Will not move!

[Stephen]

Riding on bike this morning 1982 GS1100GK. I third gear riding along when all of a sudden, the bike slips into neutral. The bike shifts into other gears, you can hear it, but the bike does not move. When you put into gear, you hear a faint noise from left side of bike ( as you are sitting ). I assume the clutch plate has worn out. Any suggestions on how to check, ect.

[Poot]

when i had my manual, it said that the test to check whether your clutch plate was worn, is to:

from a complete stop, put the bike in 2nd gear, and attempt to take off like you normally would in 1st. if your bike keeps going (even if its rough) and picks up speed, your clutch plate is worn out.

[bwringer]

From the brief description, it could very well be the splines in the rear wheel that engage the splines on the gear housing. When the splines disintegrate, you suddenly get no go-power and a noise on the left.

It seems everyone with a shaftie has had this happen at some point.

Clutch noise is more often on the right, where the clutch is.

Peel back the rubber cover over the front u-joint. Place a screwdriver in the u-joint and see if you can still spin the rear wheel by hand.

[Redman]

I would think that clutch plates dont wear out all the sudden like you described.
Sounds more like something broke in Trasmission or driveshaft sounds like, more like what bwringer is suggesting.

[Anonymous]

Yep, mee too. doesn't sound like clutch, nor transmissiom. Start looking at the rear wheel, and work foreward from there.

[Mr. Jiggles]

You might want to put the word "shaft" in your subject line to make it more descriptive. This should have the same effect as the "Bat Light" from Batman, calling all the GSR shafties into action, who I'm sure will be able to tell you exactly what went wrong on your bike.

Jeff

[Stephen]

With engine running, if you pull clutch in and shift bike into first, let the clutch out, the rear wheel spins. Shift bike back into neutral and real wheel comes to a stop! On a manual transmission car, this would be a friction plate worn out. The plate would be so thin that it could not push against the flywheel with enough force to move the transmission, I think.

[Redman]

plate would be so thin that it could not push against the flywheel with enough force to move the transmission, I think.

My expereince is that clutch plates wear thin and get hard. The hardness seems to be the bigger problem such that they slip more than they grab. THis wear/thinning/hardining happens slowly over time such that you may not notice, first maybe notice under hard acceleration, then over time gets worse to where you can notice it slipping under more moderate accelaration (as opposed to just breaking all at once as you described). And, yes, they do get thinner, but the springs can make up that distance although with less force but it still works, just slipps some under load. What you describes sounds more like something broke.

Minor point: but in the bike there is multiple sets of plates, like 8.

You say the wheel will spin (I assume when on center stand) when you let out clutch in gear with engine running. But yet you say bike doesnt move. When doing this test, did you see if you can easily stop the wheel, say, with light braking or with your foot? If so, if you can easily stop the wheel, then pull back that boot at front of shaft and do that again, see if its turning there or not.

I suppose this thread could turn into a "shaft verses chain" argument, but I dont know that every shafty has experienced this problem. Well, not my present bike with over 60 thousand and not my previous one with 45 thou and not a couple others I know anyway.

[Stephen]

Yes, i did this test with the bike on the center stand. If I try this with the wheels on the ground, the bike will not move. When I put the bike back into neutral, and it is on the center stand, I can stop the tire from spinning with either the brake or my foot. I will try again thi sevening, and peel back the front boot, to see what is happening. But I assume that if the tire is spinning, then the shaft end of things are ok.

[Stephen]

With the engine running, and in first gear, the shaft is turning. I think that it is in fact a situation with the spline. When I put my foot on the rear wheel, while in gear, increase the engine speed, I think that the sound that I hear is actually coming from the real axle.

[Redman]

Yep, If shaft is turning but wheel isnt, then problem is near the rear gear drive, like you have found.
You can pull the lube plug and see the bevel gear ring go around with the wheel, but I dont think that is your probem.
More likley the splines on one of two differernt shafts or a coupling has the problem. THese splines let the shaft slide (a little bit) in/out of the coupling as the rear suspension goes up/down.
Occassionally see the rear gear unit and shaft assembly on ebay (well, for GS850 anyway).