Trany 5th Gear Blues

[ernie elmore]

I have a 79 XS1100F Std I bought for a parts bike, but now have a good running bike @ 40 K mi. The bike had the 5th gear blues when I got it, no 5th gear. I replaced the shift drum outside end metal plate w/fingers and missing dowel per the Maintenance Tips.

About 8K mi later I had poor shifting into 1st with bad noisy neutral, and finally no 5th gear.
Problem was bent finger on shift drum metal plate again, which I rebent and fixed.
Now 200 mi later, hard shifting into 1st or noisy neutral. Probably 5th gear will be missing soon.

Has anyone had this as a reoccurring problem? What is bending out the finger on the shift drum end plate? Do I need to do a shift pawl alignment? The alignment marks are correct as per the Service Manual.

[DiverRay]

I would think you may have some problems deeper in the transmission. The shift forks could be/probably are bent, or the dogs are starting to "round" on one or two gears.
If you think it's just the "outside", I would buy a new end plate. Once they have been bent, they loose all the strength, and will bend easily once again. As I've NOT had this problem with my '79, I can't help more than this. I DID go through the transmission last January, as I was down to third, fourth and fifth gears.

[TopCatGr58]

Ernie,

Diver's right, in that the end plate is not very strong to begin with, and once bent, it keeps bending under the stress. You'll need to get a new plate like he said. Fixing that will be easier and cheaper than tearing apart the tranny. You said it worked well when first bent back into position. It'll probably be okay with the new plate. When the pin is out, and the plate is bent, the shift drum may be turning more than it should when you put it in neutral, and is probably pushing on the shift fork a bit causing 1st or second to slightly grind. Once the new plate is in, and you have then reverified the alignment marks in 2nd gear position, then you should be good to go! JMHO!
T.C.

[goldcoastguy001]

Remember to uder cut your gears while the tranny is apart if you havent already as this will save another tear down later...

[motoman]

Replace the washer with the ears on it. It is still available from Yamaha for less than 5bucks. Those washers are extremly hard and after one of the ears bends, it will usually break off after you bend it back. If it didn't, it will break off anyway later..................trust me , been there, done that!............then it will drop a pin out and wala!..................leave you stuck not being able to downshift, upshift..........or worse.........nuetral. It's no fun pushing a full dresser XS over a mile!