Grinding gears

[flyboy]

Yeah, a thread title like this is enough to make anyone cringe. I was riding my Kat the other day and somehow managed to drop the clutch between the gears (sissy shift). To add insult to injury I was opening up my throttle at the time and the resulting grind echoed throughout the valley for a while. I can't describe how awful and loud the sound of grinding gears was (ugh).
Anyhow I must have got the RPM's to 3000+ in the process as the gearbox screamed. Immediately I realized what I had done but I'm left wondering if I did any damage. The bike seemed fine immediately after that, but yesterday morning as I was pushing my bike with the engine shut and in a 1st gear (with the clutch all the way in) it was grabbing. Now I'm left wondering if that's due to the cold (30 degrees - I'm in Canada), or did I do any damage.

What would you recommend I should do?

[steves]

So you forced it into 1st gear while in motion? Our transmissions don't like that. Probably no permanent damage.... just don't keep doing it.

[KatanaSoldier]

So you forced it into 1st gear while in motion? Our transmissions don't like that. Probably no permanent damage.... just don't keep doing it.

Ditto.

[flyboy]

So you forced it into 1st gear while in motion? Our transmissions don't like that. Probably no permanent damage.... just don't keep doing it.

Nope. What I did was I let go of the clutch too early while giving it a whimpy shift from 2nd to 3rd and throttling up. The gears were turning too fast so it never engaged fully in the gear. Instead the gears sheared against one another at 3000+ RPM for a full second. The grinding noise was as loud as a freight train.

[flyboy]

Anyone???

[The CyberPoet]

No one can tell you definitively without looking inside the gears or riding it whether you did damage and to what extent. Odds are if it's the first time and you never do it again, it won't matter, as the total amount of damages are minimal enough to not prevent proper operation.

But do it regularly and you will certainly get damages not only to the gear teeth, but also to the engagement dogs that will be sufficient to make 2nd gear not want to bite correctly, and possibly subsequent damages as well.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[paintmann111]

Listen to the master, he knows the way of the force.

[The CyberPoet]

Oh, and to make sure it never happens again, I do offer an upgrade shifter spring indent kit (no joke) that replaces the shifter's resistance spring -- the new one requires more force to get it to slip out of gear, but guarantees that the shifter will be moving fast enough to slam home every time once it starts actually moving. It's a good upgrade if you are willing to install it. More details here:

http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.php?t=58596

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[Zepp]

No sense worrying about it. It is in the past and you can not change it. However, be careful in the future. Everything is probably fine, don't worry

[BIGKAT1100]

Nope. What I did was I let go of the clutch too early while giving it a whimpy shift from 2nd to 3rd and throttling up. The gears were turning too fast so it never engaged fully in the gear. Instead the gears sheared against one another at 3000+ RPM for a full second. The grinding noise was as loud as a freight train.

I may be late with this and it may not even matter at this point. I would just check the clutch adjustment, take it for a ride, and go from there. From what you described, you should be OK but as was stated earlier in this thread "don't be doing that anymore" (that's a paraphrase, of course).

[flyboy]

As I just found out, the clutch will grab when it's below freezing (it's below freezing), but to reply, I did adjust the clutch right after the big grind. Thanks for all of your answers!