Transmission repair tutorial needed.

[Guest]

As I'm still experiencing a problem with the Katana project bike not shifting out of 1st, I'm going to have to dive into the transmission. I have not worked on a tranny before and while I do have a couple of manuals, the procedural descriptions and pictures seem to be lacking in detail and are thus abit confusing.

I have done searches but can't turn up anything helpful and I wonder now if there is a tutorial anyone may be aware of.

I do have a spare engine to play with so if nothing turns up I guess I can just dive in and see where that takes me.

As always, any and all assistance is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Spyug

[tkent02]

I do have a spare engine to play with so if nothing turns up I guess I can just dive in and see where that takes me.

If you have another, why not just slap your new top end on that bottom end?
Is the other one good as far as shifting goes? Is it the same model engine?
That would be as quick and easy as a top end rebuild. Then you can tear into the bad tranny at your leisure and make us a great tutorial about it.

[Nessism]

For the bike to be stuck in gear I think there would have to be something seriously wrong with the shifting mechanism. If it was a gears problem, I think there would be a lot of noise. Did you remove the clutch hub and look at the shift pawl/spring mechanism yet? Could be the little bits are jammed. If that all looks good I'd try to manually move the shift drum while simultaneously turning the rear wheel so see if the transmission will shift that way.

[spyug]

I wrote about this back earlier in the year when I first tried to test ride the bike.

I am able to get it to move no problem in first gear but it will not shift up. When on the lift with engine not running, I can move the shifter by hand up and down and it does seem to go into gear. So it doesn't seem to be jammed in gear. I didn't get a chance to try it on the lift with the engine on and that was going to be my next test. I need my buddy to help but he's not available for a few more days.

Someone suggested it may be the shifter linkage that is too 'sloppy". It could be but as I've never had a bike with this type of mechanism I can't really tell what's acceptable and what's not. It does seem to have lots of play in it mind you.

Earlier, I did pull the clutch hub but didn't see anything amiss and there is no grinding or weird noises coming from the tranny when the bike is idling or when moving in 1st gear.

The spare engine I have is pretty nasty looking and I suspect it has been hard run. I don't know the mileage or history but I did pull off the cam cover and there is some scorching and scoring on the cams so I'm thinking its junk. The tranny could be alright I don't know but I was hoping I might get some parts out of it if needed.

I really don't want to have to pull the engine and dive into the transmission but I may have to so I'm just trying to get myself ready for that.

I'll try that running test with the bike on the stand and see if that proves anything.

Stay tuned.

Cheers,
spyug

[Suzuki_Don]

Try taking off in 2nd gear and see if you can change up to 3rd, etc. while on the move. If you still can't change gear then it is definitely a selector problem I would say. It could be the slop in the gear linkage.

I had a GT750 once on which I could not change gear, but in this case the transmission had leaked all the oil out and the gear had seized on the shaft through lack of lubrication. I had to ride 80 km in third gear on freeway to get home. Pulled it down and drove the gear off the shaft with a drift and hammer. Cleaned up the shaft and gear with emery cloth, a fine polish of the splines so everything would slide smoothly again. Filled with oil and it was a totally different bike to ride. But I digress, this is not your problem

[spyug]

Thanks Don I had thought of that too.

An hour ago I decided to fire her up since she has been sitting since about May. Hard to start but she did go eventually. Abit of an issue with the starter button but all in all it does go. She had been running fine prior to the layup so I suspect if I run her a few more times she'll be back to her old self

The first step will be to get her back on the lift and see if I can run it and shift with my hand. After that I'll try the starting in 2nd.

I'm hoping it will eventually start shifting or I find something simple to fix as I really don't want to have to dive in to that tranny.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Cheers,
spyug

[BadBillyB]

Hey Spyug, I think a transmission diagnosis is in order. First of all there should never be any play in the shifter. If you are sure the lever bolt and lever are tight on the shaft there should be absolutyely no slack or play in the shift lever. If there is, pull the clutch cover and inspect the lever return spring and make sure its installed right. Then check the pawl mechanism for proper indexing and movement...If you can push the bike in neutral and theres no clanking noise from the transmission, the shift forks are probably OK...Not likely you will need to split the cases to fix this problem.........Billy

[sharpy]

Pull the clutch off and see if the fingers on the gear selector shaft are ok when you shift up and down. If the gears dont do as you hope drop the sump and see if any metal in in that. Then im afraid its out with the engine turn it upside down and pull the cases apart to see if anything is bent/worn

[SqDancerLynn1]

80-82 would carbon up the oil passages to the top end. Wipes out the cams. bottom end is probably Ok

[Ross]

I have a 93 GSX1100. It has a bad second gear. I got a hold of a guy that hooked me up with a trans guy from Fast By Gas. This guy was great. he told me a bunch of stuff most others have no clue about. Many gave me complete wrong info. We have the same trans. So I can relay what I was told.
#1 The internals are just about bullet proof. It is almost impossible to grind/ ring/ chew/ the teeth off.
#2, you do not have to split the cases. The trans comes out the bottom .
Remove the oil pan and side covers., dont touch the top end.
#3 9 out of 10 times, shift forks/dogs are tore up.
9 out of 10 times, any issues the trans has is not from the inside but rather the outside. Most of the time, starting with the shifter shaft.
So make sure you find the cause of the problem and repair that correctly. Then fix any damage it caused. If you are in Ga. holler I can put you to this guy. He is honest, and does very good work.

[tkent02]

#2, you do not have to split the cases. The trans comes out the bottom .

That's a neat trick, boy those Suzuki engineers were really clever.

[spyug]

Ok so I've got gears.......I think

I put the bike on the lift this afternoon and fired her up. She won't run off choke but that'll come again (running and idling perfectly before I put her away.....honest).

So I press down from neutral and I get first gear snick it up and 2nd then 3rd, 4th but no 5th. I did notice that there is a little play in the shift linkage but more noticeable is that moving the shift linkage seems to pull the shift rod laterally a millimeter or so toward the rear. Don't know if that has any effect or not.

So I fiddle with it a bit more and I still can't select a 5th when using my hand but very oddly when I use my toe I can

I'm going to concentrate on getting it to run and idle in the next day or so and hopefully on the weekend I'll see if I can get my buddy to test ride since I'm still not allowed.

I don't hear any clanging or banging or whirling or any weird noises when its running and in gear so I'm hopeful I've got a working gearbox after all.

I'll let you know how it turns out on the weekend.

Cheers and thanks for all the input.

Spyug