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Background: I bought my 1996 GSX600F last fall as a non running project bike to work on while my '98 Yamaha is apart for painting. I got the bike to actually run with lots of help from this site (thanks guys) and I decided that I would contribute something. Upon actually riding the bike, I learned that it had a major issue which was preventing shifting up from second to third.
I did a bunch of searching around Katriders after finding that my bike had this problem. There are many posts about second gear failures, but only 1 or 2 that even mentioned anything resembling my problem. I decided from what I could figure out that I either had a bent shift fork or bad shift drum (it was a fork). What I did find encouraging was that despite the general consensus on this site that you must split the cases to get to these parts, that there are a couple of posts where members mention checking/changing these parts with a simple oil pan removal.
Well, here is my guide on how to do this - because it is possible, at least on my model. Your model may be slightly different - do plenty of searches and look at fiches to decide for yourself before removing any parts!
SAFETY: SECURE YOUR BIKE SO THAT IT CANNOT FALL. If you don't have it on any sort of lift, you will be laying underneath it for an extended period of time. Make sure it absolutely cannot fall on you. Please. I claim no responsibility for the use of this information or any consequences of its use.
First, I want you to review these parts fiches and imagine the parts as they are in the bike. This will help us as we really get in there and do some troubleshooting:
http://www.partzilla.com/parts/searc...ING/parts.html
http://www.partzilla.com/parts/searc...ION/parts.html
Now, using your manual, remove your exhaust, oil pan, and clutch. You have your manual, don't you???
Also, you will need to remove your front sprocket cover and remove the snap ring which retains the "shaft, gear shifting" (see fiche).
So now you will be left with something like this:
Behind the clutch:
IMPORTANT: We will be removing the four screws in the bottom, left hand corner of the whole assembly. They hold plates which hold the shift cam and shift fork shaft from backing out. THESE SCREWS ARE VERY EASY TO STRIP OUT AND YOU WILL HATE YOURSELF FOR SEVERAL HOURS/DAYS IF YOU DO STRIP THEM. Ask me how I know (check the colors of all those screws lol).
Up into the engine from below:
Here we see the gear shift cam, the gear shift shaft, as well as the bases of the gear shift forks (see fiche). Also a few gears!
Remove the 4 screws from before and pull out the two plates:
The "guide, cam" plate (sorry no picture of the other):
What you should see after NOT stripping out the screws and then successfully removing the plates:
You can see here that I did not totally remove the "shaft, gear shifting". I found that just pulling it out a bit to clear the "gear shift cam, driven" (see fiche) and turning it out of the way worked just fine. (If you have big hands, I suppose it may get in your way in the following steps. Feel free to remove it then, but that may be more work in the end. See manual.) Note that I have already removed the shift fork shaft in this picture.
Now that the plates are out of the way, you can remove the "shaft, gear shifting fork":
As you do this, look up into the transmission and catch the forks as they are set free from the shaft. You may have to poke them a couple of times for them to fall.
Check the forks for abnormal wear or any obvious problems. The pins at the base of the forks need a good inspection, as well. Here is what my #3 fork (see fiche) looked like when I pulled it out vs a new-to-me ebay fork I ordered to replace:
"New" fork on the left, old on the right. I figure it bent just enough to rub against the gear on that side of the fork, and to cause the issue I was having.
If you don't see anything like this, at least check the fork wear against the specs in your manual. It's up to you to decide whether to replace these parts at this point. Maybe they're bent, maybe they're not. Look at your particular symptoms and decide.
Next, remove the gear shift cam. I don't have pics of this, but just follow the manual. Remove the neutral sensor switch and a snap ring, then carefully pull it free. Watch that the "gear shift cam, driven" and its springs/parts don't fly everywhere! Inspect the shift cam for damage to the groves. You should know this when you see it.
After removing all of these parts, you should have a spectacular view of the gears and shafts - depending on how good you are at laying on your back for an hour and spinning the rear wheel of a 500 pound motorcycle that could smash your head if it fell (SEE SAFETY, ABOVE). Hint: put a folded up towel under your head.
What I did was look up into the transmission and spin the rear wheel and watch the gears spin. You should be able to spot any missing teeth (hopefully you would have seen these in the oil pan). Now take a look at the sides of the gears for wear on the dogs and their corresponding slots. I found it helpful to scoot around to get different views, and I also used a screwdriver to gently push the sliding gears as necessary. Hint: if you are spinning the gears and everything locks up, you need to slide a gear until you figure out which one is causing this to happen.
When you are satisfied with your inspection, reverse these steps to reinstall replacement and/or original parts. You will need to install the shift cam, and then the forks. For the forks install one at a time starting with fork #1, and push their shaft through as you get them in place and lined up. You will need to be patient, but you can get them back in there! They engage the sliding gears, obviously.
Yes, I did all of this without splitting the cases. Saved me a lot of time and money. Now, if there was something wrong with any of my gears I may not have seen it - but I'm not having any symptoms to indicate bad dogs or teeth. But I would have dropped the engine to fix it, because that's just how I am.
Good new is, for me, replacing the bad shift fork fixed my shifting problem! Took a ride today in the 70 degree Ozarks weather and the bike worked flawlessly. Oh, I also installed a Factory Pro shift kit while I was in there. Comes with exhaust and oil pan gaskets, which was awesome.
