"Shift 46"

This morning while riding (normal on road nothing crazy), after stopping at a stoplight and pulling away, the clutch appeared to be slipping. The engine revved to about 6000 rpm before engaging, I then shifted into second at which point it would not shift up or down. It just seemed frozen. At that point "SHIFT46" appeared on the screen. After stopping at the next stoplight, the bike remained in second gear and stalled (not being able to go back down to 1st). I then restarted it in second and was able to ride it home, stalling it two more times at traffic lights.

Upon looking in the Service manual, it appears to be the "Gear Position Sensor". Has anyone else had or seen this fault code? Can't get to the dealer until Tuesday.

There was recently a thread about "Shift 48". It might give you some insight: Linked here!

According to the FSM here is what Sh 46 error is:

Fault code No.: Sh_ _46*Symptom: Engine speed and gear position sensor signal do not match while vehicle is driven.

Malfunction detecting condition: Gear position calculated by MCU (motor control unit) is different from foot shift switch signal.

Able/unable to start: Unable

Able/unable to change the shift: Unable

Click to expand...

Sounds like a gear position sensor problem.

Fred W said:

According to the FSM here is what Sh 46 error is:

Fault code No.: Sh_ _46*Symptom: Engine speed and gear position sensor signal do not match while vehicle is driven.

Malfunction detecting condition: Gear position calculated by MCU (motor control unit) is different from foot shift switch signal.

Able/unable to start: Unable

Able/unable to change the shift: Unable

Click to expand...

Sounds like a gear position sensor problem.

Click to expand...

Yes, I saw that. I hope it is just a sensor.

Well, today I got the bike to the dealer. They took it apart and determined that the clutch is fried. They said Yamaha had never seen this before, on one of the fiber plates, the fibers were completely gone. Sooo, I don't know if it was a faulty clutch or faulty operator....(thinking operator). The dealer said it looked like starting in a too high gear (which I never do). In fact he said it looked more trashed than a kid doing burnouts on an R1.

The only "abuse" would be from practicing slow stuff like the box, but I haven't done a whole lot of that.

Isn't that a James Gang piece?

I am sad to hear of this bad fortune. Just for reference, how many miles are on the bike?

radman said:

Isn't that a James Gang piece?

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As Harry Doyle would say.

"Just a little outside".

myzen said:

Well, today I got the bike to the dealer. They took it apart and determined that the clutch is fried. They said Yamaha had never seen this before, on one of the fiber plates, the fibers were completely gone. Sooo, I don't know if it was a faulty clutch or faulty operator....(thinking operator). The dealer said it looked like starting in a too high gear (which I never do). In fact he said it looked more trashed than a kid doing burnouts on an R1.
The only "abuse" would be from practicing slow stuff like the box, but I haven't done a whole lot of that.

Click to expand...

I'd question Yamaha's response. There have been FJRs that have gone back to the dealers with dry clutch plates that were installed dry.

From our friends at Google:

dry clutch site:fjrforum.com

clutch plates site:fjrforum.com

You could also try your own combination but this should give you some background.

El Toro said:

I am sad to hear of this bad fortune. Just for reference, how many miles are on the bike?

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El Toro, I have just under 4000 on it.

madmike2 said:

myzen said:

Well, today I got the bike to the dealer. They took it apart and determined that the clutch is fried. They said Yamaha had never seen this before, on one of the fiber plates, the fibers were completely gone. Sooo, I don't know if it was a faulty clutch or faulty operator....(thinking operator). The dealer said it looked like starting in a too high gear (which I never do). In fact he said it looked more trashed than a kid doing burnouts on an R1.
The only "abuse" would be from practicing slow stuff like the box, but I haven't done a whole lot of that.

Click to expand...

I'd question Yamaha's response. There have been FJRs that have gone back to the dealers with dry clutch plates that were installed dry.

From our friends at Google:

dry clutch site:fjrforum.com

clutch plates site:fjrforum.com

You could also try your own combination but this should give you some background.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Madmike2

myzen said:

Well, today I got the bike to the dealer. They took it apart and determined that the clutch is fried. They said Yamaha had never seen this before, on one of the fiber plates, the fibers were completely gone. Sooo, I don't know if it was a faulty clutch or faulty operator....(thinking operator). The dealer said it looked like starting in a too high gear (which I never do). In fact he said it looked more trashed than a kid doing burnouts on an R1.
The only "abuse" would be from practicing slow stuff like the box, but I haven't done a whole lot of that.

