Interesting Transmission Problem

[JoeNashville]

So I went out a ride ( '79 GS 1000) a while back with a friend. Right away the clutch was slipping. Typical slippage on fairly hard acceleration. Turned around to home, quick adjustment on the clutch and rode about 3 hours with no issues. The clutch is less than a year old, maybe 1500 miles this year and worked great up to this point.

The next ride it started 'slipping' randomly fairly quickly so I stayed near the house to sus it out. After a few miles I was heading home, stopped at the light closest to the house and it would'nt even go into first gear. So I parked the bike, walked home, changed my clothes, walked back and pushed it home.

Testing revealed it will go into and run through all the gears on the center stand. Everything sounds solid and fine, no noises save possibly a faint noise coming from the clutch area.
Off the center stand in riding position, it will still shift through all the gears, but letting the clutch out and nothing happens.
Also even when not running and in gear I can push it almost as easily as if in neutral.

Further testing includes.
On the center stand,engine off, it seems fine, in gear the tire won't turn once the lash is gone, everything seems normal.

I changed the oil hoping for an Ockums razor solution, but the symptoms are exactly the same.

Pulled the clutch apart to find:
The OEM frictions are within spec;
The steels are within spec;
The springs are within spec;
Nothing visible wrong with the basket...


Nothing visibly wrong, again everything looks and works as it should.

I put the borescope into the bottom case and the transmission again has nothing visibly wrong.
In gear works exactly as it should.

According the shop manual a potential issue is the clutch pressure plate, but I can't find any specifics on the plate to be able to check the tolerances.

I'm running out of ideas, and pulling the clutch basket off is my next move.

Wanted to see if anyone else may have had the same issue. Searching the posts came up with more threads on car transmissons than the GS.

I've got a complete now OEM clutch assembly I could pop in, but I'm not confident that is the problem.

I lothe the parts cannon, so I'm hoping someone has some other ideas.

Happy New Year!

[rphillips]

Maybe a messed up clutch cable not letting clutch completely engage. Check the little pin that holds the clutch cable to the little arm on top of the clutch cover. That pin should have plenty of loose motion.