Shifting Issues

Hey Guys

I'm riding my Gen 1 04 bike with only about 35,000 km's (Canadian bike, low 20,000 miles) and sometimes I am finding my shifter doesnt return to "home" position between upshifts, causing me to have to tap it down in order to "reshift" to the next gear. No issues on the downshift. Its kind of goofy really because everything seems ok externally.... a quick look at the linkage everything seems free...

Any ideas? I haven't searched the forum.....

Thanks in advance,

Neil

Shift pivot likely gummed up. The whole works needs to be taken apart, cleaned and re-lubed. Maybe an hour's work or less.

There have been a few cases of a broken spring but this is far less common.

I have an 03 FJR, always had this issue.I found that if I "pre load" my shifts, it seems to help quite a bit. I assume you know what I mean by pre load, but if not let me know. Also I always found that changing my oil on scheduled helped with shifts, particularly with colder weather, I would change oil a little before schedule. Hope this helps.

Also, I agree with RossKean, that very possibly he has it right. So now you have a couple of leads to follow up!

Ross is right. You will need to remove this plate:



Once the plate is off you want to clean and lube the pivot indicated in red.



The washer pointed to by the red arrow is a wave washer, you don't want the pivot to screw down so tight that the wave washer is flattened, it will cause the shifter to bind up in spite of your fresh cleaning and lubing. There were some recent discussions about tightening this screw. It seems some people can just screw it down (to a small torque value) and it won't bind the washer, others like my '04 can't be fully tightened so I had to use locktite on it to ensure the screw didn't back out. Worked for me for 110k miles. FWIW.

Thanks guys... looks like its back to the old school MX days of cleaning my shifter pivot..... LOL I was kind of hoping those days were behind..... apparently road dirt and debris can be a problem.... looks like a fairly easy fix.

Guess I know what I am doing tonight!!

Its been a great year so far.... 22,000 kms... or just over 13,500 miles so far this year.... Not sure I'll ever do that again but its been amazing so far!!

Cheers

While you're at it, do the brake pivot on the other side. It probably needs to be done annually. The shifter pivot is good for at least a few years if you do a good job on it.

Did the brake pivot a while back. Haven't removed the plate over the shifter. Still not convinced I won't screw something up. So the top right bolt in the cover plate also supports the pivot that needs to be lubed? Thus far I've just been hitting it blind with lube using a rag to contain and remove excess lubricant.

neilj14 said:

Hey GuysI'm riding my Gen 1 04 bike with only about 35,000 km's (Canadian bike, low 20,000 miles) and sometimes I am finding my shifter doesnt return to "home" position between upshifts, causing me to have to tap it down in order to "reshift" to the next gear. No issues on the downshift. Its kind of goofy really because everything seems ok externally.... a quick look at the linkage everything seems free...

Any ideas? I haven't searched the forum..... Thanks in advance,

Neil

Click to expand...

Neil,

Yeah, clean and lube the shifter pivot, and the other pivot points as well. That should fix the problem for you. If you Search, there are threads here about installing a Zerk grease fitting into the shifter pivot assembly, which makes new lube a snap. With the Zerk fitting, you just pump in enough fresh grease to push out all of the dirty grease, wipe away the dirty grease, and you are golden. This improvement is on my list, for winter maintenance.

Welcome to fray.

Infrared

One might consider a Zerk for the rear brake pivot but not the shifter pivot. Not only does the shifter need only infrequent service but I don't think there's an accessible place to put it. (see the diagram in ionbeam's post #4 (above)

Personally, I wouldn't even bother with the Zerk for the brake pivot. Not that complicated or time-consuming to service.

Shifter pivot cleaned up and fixed. Overly simple in my world.... Apparently I should have just started wrenching and I would have found it. Brake pivot and swing arm in my winter maintenance program. Hopefully not for a bit....

Thanks for the input everyone.