Click to expand...

FWIW:

My '06 AS (UK for AE) has about 13000 miles. It has suffered more low speed slipping than most (a 3 mile commute through stop - not-very-go city traffic means it is often slipping the clutch for relatively long periods).

At about 11000 miles, whilst in for a service, I had the dealer (one I trust) soak the plates because it juddered a little on take-off. He reported no unusual wear on the plates. (And the judder was reduced to nearly nothing.)

So I don't think low speed practice will, in itself, cause significant wear. My guess would be that you had a very dry clutch on original assembly.

(It's always a mystery to me how they don't get oiled in use, but they obviously don't.)

mcatrophy said:

myzen said:

Well, today I got the bike to the dealer. They took it apart and determined that the clutch is fried. They said Yamaha had never seen this before, on one of the fiber plates, the fibers were completely gone. Sooo, I don't know if it was a faulty clutch or faulty operator....(thinking operator). The dealer said it looked like starting in a too high gear (which I never do). In fact he said it looked more trashed than a kid doing burnouts on an R1.
The only "abuse" would be from practicing slow stuff like the box, but I haven't done a whole lot of that.

Click to expand...

FWIW:

My '06 AS (UK for AE) has about 13000 miles. It has suffered more low speed slipping than most (a 3 mile commute through stop - not-very-go city traffic means it is often slipping the clutch for relatively long periods).

At about 11000 miles, whilst in for a service, I had the dealer (one I trust) soak the plates because it juddered a little on take-off. He reported no unusual wear on the plates. (And the judder was reduced to nearly nothing.)

So I don't think low speed practice will, in itself, cause significant wear. My guess would be that you had a very dry clutch on original assembly.

(It's always a mystery to me how they don't get oiled in use, but they obviously don't.)

Click to expand...

Thanks for that bit of info. I was thinking last night about all of the slow speed stuff we do on the smaller bikes and go a whole year without having to put new clutches in (plus there are LOTS of inexperienced people riding those bikes). I couldn't imagine that my technique would be that bad, and after reading some of the posts that madmike2 had linked to I surmised that it probably was victim of the dry plates as well. Gladly they are replacing it under warranty.

I picked up the bike today from K and N Yamaha. There was ZERO charges for any of the work completed as well as for them to pick the bike up (hats off to them).

I got into the discussion regarding the dry clutch plates from the factory which he adamantly denied there being a problem with that. I advised him of the research I had done thanks to the help of my forum friends. He still called BS. He told me "the guys in Georgia" told him it was starting out in a gear higher than first. I advised him that I never (with the exception of getting it home on the last ride with the SHIFT 46 light) have I ever used any other gear than first when starting out. Plus I have been riding for over 20 years and I do not abuse my bikes. His response was, I'm just telling you what the factory said. We agreed to disagree, and I left with my bike.

Upon riding the bike home, I noticed how smooth the shifting had become. I remember initially when I would click it into gear, it was noisy and it felt as if it would (slightly) lurch forward. In addition once under way, you could hear and feel it clck into gear.

With the new clutch installed, there is no lurch, and gear changes are silky smooth. It almost feels like a CVT transmission.

Wellllll....NOW it has been installed correctly!

And all of this time, when you'd read posts about how well a particular clutch/transmission worked you were thinking that owner was son crack, huh? C'mon, admit it! You thought we were nutso-cuckoo! :wacko:

You are now assimilated! :yahoo:

myzen said:

...Upon riding the bike home, I noticed how smooth the shifting had become. I remember initially when I would click it into gear, it was noisy and it felt as if it would (slightly) lurch forward. In addition once under way, you could hear and feel it clck into gear.

With the new clutch installed, there is no lurch, and gear changes are silky smooth. It almost feels like a CVT transmission.

Click to expand...

Very glad it feels so much better.

Chalk up another dry clutch into the statistics (whatever Yamaha says).

Let's hope no more error codes!

madmike2 said:

Wellllll....NOW it has been installed correctly!
And all of this time, when you'd read posts about how well a particular clutch/transmission worked you were thinking that owner was son crack, huh? C'mon, admit it! You thought we were nutso-cuckoo! :wacko:

You are now assimilated! :yahoo:

Click to expand...

You are right, I am assimilated :clapping: