About a year ago I had this problem. When I shifted down to first gear the shift lever would barely hit the exhaust and sometimes jump into neutral. The shift lever did not appear to be bent so I removed the shift lever and rotated it up one tooth and reinstalled. Problem fixed. Now it has started jumping to neutral again. I am wondering if something is worn or bending in the gearbox. Has anyone else had this happen?

not for me nick ........usually when i select 1 st there is a definate clunk as it goes in .



but i wonder if the down shift is the same on all gears for you ...?

which might indicate that there has been a problem in the past that durring reasssembly or something ...or a heavy landing that has bent something .



does the gear lever return to centre on the springing each and every time ?...eg flick the lever up or flick the lever down



how is the transmission fluid in the gear box ? ...what type? ...when changed ?... any residue of metal in it ?



wish i knew more about this

Firstly is the lever tight on the shaft, do you have trouble selecting any other gears either up or down.

If the lever is tight and the splines on the shaft and lever are good then the problem has to be inside the box. I could not even guess what the actual problem as there are far too many possibilities. Removal of the box is the only way to get to the problem if the splines are OK.

These gearboxes usually are very reliable inspite of the noises that they make.

A Shift lever popping out of gear into neutral may be indicative of a worn or mal-adjusted shift gate in the transmission. There are several videos available on Youtube by pcofranc that shows a teardown and repair of the K75 transmission caused by a loose shift lever grub screw. This may be related to your problem (if you have a loose shift lever) but it will be enlightening to see how simple it is to tear apart these beasts and get things repaired.

Sorry that I can't help you with specific information related to your problem.

Thanks for all the advice. I took the shift lever off and rotated it up one tooth and it works fine. Something internally must be worn. It will have to wait till winter, must ride as much as possible while weather permits. I'll pull the gearbox and check it out, I need to replace the output shaft seal anyway.

Hey Nick, have you adjusted the clutch cable's freeplay ever? Cables do stretch over time and can go out a bit. With a mis-adjusted or worn cable it can be difficult to easily select neutral (and will sometimes allow the gearbox to pop out of gear) because the clutch's two main plates can't separate enough to smoothly engage first gear at idle or when slowing down. There should be a coupla mm's of freeplay at the hand lever and a few at the clutch arm as well. Check it out to see if this might be contributing to the problem.

Well it looks like I will get to find out the source of the problem. Yesterday when I was riding home from work I started having problems downshifting. I lost first and second gear half the way home and by the time I reached my destination I only had fifth gear. When I downshifted it could not find a gear and it was hitting the exhaust pipe. The shift lever now moves about 9" up and down.

So I will pull the gearbox this weekend and try and solve the problem.

A bit more than cable stretch, I guess. Sorry to hear that. Please let us know how you go with it.

good luck nick !!

Nick!
I`ll guess this thread from a K11 forum would be helpful to you.

Inge K.

Good News! It turns out the cone shaped set screw that connects the shift rod to the shift linkage had vibrated loose and was slowly backing out. Some threadlock will fix that.

I was amazed at how the gearbox interior looked. It has 67,000 miles on it and looks brand new. No wear on the bearings or gears and it has the original clutch dated 4/84.

I am replacing the clutch, the output shaft seal and all the gearbox seals while I have it torn down.

Can't wait to get it back on the road.

Thanks everyone, Nick

nice one nick ......woohoo