Shift lever sticking?

[Guest]

Hi everyone, new to the forum. You guys and gals seems to be the go to people for GS'. I recently picked up a 1980 gs450 (L, I believe but I'm not positive on the sub model as it was previously hacked up) that I'm fixing up a little bit and getting ready to start daily riding. Today I was just finishing up the last real thing it needed to be road worthy which was addressing the oil leak out of the right side crankcase cover. I pulled the cover, cleaned everything, used rtv gasket maker and reassembled. Filled it back up with fresh oil and took it for a test ride around the block. It appears the oil leak is gone and everything is functioning properly (I was mostly concerned about losing oil pressure since there appears to be a small passage way that leads to the sensor in that cover but as soon as she fired up the low pressure light turned right off.

But anyways the problem I am running into now is that the shifter on the opposite side of the bike now no longer returns to the home/middle position. It has worked fine up until this point so it seems a little too coincidental for something to just have gone bad but I have no idea what I may have messed up.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Also I did some google searches before posting but I couldn't find anything GS relevant.

[tom203]

Welcome. First, you want to avoid rtv sealant, just get an OEM gasket. Little bits of rtv can fall off and do unpleasant things to oil passages, like clog them- bad news,especially in engine that has plain bearings.
So you just took right cover off? No fiddling with the shifter mechanism? Look at this parts fiche to see how stuff works..

http://www.partsoutlaw.com/oemparts/a/suz/50d3f216f8700230d8b4bd36/gear-shifting

[Yungicy]

Welcome. First, you want to avoid rtv sealant, just get an OEM gasket. Little bits of rtv can fall off and do unpleasant things to oil passages, like clog them- bad news,especially in engine that has plain bearings.
So you just took right cover off? No fiddling with the shifter mechanism? Look at this parts fiche to see how stuff works..

http://www.partsoutlaw.com/oemparts/.../gear-shifting

I may just go ahead and order a new gasket and redo the job. Yeah I only pulled the right side cover off. The only thing I touched while things were pulled apart was I pulled the clutch lever. I was looking at that diagram last night but I couldn't really decipher where everything went. That long rod attached to the foot actuated shift lever, does that go through the shifting drum? Also, which mechanism(s) would be responsible for detenting the lever back to the home posistion?

[gordinho80]

Part #24 is a spring that returns the bar back to middle position. Unless you're referring to the clutch hand lever?

[tom203]

I'll take a wild guess and say that the shifter shaft got shifted slightly when the right cover was off and spring 24 fell off its pivot mount..

image.jpg

[Yungicy]

I'll take a wild guess and say that the shifter shaft got shifted slightly when the right cover was off and spring 24 fell off its pivot mount..

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Thanks for the replies and the picture. In order to put that spring back on is that a splitting the case fix or is that something that can be done without splitting? Also I was helping my buddy pick up his bike from the shop today and I ran this scenario past the guy there and he said it may be because I used rtv instead of a gasket and that everything is machined and gasketed to a certain spec/tolerance to hold the long rod of the shifter shaft in place where it needs to be and it may just need the job redone with the correct gasket. Does this sound like a theory that might hold water?

[gsrick]

The tolerance part and needing a gasket, yes. Whether or not that's your problem IDK. If the end of the shift rod fits into a recess in the cover you removed, it could have pressure on the end by not having the clearance the gasket would provide. I had that problem once with a starter idler gear on a Kawi, when my boss had me use RTV instead of buying a gasket. The loss of gasket thickness cause too much pressure in the spacers for the gear and it caused it to bind.

[Yungicy]

I just walked outside and backed off a handful of the screws holding the cover on. The shifter didn't return to perfect but it did definitely seems to loosen up and want to spring back to place. Definitely ordering and new gasket in the morning and I'm pretty sure it should be good to go.

Thank you guys for all your help. I will report back on how things turn out when I get everything buttoned up.

[hillsy]

Shifter rod might be bent as well.

[Yungicy]

Got the new gasket yesterday and got it put on and issue is resolved. One I pulled the cover off I could see where there is a little pedestal on the cover that protrudes to mate up with shift rod. Although the gasket is not thick at all it is definitely needed to prevent the shifter sticking.

Tgank you you all for your help.