at the end of its travel. It seems to me that what is happening is that the clutch is not engaging (plates compressing) when lever pressure is released. I'll pull the cover off tonight and look at the clutch again. Thanks!

Well, after assembling three times, I figured out what was going wrong! I've done clutches before but never ran into this. Apparently when I tightened down the big nut holding the clutch assembly, it was (somehow?) trapping the pressure plate so it could not move outward to compress the clutch discs. NOW I know that when you assemble these parts, you must be sure to move the pressure plate outward to compress the clutch discs before you tighten that big nut. That way you can't trap the pressure plate with the nut. Did it that way on try number 4 and all is well. Now with the side cover on the lever moves up and releases the clutch as it should.