1982 GS650GL. 2nd gear is busted. Time to take apart the engine

[60ratrod]

Glad to see you salvaged your riding season. I just managed to salvage mine too. I think your 650 looks great as is

[Missile99]

+1 on motorcycle "maintenance??" hahahaha, like I said, you can work on my bike any time..hope she goes well for you!!

Yes, I should have said repair or rebuilding. This definitely goes beyond the "maintenance" aspect.

[William Groebe]

She rode well this morning. My commute is twenty miles of mostly freeway. All gears run well, and the vibrations I experienced at high RPMs are still there, but definitely less so than before. I got to work and don't see any leaks from the engine at all. wahoo!

[60ratrod]

What all did you replace besides the shift drum? I want as good of an idea as to what I need to look at when I tear into my 650g's tranny.

[William Groebe]

60ratrodI replaced the whole transmission. Looking back on it I think I only needed to replace the one gouged shifter fork and the shift drum as it had a gouge in the groove at the 2nd gear position. The dogs on all the gears Of my original tranny looked the same as the dogs on the new tranny. But since I was in there I decided to go ahead and replace everything just in case. I think I got the whole tranny for $50 on eBay. Here's a pic of all the new stuff I put in.

[60ratrod]

hey will, when i get my tranny torn down and looked at, could i get what you still have that's good if i need it? i haven't touched my gs since i got my kz on the road because i'm still trying to get the last of my season in.

[JTGS850GL]

Did you reuse the piston rings? Hone the cylinders? Just curious.

[William Groebe]

ARGH! My bike has run great for two weeks, so I thought I was out of the woods. I planned a day trip down Santa Cruz, but didn't get past San Francisco before I noticed a hollow pinging sound. It was scary enough to turn me around. I didn't even make it all the way home before the noise was so loud and I'd lost almost all power, so I pulled over, Ubered home, and drove back with my truck to pick it up. I'm going to take the engine back out and pull the top end off and run it by my mechanic and see if he can figure out what might be wrong. Darn. Back in the cage for my commute until I can fix this new issue.


60ratrod. I'd throw some parts at you, but I feel the need to hold on to everything for now at least until I can be assured that the bike is running well and doesn't need any more engine work.

JTGS850Gl. I did reuse the piston rings, but did not hone the cylinders. I was just doing a tranny rebuild. I figured I didn't want to add any more variables to the fix. I can always go back and do more, but wanted to get it back up and running as quickly as possible.

[60ratrod]

No sweat Will. I haven't even pulled the bottom off the motor. I'm hoping it's just a shift drum like yours. And you wouldn't need to replace the rings or hone the cylinders if you put everything back where it came from (same piston/cylinder).