GS850 Split Case / No First Gear

[slaveforthewave]

I split the cases on my 81 GS850 to change the cam chain guide at the bottom of the motor after I broke it assembling the top end. Got everything back together and thought it was all together properly, but I don't seem to have all of my gears. Bike goes to neutral but will not go down anymore... normally. Occasionally, if I play with the final drive enough and the shifter I can get it into 1st, but it seems to be really rare (20 minutes of shifting up and down). I took pictures as well as I could to focus on the shift forks and the shifting mechanism... Does anything looks out of whack? The shifting mechanism that the shifter meshes with (behind the clutch) came apart and the dogs popped out when I split the case but it looked like I got it back together properly. If at all possible, I'd like to not have to take the engine apart again. I read that most problems can be dealt with from the outside... So I hope so!

Any ideas on why my bike isn't shifting into all of the gears?!

http://s627.photobucket.com/albums/tt352/slaveforthewave/

[Nessism]

I'm not sure if this is the problem or not but you should know that the transmission will not shift though all the gears with the output shaft stationary. The transmission engagement dogs need transmission shaft rotation before the gears can be engaged.

Try shifting while turning the output shaft flange to see if that works better for you.

[Suzuki_Don]

First of all are you trying to shift the gears by riding the bike or are you just trying to shift the gears with the bike on the centre stand with the engine not running. If the latter then you need to rotate the rear wheel while working the gear lever so the two gears will engage with each other.

The other thing to check is if the spigots on the shift forks are located in the grooves in the shift drum.

[TeamDar]

Picture #6. The shift shaft has 5 notches that should line up with the 5 teeth on the shift drum detent. You are off 1 tooth.

[slaveforthewave]

Since I have no rear wheel mounted to the bike I was spinning the output just to get it so shift at all. Figured that out after like 5 minutes of no shifting at all. Just kind of remembered having to rock a bike back and forth a bit to get it to shift sometimes. And now I have all of my gears going through and I can see the gear indicator spinning and the forks moving in and out it gets to neutral and pulls out to disengage and free-spin then it doesn't go down the last bit of the way. It is kind of obvious because the grooves in picture 8 don't go from full lock to full lock. There is just one more shift it is supposed to do but it simply will not... Even when a lot of pressure is on the shifter.

Picture #6. The shift shaft has 5 notches that should line up with the 5 teeth on the shift drum detent. You are off 1 tooth.

In this picture that is true, but i have offset that shifting mechanism by 1 up and 1 down to see if that affected it at all, and it did not help. Unfortunately.

The other thing to check is if the spigots on the shift forks are located in the grooves in the shift drum.

Just to clarify because I am very new to this whole motorcycle transmission thing, the spigots and shift frum are what is in image 8
? The thing that is not going from full lock to full lock in the grooves? Because those little nipples are all in the grooves, they just aren't moving their full rotation.

If the forks look to be in the right spot (assuming you can even tell with those shotty pictures) I assume it has to do with that shifting mechanism and I may take it apart again. I am just REALLY hoping I do not have to split the case again.

[TeamDar]

Okay, picture #4, the fork on the left does not look like it is in the slot on the gear. It lookes like it is next to the slot.

[slaveforthewave]

Well, TeamDar for the win!

Thanks so much!
Splitting the case again wasn't that bad. Just got it back together and I have all of my gears again! WOOHOO!

Wiring harness is next and should have a running motor by this weekend?!