Quaife 5 speed gearbox

[vibrac]

When I bought my first 5 speed for the Rapide in 1999 in a rush for the IOM when standard selectors were not in stock they also supplied the free moving portion of the G59as I could not see the difference and kept my own which was fairly new. when I bought the last one that was not supplied perhaps that is extra critical component where 5 speed are concerned
Personally I would always buy a 5 speed if I needed substantial twin gear replacement they are excellence quality and I have never had any trouble

 

[greg brillus]

One issue can be the vertical cam plate spindle that comes down through the roof of the crankcase. One of 2 things can occur......the tip of the spindle can pass through enough to fowl on at least one of the forks passing under the cam pate, the second is the lip on the spindle can push down on the bevel gear pushing the entire camplate down hard against the forks.........Try backing off the spindle slightly to see if this improves the shift, if so then we can progress from there.......

 

[DRM8491]

Tried backing off spindle but no improvement having to use a ring spanner around the indicator arm with considerable pressure to get the gears to change up and down the box the selector mechanism has no chance ?

 

[greg brillus]

Ok now you need to start isolating things a bit at a time........try backing off the screws holding the G2 cover door on and see if this improves it, it could be a clearance issue with one of the shafts and/or the forks even touching the cover door. You may have to assemble it one shaft at a time and see if they spin freely or something causes them to bind up.

 

[DRM8491]

At the moment the shafts turn by hand ok as i'm turning the shaft when going up and down the box.

 

[ernie]

Hi Ernie, i'm just fitting one of these clusters to my bike and thought i would look at problems people have had
as i find mine very hard to change between the gears and don't see the selector being able to do it.
Any advice would be appreciated. Dave

Polish the edge of the cam-plate. Round off the nose of the indexer G35 and fit a weaker or shorten the spring. Round off the nib in the 3rd gear track for smooth transition up and down into 3rd.
Not everyone has had an over-shifting problem but I did. Fitted the bush to the G49 and the mushroom rivet to the G66.

 

[DRM8491]

Will try this in stages to see how things improve.
Don't have no bush or rivet to fit though.
Thanks Dave

 

[Robert Watson]

Having fitted a couple of these and a Terry Prince copy I can tell you that the cam plate spindle need to be reduced in length on the bottom end as it fouls the selector forks as it shifts in and out of 3rd gear, One of the Quaifes did this slightly and the TP copy did it quite substantially. On the 4 speed neither of the selectors pass under that point but on the 5 speed the 3 rd gear selector passes under it going into 3rd and again coming out.

A few years ago I attended the Montana rally in the motor home and trailered the Rapide. One of the local Vancouver Section bikes died so I gave him the Woolly Rapide to ride home and put his in the trailer. Now this is a guy who has been a Commando rider for many miles (100,000+) and was still a bit new to Vincents. I understand Commando gearbox are quite smooth at shifting. Within an hour of departure I got a short text. "where do I get one of those sexy shifting gearboxes" That was a Quaife.

 

[Bill Cannon]

My Quaife has two niggles that seem to oppose each other.
It only just goes into first but sometimes slips out but when changing into 3rd if I am too enthusiastic it over-shifts into false neutral. I can then raise the lever and reliably get third.
Any ideas?
I replaced G49 some time ago and it is fitted with the extra collar referred to in earlier post. This adjusted to its full limit to get first to engage at all.

I should add that other than these niggles the box is very light and slick.

Cheers Bill

 

[greg brillus]

Bill you might find your G 49 needs a slight adjustment, slightly counterclockwise. This will allow the G 66 AS lever to select back through the gears and indeed 1st gear better whilst giving less travel for upshifting which would help the issue of 3rd over selecting. I always spend a little bit of time setting up the G 49 first as this dictates the overall gear selection, the G 61 merely fine tunes the ratchet G 43 to the G 59 AS pawl assembly. Just the smallest amount of adjustment can help. When moving the G 49 it helps to scribe a line around the outside of it so you can see how far you have moved it........and worst case you can always put it back to where you started if need be. Good luck......... Greg.