seoulman Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 I just went out for a nice spring ride and had to crawl home in second gear. The bike will not shift into neutral and will only shift between 1st and 2nd. Everything seemed okay until I downshifted through the gears from 6th to 1st while making a U-turn. When I tried to upshift the bike would not shift out of first. I pulled over and could not get the bike into neutral but was able to shift into 2nd gear. Now I can't get it back into 1st. Any suggestions?
drewscura Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 Sounds like the ol' shift spring failure. You should find what you need In the Frequently Asked Questions section under transmission spring failure. It's a cheap and fairly simple repair. You'll find alot of help on here with it. Good luck
seoulman Posted March 25, 2009 Author Posted March 25, 2009 Sounds like the ol' shift spring failure. You should find what you need In the Frequently Asked Questions section under transmission spring failure. It's a cheap and fairly simple repair. You'll find alot of help on here with it. Good luck Thanks, I found plenty of info in the FAQs. I didn't realize how common this failure is. For some reason I thought the 04' model had an improved spring.
Orson Posted March 25, 2009 Posted March 25, 2009 For some reason I thought the 04' model had an improved spring. So did I. I thought '02 models were the problems
Dan M Posted March 28, 2009 Posted March 28, 2009 It is odd that you were able to shift between 1 &2. If the spring is broken you should have nothing. Before you remove the side cover try cleaning and lubing the shifter pivot.
al_roethlisberger Posted April 11, 2009 Posted April 11, 2009 It is odd that you were able to shift between 1 &2. If the spring is broken you should have nothing. Before you remove the side cover try cleaning and lubing the shifter pivot. I agree, when the shift return spring breaks, you can not shift into another gear. So I'm suspecting something else such as the linkage being out of adjustment, which does happen. As an aside, the problem with shift spring failure is something of a misnomer(although that IS the result). The problem isn't the spring, the problem is with a mis-sized shift return spring boss being too big, causing the spring to bind and break from fatigue. Even a larger/heftier spring can likely still break, although I believe there were some springs made with a larger boss "hole" diameter. That can fix the problem or getting a new transmission side plate with the correctly sized boss, or milling an oversized one down to the correct size will also fix it. I've not heard of any 04+ bikes, and not even if I recall any 03(not 02 spec 03s) having the bad side plate, so I'd be surprised. Good luck! Al
Tom M Posted April 11, 2009 Posted April 11, 2009 It sure sounds like the shifter pawl spring broke to me. The pawl can flop against the drum and allow an upshift or two after the spring has broken. The first time mine broke I upshifted once or twice before I figured out what happened, but couldn't downshift at all. Also, I'm sure that some post '02 bikes have had the failure too. Bill Hagan's Ballabio did IIRC. Seoulman, please let us know how you made out. I've replaced my spring twice now using BelfastGuzzi's instructions that are linked in the FAQ and it wasn't very hard to do.
al_roethlisberger Posted April 11, 2009 Posted April 11, 2009 It sure sounds like the shifter pawl spring broke to me. The pawl can flop against the drum and allow an upshift or two after the spring has broken. The first time mine broke I upshifted once or twice before I figured out what happened, but couldn't downshift at all. Also, I'm sure that some post '02 bikes have had the failure too. Bill Hagan's Ballabio did IIRC. Seoulman, please let us know how you made out. I've replaced my spring twice now using BelfastGuzzi's instructions that are linked in the FAQ and it wasn't very hard to do. Hrmm, perhaps. I'd check my linkage first though It's far easier. Just an observation.... If you have replaced your spring twice and haven't either reduced the size of the boss, got a new side-cover with the correctly sized boss, or now have a spring with a larger boss "hole", then you're probably going to run into this again. Al
Tom M Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 Hrmm, perhaps. I'd check my linkage first though It's far easier. Just an observation.... If you have replaced your spring twice and haven't either reduced the size of the boss, got a new side-cover with the correctly sized boss, or now have a spring with a larger boss "hole", then you're probably going to run into this again. Al Yup, it's definitely easier to check the linkage first. I just wanted to mention that I managed an upshift or two with a broken pawl return spring. I did grind the pawl boss (no cover involved) down to 15mm from 16mm when I replaced the factory spring with a Cannon Racecraft spring. FWIW I posted a couple pics here when I had to replace the broken Cannon spring with the "improved" Guzzi spring last month: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...2943&st=120
seoulman Posted April 20, 2009 Author Posted April 20, 2009 I finally made some time to work on the bike. I pulled the shift cover off and found a broken ratchet spring. Part # 25 from the attached diagram. Thanks for the help. gearshift_cover.pdf
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