Bob, This still sounds exactly like one of the springs and plungers getting intermittently stuck in the bore in the drum shifter. This problem will not leave any debris in the oil (consistent with the fact that you haven't found any debris in the couple of oil changes you've done while troubleshooting) unlike other damage to the gears or shifter forks. Also, your description, "Next I did find that the shifting drum would not work through the gears, even by hand. After some wrangling I got it to shift through all gears while moving it by hand." sounds normal. To shift the transmission by hand with the bike on a stand, you have to have one hand on the rear wheel and give it just a little bit of movement to get the transmission to shift. If you were doing that, maybe the plunger was stuck and freed itself. Before you pull the engine, I suggest you try to duplicate this problem I am describing. Pull the clutch off and shift abruptly, even banging the shift lever against the stops. Try to get the plunger to jam in it's bore. If it does, the pawl will not have any spring pressure against the inner ratcheting surface of the drum shifter, and it is not going to be able to engage the drum shifter when you try to shift in that direction (up or down). If you can duplicate this, I think you should replace the drum shifter, springs, plungers and pawls.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VintageGuy
Okay, so here's the update on the shifting problem.
I took off the right side case and removed all the shifting linkage pieces and cleaned and inspected them all. Didn't see anything worn or broken. Good.
Next I did find that the shifting drum would not work through the gears, even by hand. After some wrangling I got it to shift through all gears while moving it by hand. Good sign, I thought.
I re-assembled the bike to test it out. Rode it down the street shifting through all gears. I thought, great my son can ride tomorrow with me. A short time later he calls me over to tell me that it won't shift, again.
The problem still exists so I guess it's time to pull the guts out of it now. Great, I guess I didn't have enough things to do so let's pull apart a Honda motor next week.
I get it now, it's a father/son bonding opportunity!
Thanks for all the very detailed help from all of you, it really helped. Now it gets interesting!
Bob
|