FJR Transmission Slip

Hi Everybody,

I'm new to the forum. From Salt Lake City. Got a question. My 05 FJRabs, over the last 8 months, has developed a millisecond of a "Slip" in the transmission in second gear, only with hard accelleration at around 7,000rpm. Mainly noticeable when accelerating onto a freeway entrance ramp, or merging in with traffic after exiting the highway. That is the ONLY time this ever occurs. I've had it evaluated by the local service station/dealer, and they can't find anything with the bike. It's reliable as can be otherwise, and I plan on taking it on a Cali trip up the coast in two weeks. Either way, concerned, and wondering if anyone else has ever heard or experienced this sort of thing on the FJR? Thanks a ton.

What sort of mileage does the bike have?

Mileage doesn't matter. In all likelihood you have a bent shift fork which is allowing the gear dogs to skip.

There have been several cases in the past (search the forum some) and they all behaved exactly like yours.

Unfortunately, this is a pretty big problem and will require splitting open the trans to fix.

PS - Here's a start on your woeful reading: Forum search on "bent shift fork"

canyon carver said:

Hi Everybody,
I'm new to the forum. From Salt Lake City. Got a question. My 05 FJRabs, over the last 8 months, has developed a millisecond of a "Slip" in the transmission in second gear, only with hard accelleration at around 7,000rpm. Mainly noticeable when accelerating onto a freeway entrance ramp, or merging in with traffic after exiting the highway. That is the ONLY time this ever occurs. I've had it evaluated by the local service station/dealer, and they can't find anything with the bike. It's reliable as can be otherwise, and I plan on taking it on a Cali trip up the coast in two weeks. Either way, concerned, and wondering if anyone else has ever heard or experienced this sort of thing on the FJR? Thanks a ton.

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Start a search on this. There are many threads on the problem. Sounds like you have a bent shift fork and now second gear is going out as it's not getting into second all the way.

Sorry to break this to you as it is not a cheap fix.

Scooper

It's the fork that is bent, causing incomplete engagement of the dogs. The dogs then skip and (eventually) become rounded / damaged making the skipping easier. The more times it happens the more parts you are likely to have to replace.

The bike has 15K miles, and I've had all the services done on time. Bummer. Sounds like bad news. Any idea about how much this fix is? How it could happen in a bike that's never been dropped or wrecked? Hopefully the bike will be safe for this 2000+ mile Cali trip. Although I've grown attached to the FJ, I may have to sell it and consider the new VFR1200 I guess.

Fred W said:

It's the fork that is bent, causing incomplete engagement of the dogs. The dogs then skip and (eventually) become rounded / damaged making the skipping easier. The more times it happens the more parts you are likely to have to replace.

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Yep....sounds like the dreaded "dogs gettin' lazy" affliction.

Probably only thing worse that can happen would be to airmail a piston through the block.

Not good.

Fred, thanks for the helpful info. Woeful reading indeed. I guess it all makes sense. I may try to call Yamaha and complain since this is an issue that really shouldn't occur since I have never done any "clutchless" upshifts. I noticed that they covered the repair on another forum member's ride, back in 2006. Perhaps I could be so lucky. If not for this issue, I'd DEFINITELY keep this bike. I love it.

Well, now that you've mentioned track time, don't point any of your service people to this forum for information. . . .

canyon carver said:

My 05 FJRabs, over the last 8 months, has developed a millisecond of a "Slip" in the transmission in second gear, only with hard accelleration at around 7,000rpm. Mainly noticeable when accelerating onto a freeway entrance ramp, or merging in with traffic after exiting the highway. That is the ONLY time this ever occurs.

Click to expand...

I had the same thing happen to my 2008 but not at the high revs you report. As others have pointed out, it's not an easy/cheap fix. Mine would have been fixed under warranty - if my (soon to be ex) wife hadn't taken it from me.

Good luck.

I'm not sure you guys are on the right page. When I read canyon carver's description of the problem, it sounds more like clutch slip than the transmission kicking out of gear because of incomplete dog engagement.

Canyon Carver: Could you please be more descriptive about the problem? Are you meaning to say that when you gas it in second on the on-ramp, the revs slip a little high, and then come back down? Or possibly they slip high, and remain steady even though the bike is accelerating?

If you had a bent shift fork, and the dogs were disengaging, you'd get more of a metallic grinding sound. A clutch slip would be smooth and silent.

slapnpop said:

I'm not sure you guys are on the right page. When I read canyon carver's description of the problem, it sounds more like clutch slip than the transmission kicking out of gear because of incomplete dog engagement.
Canyon Carver: Could you please be more descriptive about the problem? Are you meaning to say that when you gas it in second on the on-ramp, the revs slip a little high, and then come back down? Or possibly they slip high, and remain steady even though the bike is accelerating?

If you had a bent shift fork, and the dogs were disengaging, you'd get more of a metallic grinding sound. A clutch slip would be smooth and silent.

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Good point. Usually though when a clutch starts to slip it keeps slipping until you let off the gas, then it happens more frequent and at lower RPM but high torque. He says it only happens at that RPM, which is also strange.
Hmmm... :blink:

I would think if it were the dogs/shift fork you would also have some difficulty getting it into 2nd gear sometimes. Does it ever 'kick back' when you shift into 2nd at ~4k-5k RPM's?

If it is popping completely out of 2nd and then revving up, then yes, you likely have a bent shift fork.....if the engine feels like it is slipping and gradually running higher revs maybe it is a clutch issue.

You haven't been running energy conserving oil have you ? A little Fire and Ice oil back in the day put the shiz to my '75 Goldwings clutch before I knew any better.

I would eliminate the clutch as a first step (a lot cheaper if in fact it is the case). It sounds as your slip is under very high load (which could be the clutch).

So let's say one of us runs into this problem in the middle of a long trip.

Could we just bypass 2nd gear? The bike has enough to torque to run a little higher in 1st, shoft twice into 3rd, and be on our way.

Aasland said:

So let's say one of us runs into this problem in the middle of a long trip.
Could we just bypass 2nd gear? The bike has enough to torque to run a little higher in 1st, shoft twice into 3rd, and be on our way.

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Yes , you are right. Alot of the old venture guys had a gear go out on them . I'm thinking it was 2nd or 3rd. Most of them just skipped a gear and ran with it.

Scoop

'canyon carver': "...has developed a millisecond of a "Slip" in the transmission in second gear, only with hard accelleration"

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These are the words (almost verbatum) used by most everyone who first experiences a motorcycle transmission popping-out of 2nd gear.

I agree. The description points to skipping dogs due to bent shift fork.

Here's how to rule out the clutch. You already know this milli-second slippage happens in 2nd gear. Try the same roll-on test in 3rd gear (or 4th or 5th). The clutch's tendency to slip will be increased due to the higher gear ratio making it harder for the engine to accelerate the bike.

If there is no slippage at any other gear (than 2nd that you already know about, don't do that again or you may damage the gears further) then the clutch is not the problem, it is the gears.