Uh oh...think I just lost my trans.

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Driven

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Finally had a sunny day in the 60s and went for a spin. Made it about a mile and felt something let go inside the tranny. At first I thought it was the motor as it felt like it lost power. Limped her home but I get an awful chatter when I let the clutch out moving from a dead stop. I noticed recently it had been shifting hard, especially downshifting, and basically impossible to find neutral with the motor running. Starts, runs, and revs fine on the stand. Click into gear on the stand, no noise. Only does it under load.

I drained the oil and saw no metal chips or metallic haze in the pan. Is there a cover somewhere that might allow me to see the gears, shift forks, etc? Anyone have a guess as to what i might be dealing with? It almost feels like it's between gears, but it does move forward, just a lot of chatter.
 
Just took it back out and it will take of smooth intermittently but still has the chatter most of the time. It's really bad just before the clutch lever is all the way out. What do you think could be going on with the clutch?
 
I really have no idea.But even very dependable parts go bad eventually. It could be the tabs are broken on the disks and beating whats left into the clutch basket.
 
Sounds like clutch to me too.

If the clutch isn't releasing pressure on the gears it will be hard to shift and hard getting into neutral.

I'd pull the rear clutch cover and pull the plates out.
Could be the dampener plate let go?
 
Well, pulled the clutch. I don't see anything odd. There's a tiny bit of side to side play in the basket but I doubt that's the cause of the grinding I am hearing. I'm wondering if something is loose inside the gearbox. I really don't know. It looks like it will have to come out in order to see what the issue is. I am sure this motor has been out before. Who knows what was done before. I guess this way at least i'll know for sure and can correct any mistakes by the previous owner(s).
 
Yep, bearing was good. Drive shaft seems ok too. I think the noise sounded like it was coming from the front of the motor somewhere. I took the timing belt cover off too and all was good there. Puzzled...
 
Strange because these transmissions are pretty tough and problems are rare.
But then again.....like you say, no telling what someone else did.

What is the history of the bike?
 
Shouldn't be any play in the clutch basket; mine are real tight.

If you run into tranny problems, I have a complete '81 and '82 tranny set available.
 
The shifting mechanism is inside the front cover, and 2 of the transmission shaft bearings are right behind it. The round retainer with 2 philips screws holds the front countershaft bearing. no others are accessible from outside the case. If all is good in there, you'll probably need to split the case. Woo-hoo!
 
Could be the basket I suppose. I am fairly certain I'll have to split the cases to see what's wrong but maybe I'll get lucky and it will be one of those bearings you mentioned. Although none of this explains why it felt like it suddenly lost power and/or forward motion.
 
No. The rpms dropped, thats why I thought it was engine trouble. But now I can't remember if I might have just instinctively backed off the throttle when I felt something 'let go'.
 
Only the countershaft bearing is accessible without splitting the case, but if you have a bearing failure, it would be wise to split it anyway. If a bearing is failing, it could be binding up, causing the loss of power.

Hopefully, it's something external so you won't have to pull the engine and split it. :beg:
 
Upshifts seem positive, but downshifts require some effort. Not excessive, but more than normal. Almost feels like a bent fork but not as bad. If the shift shaft bearing was bad it could cause this but not sure that would explain the sensation of power loss. I agree that if one is bad they all need to be inspected!
 

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