On my wife's 77 GS550B, we swapped out her worn out high mileage engine (os pistons are hard to come by!) for a 16,000 mile engine with great compression. Before, her old gearbox would have a really hard time going from neutral to first periodically, with pushing the bike forward usually making it able to shift again.
Well, we were glad we got rid of that problem with the low mileage 1978 550 engine swap. Now this gearbox sometimes seems to get stuck in first... I adjusted the clutch several times and played with it, and after a 10 minute test drive, got it to do this once, where it wouldn't shift into 2nd or neutral or anywhere, and this was while moving 10mph or so. Eventually I got it to go.
What areas should I look at? After researching many threads for this issue and my GS750 having a hard time getting into neutral while parked, seems as if maybe a bent shift fork is my most likely best guess as of now. Other areas to look at for both bikes' problems seem to be warped clutch, weak or uneven pressure clutch springs, mal-adjusted clutch cable/linkage, dirty oil, and more for my problem, weak neutral detent spring (not sure what this is actually called).
Thinking back on it now, I do recall the clutch not seeming as smooth as it should when slowly letting it out and allowing it to slip a little bit. I think the clutches in the original (now spare) engine were fine. Could this be the problem? Any guesses at the original engine's shifting problem of not wanting to go into first from N? May like to try and make a GS650 chain drive engine out of that some day.
Thanks,
Chuck and Reda
Well, we were glad we got rid of that problem with the low mileage 1978 550 engine swap. Now this gearbox sometimes seems to get stuck in first... I adjusted the clutch several times and played with it, and after a 10 minute test drive, got it to do this once, where it wouldn't shift into 2nd or neutral or anywhere, and this was while moving 10mph or so. Eventually I got it to go.
What areas should I look at? After researching many threads for this issue and my GS750 having a hard time getting into neutral while parked, seems as if maybe a bent shift fork is my most likely best guess as of now. Other areas to look at for both bikes' problems seem to be warped clutch, weak or uneven pressure clutch springs, mal-adjusted clutch cable/linkage, dirty oil, and more for my problem, weak neutral detent spring (not sure what this is actually called).
Thinking back on it now, I do recall the clutch not seeming as smooth as it should when slowly letting it out and allowing it to slip a little bit. I think the clutches in the original (now spare) engine were fine. Could this be the problem? Any guesses at the original engine's shifting problem of not wanting to go into first from N? May like to try and make a GS650 chain drive engine out of that some day.
Thanks,
Chuck and Reda
