Hello everyone,
I'm in need of some advice so this seems like the best place to start. I'm a long time overseas (USA) VOC member and read the forum and MPH regularly, but haven't posted before, or if I did I don't remember. I'll do my best to explain my problem and hope for the best. Thanks in advance for any help, it would be much appreciated and sorry for the long first post/request.
I've owned my Shadow since the mid eighties and rode it a fair bit but several years ago I started having shifting problems and jumping out of gear problems so I pulled her apart and removed the gearbox for inspection. The gears generally had a lot of wear on the dogs and I decided to just replace all the gears and shafts and start from new. I put this engine together originally in about 1985 and times were tight so I used everything I had available in the way of original parts, some may have been beyond their time, but it worked well for some time.
I recently purchased all new gearbox gears, shafts, shifting forks, cam plate etc. and reassembled the gearbox. I still have the gearbox cover off and I've been checking that I can shift through all the gears with the gear position indicator. The problem is that shifting from first to second or first to neutral is almost impossible with the indicator lever. If I tap on the cam plate with a screwdriver gently, I can nudge it eventually into neutral or second, once in second it shifts easily with the gear indicator to third and fourth and back down to second. Once in second again, it is impossible to do with the shift indicator and I don't want to damage the pinion and have to split the cases.
There was a couple of year time lag from when I disassembled the bike until I recently got all the parts together and I don't recall if I used to be able to shift into first and second without the engine running easily or not? I believe that I used to be able to shift all gears by hand with the indicator lever if I just spun the rear wheel a bit, as I said, now it will work fine from second on up and back, but from first to second or second to first it's just too tight.
I've backed the cam plate spindle out a turn and a half or so to be sure it isn't putting pressure on the cam plate, all the gears and forks move easily on their shafts and are well lubricated. I'm at a loss, or maybe I'm expecting too much and need to put it together and fire it up and get everything rattling around good? I also put my old cam plate back in and it is still the same result. So, I'd be grateful for your suggestions or thoughts. Again sorry for the long post and thanks for your consideration.
Best regards,
Mark
I'm in need of some advice so this seems like the best place to start. I'm a long time overseas (USA) VOC member and read the forum and MPH regularly, but haven't posted before, or if I did I don't remember. I'll do my best to explain my problem and hope for the best. Thanks in advance for any help, it would be much appreciated and sorry for the long first post/request.
I've owned my Shadow since the mid eighties and rode it a fair bit but several years ago I started having shifting problems and jumping out of gear problems so I pulled her apart and removed the gearbox for inspection. The gears generally had a lot of wear on the dogs and I decided to just replace all the gears and shafts and start from new. I put this engine together originally in about 1985 and times were tight so I used everything I had available in the way of original parts, some may have been beyond their time, but it worked well for some time.
I recently purchased all new gearbox gears, shafts, shifting forks, cam plate etc. and reassembled the gearbox. I still have the gearbox cover off and I've been checking that I can shift through all the gears with the gear position indicator. The problem is that shifting from first to second or first to neutral is almost impossible with the indicator lever. If I tap on the cam plate with a screwdriver gently, I can nudge it eventually into neutral or second, once in second it shifts easily with the gear indicator to third and fourth and back down to second. Once in second again, it is impossible to do with the shift indicator and I don't want to damage the pinion and have to split the cases.
There was a couple of year time lag from when I disassembled the bike until I recently got all the parts together and I don't recall if I used to be able to shift into first and second without the engine running easily or not? I believe that I used to be able to shift all gears by hand with the indicator lever if I just spun the rear wheel a bit, as I said, now it will work fine from second on up and back, but from first to second or second to first it's just too tight.
I've backed the cam plate spindle out a turn and a half or so to be sure it isn't putting pressure on the cam plate, all the gears and forks move easily on their shafts and are well lubricated. I'm at a loss, or maybe I'm expecting too much and need to put it together and fire it up and get everything rattling around good? I also put my old cam plate back in and it is still the same result. So, I'd be grateful for your suggestions or thoughts. Again sorry for the long post and thanks for your consideration.
Best regards,
Mark