Help With Gearbox Cover Removal

[MartyNZ]

5 hours ago, k99 said:

Well, shoot.  I got everything back together and now the neutral switch isn't working.  Any easy ways to check the switch without tearing everything apart again?

When the gearbox is in neutral, the switch plunger goes into a shallow dish in the lower cam wheel. I'd check that you don't have too thin a seal under the switch. If so, the plunger can't extend enough to ground the circuit. When in neutral, try unwinding the switch one flat at a time, and if the light comes on, then you need a thicker seal washer. Of course then you need to be sure that the light goes out when in all 6 gears.

[gstallons]

Remove the switch and check continuity of the switch . Push the button/pin in and see what you get . One way should be open and one way closed . If not ,, try electrical cleaner and "pop" the plunger about 20 times and keep using electrical cleaner until it works . 

[Lucky Phil]

12 hours ago, gstallons said:

Remove the switch and check continuity of the switch . Push the button/pin in and see what you get . One way should be open and one way closed . If not ,, try electrical cleaner and "pop" the plunger about 20 times and keep using electrical cleaner until it works . 

Contact cleaner doesn't work (I know, now there'll be 20 people saying it worked for them)The switch is a sealed unit from both sides, internally for oil and externally for weather. Mine failed and the contact was just tarnished after getting old. Cleaned it up with Scotchbright and it worked again but I couldn't get it to stay together so just used my spare.

 

Ciao

[k99]

All good now, and it was a fairly simple fix thanks to all of your advice.

I took the neutral switch out to check its functionality.  Cleaned it up and worked the plunger a bit.  Everything seemed to work properly.  The switch was below the oil line, but I had a bolt of the same size to plug things up and reduce the loss of that expensive new gearbox oil during my testing.

This was the key tip, however:

On 11/25/2020 at 6:06 PM, MartyNZ said:

When the gearbox is in neutral, the switch plunger goes into a shallow dish in the lower cam wheel. I'd check that you don't have too thin a seal under the switch. If so, the plunger can't extend enough to ground the circuit. When in neutral, try unwinding the switch one flat at a time, and if the light comes on, then you need a thicker seal washer. Of course then you need to be sure that the light goes out when in all 6 gears.

Finding the right seal washer thickness is what got the switch within the fine balancing act between recognizing neutral and turning off in the other gears.

Thank goodness I didn't have to tear the gearbox apart again.  And thank all of you for your advice and sage-like Guzzi wisdom.  

-Keith