Hi all, Heres one for you. So I did Glorious & Nebo the other day, and while accelerating out of corners lower down in the rev range, I kept noticing a a griding/rubbing sound. Like someone putting a piece of paper into a desk fan, or a prize spinner on a game show. I kept thinking it was the chain (which I checked everything to do with it), but then I realised there is something connected to the chain..... The gearbox. Thats when I put 2 & 2 together. Pretty much the whole time Ive ridden it, It has a had time realising its in N, the N light only comes on after you release the clutch. Sometimes it crunches gears at a standstill selecting 1st, and has issues selecting gears, going from say 4th to 1st with the clutch in (Cause sometimes were lazy coming to a stop). Most of the time you get a "dead pedal", it doesnt seem to recognise its "in gear" until you release the clutch, then you have to put the clutch in and select down a gear, then again, & again, back to first. Sometimes it will grind gears after selecting them (i pull the clutch in as soon as I hear it, so I dont know what end result of letting it go is) let the clutch out, and its all hunky dory, in gear & rolling along. Which gears, I honestly cant remember. But the most problems it has, is group shifting with the clutch in (becoming more common), selecting first (occasionally), and selecting N (pretty much every time). And now a constant light grind/vibration. That becomes especially noticeable just as you finish letting the clutch out in 1st & 2nd. Its there the whole time in each gear, but you cant miss it then. Engine isnt missing a beat, and its road speed constant, not engine speed constant. Ive adjusted the clutch at several times to see if this makes a difference. It does not. Ive also had more false neutrals on this than what I did on the FZR. Even when changing from say 4th to 5th. Nowhere near Neutral. So, in anyones experience, do you know whats going on? Its got to be gearbox related. Im thinking worn 1st gear fork, an internal part of the shifting mechanism, or possibly a bent input or output shaft. Where do I start to look fellas? From first port of call to look at, to the inner workings? If it is internal, I may have to drop @kiffsta a line seeing he picked up an MC19 the other day. I hope I dont have to tear this thing down, I really dont want to. I spent a year training it to work. I dont want to have spend another couple of weeks..... Cheers.
Yea first thing I would do is pull the clutch out and check all the components .... plates , springs , nuts etc
I would have a look at the clamp on the end of your selector shaft & gear linkages... Make sure everything is tight and in the correct spot. If the clamp on the selector shaft isn't in the right spot you will hit false neutrals and have difficulty selecting neutral. Also if the clamp on the shaft isn't tight, shifts will feel sloppy and inconsistent.
Yea good point @Linkin ... on the FZR the linkage has to be setup like at the blue arrow or things wont work right
First of all the "constant light grind/vibration" does not sound good. Onto the rest, the gearbox is designed to shift while rotating, so going across multiple gears whilst stationary with the clutch in is problematic on most bikes. Further to what the guys said about the shift lever mechanism, looking at the parts book it shows the usual collection of hairpin springs, detent arms etc. I would be inspecting all of those parts for the slightest bit of wear and replace both springs as a matter of course. Then there is the issue of adjustment.
Dead Pedal: In your original post there are so many issues to deal with and I can be a bit terse at the best of times, so I will try to expand. The selector mechanism (19) has to return to centre after every shift and it is the spring (20) that does this. If it does not then when you try to shift the lever feels solid. This problem often goes one way. For example, you are going up from 2nd to 3rd but you get 'dead pedal'. If this occurs only when going up but when going down you never have the same problem it means that the selector mechanism is not returning to centre, and it needs to be adjusted, and vice versa. You can test this as follows. Using the same example where you tried to shift up into 3rd, if you just put the slightest downward pressure on the gear lever it will return to centre and you can now shift up into third with no issue.
Detent Arm: Part 16 in the image that I attached, locks into a matching recess in the selector drum and this gives you the solid shift feel. It relies on the small spring (18) to do that and as can be seen in the diagram the Honda uses a bush (17) and shaft/sleeve (28) arrangement. Radial displacement makes all this go pear shaped. What I mean is that a tiny bit of wear gets multiplied by the length of the part and those parts begin to twist. This is what I was talking about when I said in my first post that you cannot have even the slightest bit of wear without it affecting function. If OEM things are dodgy, I will often hardchrome or similar to solve problems. Difficulty selecting neutral with the engine running is almost always caused by drag. If it will select neutral easily with the engine off then time to inspect the clutch and actuating mechanism. Keep us posted. Cheers Blair
