Hi Greg,
Thank you so much for your detailed comments..... it has been quite cold this week and I have been waiting for the weekend to look at this problem... so much tremendous advice on this forum, everyone very generously sharing their personal experiences... your description of the problem sounds very similar to what I have been experiencing, I will let everyone know how the simple fixes work and then if needed I will try your suggestions....
As an aside I watched the final episodes of Charlie Borman's DVD "Race to Dakar" last night, it is a pretty neat inside look at this romantic race that every dual-sport rider dreams of at one point or another... worth having a look.
Cheers, Brent.
Tengaii rider
Fergus, Ontario, Canada
________________________________
From:
DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com on behalf of cyclebay@...
Sent: Fri 10/17/2008 10:10 AM
To:
DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Re: First & Second Gear Engagement Problem
I agree, check the easy stuff first. My 2004 KLR never has exhibited the issue with second gear that you describe, but had developed the first gear issue. I have a 1989 motor that I bought to use for parts when I need them. The 1989 bike only had around 20,000 miles on it, but there is wear on the gear dogs/windows responsible for 1st gear engagement evident when it was disassembled. This leads me to believe that the two gears responsible for engaging first gear should be shimmed/modified for better engagement as the factory may be jsut a bit off from ideal during assembly.
When my 2004?bike began getting hard to engage 1st gear, then sometimes jumping out on initial accelleration (once only, when kicked back down on the lever, it would stay), I checked the shifter for any contact with cases, peg, frame etc, then proceeded to remove the right engine cover to inspect the linkage (this was at around 30,000 miles).?With the cover off, bike on a shop lift, jack to elevate the rear wheel off the lift and rotating the clutch shaft while shifting the lever through the gears, it was clear on my 2004 that the shift shaft did not quite turn the shift drum far enough to fully engage first gear. I came to this conclusion because when the trans engaged 1st gear, the drum would turn slightly more on it's own. As crude as it sounds, I was able to grind the shift shaft window (that limits the shaft travel) in the shaft to?allow it to travel just a bit further so that the drum would be fully?rotated as far as it?would be when 1st gear is engaged. It is important to not overcut the window so that the shaft can move further than the drum needs to travel or shaft/linkage damage may result.?The lever can be held down into the first gear position (helpful if someone else does this) while the person?inspecting/grinding the linkage attempts to rotate further the shift drum, then the shaft is removed for the grinding of the window. The window only needs to be modified enough to get the drum to it's limit when going down into first gear, not past. My bike now has 63,000 miles and I have had no further issues with it. If I were to ever split the motor, I would deal with evaluating the need of modifying the gear engagement by machning or shimming, but so far this has not been needed. I believe that the first gears in the 1989 motor were damaged from lack of total engagement from the shift shaft not able to turn the drum quite enough to engage.?
In your case, as it is two gears affected, there may be a bent shift fork, or some other issue that will require major disassembly, but if you see a problem in the primary side of the motor, it is much cheaper to resolve there than splitting.?
Good Luck!
Greg Hall??
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]