Repairing Your Transmission

[Yammajammer]

I recently bought my 82 XJ1100 with 19000 miles on it for 800 bucks. The bike would not run but everything was there and it appeared to be in restorable condition. She looked really cool and remembering the great times I had many moons ago on my Yamaha 650, I went ahead and bought it. The mistake I made was assuming the transmission would operate OK just because I could get the tranny to shift up and down through all five gears.

After I got her running, the realization that she would not stay in first was a real shock as I knew how much time and expense the repair was going to be!

Thanks to this website I was able to repair the transmission and get this baby on the road! The cool thing about this bike is that
you can access the tranny gears by removing the pan from the crankcase and the engine side covers without having to pull the engine. That is almost unheard of with smaller displacement bikes and rare with larger bikes too.

Many thanks to TC for his dremmel fix post!!!! It enabled and encouraged me to go for it! If you're not handy and not a shade tree mechanic I wouldn't attempt it as it is for the experienced tinkerer.

My personal recommendation is that if the funds are available, go ahead and spend the money to get the new gears and fork to repair the typical first gear problems these bikes have. Also, make modifications to the throttle assembly at the carburetor that will allow the bike to idle at 1000 to 1100 RPM so the shock on the fist gear cogs (slots) and the dogs on fourth gear (fourth gear is the drive gear to first) will not be so great and they will last much longer.

The NOS parts to repair the first gear tranny problem (about
$350.00) can be found on Bikebandit.com and they are genuine Yamaha parts. They are no longer available from Yamaha. The repair is allot of work and putting all that time in will make the money you spend seem like cheap insurance that you will not have to do it again. I replaced the fork that moves fourth gear over to drive first, first and fourth gear and she shifts like butter
now!

Whatever you do, fix the problem. Do not hold your bike in first by keeping your foot on the shifter. This will bend and toast your fork in no time as it is not designed to take that much stress. It will also disorient your fourth gear when the fork bends under the stress. When I removed the tranny pan, I found the scale in the bottom of the pan caused by the previous owner holding her in first with his foot on the shifter.

Just think a minute about what it would be like if you were going down the highway with your wife or girlfriend on the back and your tranny locked up (like slamming on the back brake and having it jam there). Oooh! Fix it!

E-mail me if you guys have any questions. I've been through this whole bike and she's a sweetie!

[jetmechmarty]

part numbers

If you don't mind, can you post the parts and part numbers to do the proper fix. Pardon me if this has been done before.

Will the fork need to be replaced if I never held the bike in gear with my foot?

[Yammajammer]

My # three fork looked OK while it was in the tranny but when I removed it to replace the 1st gear wheel and 4th gear wheel,
you could tell it was slightly bent and very worn. The race it rides in on the fouth gear wheel was very worn and galled from friction and heat. The worn race just makes the fork move fourth over that much less and more apt to jump out.

Also after repairing the point is to put the bike in 1st gear at as low of an RPM as possible. I do it at 1000 rpm and I think this preserves the cogs on the first gear wheel much better than putting it in gear at a high idle when it's cold with the choke on.

The damage to the fork occurs from someone cramming the bike in gear at too high RPM reapedly or holding it in gear with their
foot because it slips out of first if they don't.

If you've always owned the bike since new and you haven't held it in gear with your foot, chances are your fork may be OK.

Remember if it is only bent a tiny fraction or slightly worn, that's less distance it will be able to insert the dogs of fourth into the cogs of first, making them more apt to jump out and it's so much work getting in there put new in. Here's the part numbers:

1st Gear Wheel 22683-001 130.17
4th gear wheel 22686-001 133.12
#3 shift forkfork 22709-001 72.58

The easiest way to fix the bike I think is to just get the new gear wheels and fork ( $335.87 Total ) and flip the bike over to put them in like TC does in the Dremmel Fix. I didn't try to dremmel fix mine because the cogs on first were pretty toasted so I just replaced everything.