"Butter Smooth" Tranny

[docc]

Nog's got to speak for himself on this but I'm taking it as the rod that pushes out of the slave cylinder located on the back of the gearbox. Those slaves can be intensely difficult to remove especially with the driveline in the bike.

 

Try this easy three part antidote: 1) clean, tighten and grease the shift linkage. It may require shimming one end with a thin brass washer. 2) Change the oil to Redline and 3) bleed the clutch system.

 

I'd be surprised if this doesn't make a noticable difference and these are cheap, easy maintenance points.

 

Thinking more darkly, could there be any chance your gearbox is in the recall for slidng dogs and such?

[Guest Nogbad]

The clutch cylinder bears on a pushrod into the centre of the clutch. If this pushrod has gone dry and picked up on the washer / cup at the clutch end and subsequently rotated against the piston it could have worn shorter / cup worn / piston worn resulting in insufficient throw out.

 

More likely you have some air in the hydraulics or a leaky slave cylinder seal though.

[Dr Gil]

Ahhh, thank you for the explanations...I've got it.

 

So my guilty confession is that a couple of months ago, after I crashed the Le Mans and put it back right I took it down to my "local" dealership (250 miles away) and had them do several of those nasty chores that I don't really want to do while they looked over the bike. Among these to-do items was bleeding the clutch lines (along with balancing throttle bodies, greasing that #@$$&* fitting on the drive shaft, etc.). I had previously tried bleeding the clutch myself and bollocks the job badly and was initially happy with their improvement (I now have a Speed Bleeder that I will install upon next rear tire change and I expect things will be MUCH better).

 

So anyway, my somewhat rough shifting may simply be a consequence of me needing to bleed the system again. In the meantime I will dutifully "clean, tighten and grease all moving parts, check the pushrod and go with Redline when next changing the bike's precious bodily fluids.

 

I am clueless about the "sliding dogs" recall. I bought the bike used and am not sure if any recall work has been done. I do know I still have "crinkle paint!"

[docc]

I wa thinking the tranny recall was up through some of the 2001 bikes but no '02s. There is a VIN range on some the old gearbox recall threads. Try a search and make sure you're not in it.