Bonus picture of how my shift kit looked like after installation (without that damn snap ring in the grove on that pivot bolt - I did get this installed after much cursing):
I did a bunch of searching around Katriders after finding that my bike had this problem. There are many posts about second gear failures, but only 1 or 2 that even mentioned anything resembling my problem. I decided from what I could figure out that I either had a bent shift fork or bad shift drum (it was a fork). What I did find encouraging was that despite the general consensus on this site that you must split the cases to get to these parts, that there are a couple of posts where members mention checking/changing these parts with a simple oil pan removal.
Well, here is my guide on how to do this - because it is possible, at least on my model. Your model may be slightly different - do plenty of searches and look at fiches to decide for yourself before removing any parts!
SAFETY: SECURE YOUR BIKE SO THAT IT CANNOT FALL. If you don't have it on any sort of lift, you will be laying underneath it for an extended period of time. Make sure it absolutely cannot fall on you. Please. I claim no responsibility for the use of this information or any consequences of its use.
First, I want you to review these parts fiches and imagine the parts as they are in the bike. This will help us as we really get in there and do some troubleshooting:
http://www.partzilla.com/parts/searc...ING/parts.html
http://www.partzilla.com/parts/searc...ION/parts.html
Now, using your manual, remove your exhaust, oil pan, and clutch. You have your manual, don't you???
Also, you will need to remove your front sprocket cover and remove the snap ring which retains the "shaft, gear shifting" (see fiche).
So now you will be left with something like this:
Behind the clutch:
IMPORTANT: We will be removing the four screws in the bottom, left hand corner of the whole assembly. They hold plates which hold the shift cam and shift fork shaft from backing out. THESE SCREWS ARE VERY EASY TO STRIP OUT AND YOU WILL HATE YOURSELF FOR SEVERAL HOURS/DAYS IF YOU DO STRIP THEM. Ask me how I know (check the colors of all those screws lol).
Up into the engine from below:
Here we see the gear shift cam, the gear shift shaft, as well as the bases of the gear shift forks (see fiche). Also a few gears!
Remove the 4 screws from before and pull out the two plates:
The "guide, cam" plate (sorry no picture of the other):
What you should see after NOT stripping out the screws and then successfully removing the plates:
You can see here that I did not totally remove the "shaft, gear shifting". I found that just pulling it out a bit to clear the "gear shift cam, driven" (see fiche) and turning it out of the way worked just fine. (If you have big hands, I suppose it may get in your way in the following steps. Feel free to remove it then, but that may be more work in the end. See manual.) Note that I have already removed the shift fork shaft in this picture.
Now that the plates are out of the way, you can remove the "shaft, gear shifting fork":
As you do this, look up into the transmission and catch the forks as they are set free from the shaft. You may have to poke them a couple of times for them to fall.
Check the forks for abnormal wear or any obvious problems. The pins at the base of the forks need a good inspection, as well. Here is what my #3 fork (see fiche) looked like when I pulled it out vs a new-to-me ebay fork I ordered to replace:
"New" fork on the left, old on the right. I figure it bent just enough to rub against the gear on that side of the fork, and to cause the issue I was having.
If you don't see anything like this, at least check the fork wear against the specs in your manual. It's up to you to decide whether to replace these parts at this point. Maybe they're bent, maybe they're not. Look at your particular symptoms and decide.
Next, remove the gear shift cam. I don't have pics of this, but just follow the manual. Remove the neutral sensor switch and a snap ring, then carefully pull it free. Watch that the "gear shift cam, driven" and its springs/parts don't fly everywhere! Inspect the shift cam for damage to the groves. You should know this when you see it.
After removing all of these parts, you should have a spectacular view of the gears and shafts - depending on how good you are at laying on your back for an hour and spinning the rear wheel of a 500 pound motorcycle that could smash your head if it fell (SEE SAFETY, ABOVE). Hint: put a folded up towel under your head.
What I did was look up into the transmission and spin the rear wheel and watch the gears spin. You should be able to spot any missing teeth (hopefully you would have seen these in the oil pan). Now take a look at the sides of the gears for wear on the dogs and their corresponding slots. I found it helpful to scoot around to get different views, and I also used a screwdriver to gently push the sliding gears as necessary. Hint: if you are spinning the gears and everything locks up, you need to slide a gear until you figure out which one is causing this to happen.
When you are satisfied with your inspection, reverse these steps to reinstall replacement and/or original parts. You will need to install the shift cam, and then the forks. For the forks install one at a time starting with fork #1, and push their shaft through as you get them in place and lined up. You will need to be patient, but you can get them back in there! They engage the sliding gears, obviously.
Yes, I did all of this without splitting the cases. Saved me a lot of time and money. Now, if there was something wrong with any of my gears I may not have seen it - but I'm not having any symptoms to indicate bad dogs or teeth. But I would have dropped the engine to fix it, because that's just how I am.
Good new is, for me, replacing the bad shift fork fixed my shifting problem! Took a ride today in the 70 degree Ozarks weather and the bike worked flawlessly. Oh, I also installed a Factory Pro shift kit while I was in there. Comes with exhaust and oil pan gaskets, which was awesome.
Bonus picture of how my shift kit looked like after installation (without that damn snap ring in the grove on that pivot bolt - I did get this installed after much cursing):
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